Nonprofit Election Services
vote.direct runs nonprofit board elections, bylaw amendments and membership votes end to end — ballot build, member roster, notices, reminders, quorum monitoring, close, tally and a result certificate for the minutes — from $199 for a digital election of up to 100 voters.
You keep the nominations, the bylaws and the legal review. We do the election.
Running it yourself instead? Nonprofit voting software from $4.99 · All managed elections
Quick answer
Election administrators staff a vote with people, so an organization with 100 voting members is a job most of them price out of reach or turn down, and those boards end up running it themselves on paper in a hurry. $199 is vote.direct's published price for exactly that election. A membership organization, a professional society, a charitable board, a trade association — if it elects directors or amends its bylaws by a vote of its members, it is the election this page is about.
| Service | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Setup & Launch | $99 | We build the ballot, load the roster, write and send the notices, and hand you a live election.Platform flat-rate fee included, up to 100 voters. You run the election from open onward. |
| Full Managed Election | $199 | Everything in Setup & Launch, then we run it: reminders, quorum, voter support, close, tally, certificate.A digital election — email and SMS ballots, no mailed packets — of up to 100 voters, platform flat-rate fee included. Give us 10 days before ballots open. Add packets below, or ask for a quote above 100 voters. |
| Managed + Mailed Packets | $199 plus $6.00 per packet | A full managed election where the members who need paper get a printed packet with a postage-paid return envelope, and their returned ballots land in the same tally.$6.00 per packet, charged on the packets actually mailed. The $6.00 covers the trip both ways: the packet out, and a return envelope that already has the postage paid on it, so the member never buys a stamp. There is no separate postage line on your invoice. A mailed ballot counts when it reaches our election address by the close date in your notice — received by, not postmarked by, so nobody has to adjudicate a smudged postmark after the count has started. We work backwards from your close date at kickoff and give you the mail-by date to print on the packet. Paper and online ballots are counted together. |
| Managed + Inspector of Elections | $499 | A full managed election where vote.direct also serves as your inspector of elections — Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona only.Not available in California: Cal. Civ. Code §5110(b) bars a vendor under contract to the association from serving as inspector. We will help you find an independent one instead. |
| Above 100 members | Quoted | The same scope, priced on your membership roll. The self-serve platform itself is quoted above 1,550 voters. |
Give us 10 days before ballots open. Email and SMS verification are included; government-ID checks are $3.00 per checked voter.
What we do for a nonprofit election
A Full Managed Election is the whole job, in the order it happens. Here is what each step means when the electorate is a membership roll rather than a list of units.
- 1We build the ballot from your notice, bylaws and candidate list
- 2We load the roster, dedupe it, and flag the addresses that will bounce
- 3We draft and send the notices your documents and state law require
- 4We run the reminder cadence to the members who have not voted
- 5We answer the voters — the support inbox is ours, not your manager’s
- 6We watch quorum daily and tell you early if it is not going to be met
- 7We close the election, tally it, and issue the result certificate and audit package
Who does what
| Task | Who | On a nonprofit election |
|---|---|---|
| Ballot build | vote.direct | Director seats, bylaw amendments and any resolution on one ballot, in the order your notice lists them. |
| Roster load and dedupe | vote.direct | Members in good standing as of the record date, deduped against households and lapsed memberships. |
| Notice drafting and send | vote.direct | The notice your bylaws and your state nonprofit corporation act call for, on the timeline they set. |
| Reminder cadence | vote.direct | Reminders go only to members who have not voted yet, so nobody is asked twice. |
| Voter support inbox | vote.direct | Members email us when a link does not work, not your executive director. |
| Quorum monitoring | vote.direct | A daily count against the quorum in your bylaws, and an early call if the numbers are not going to get there. |
| Close and tally | vote.direct | Closed on the schedule in the notice, then counted seat by seat and question by question. |
| Result certificate and audit package | vote.direct | A result certificate and a hash-linked event export you can file with the minutes and hand an auditor. |
| Paper packets (optional) | vote.direct | $6.00 per packet for the members who vote on paper; their ballots land in the same tally as the online ones. |
| Inspector of elections (optional) | Either | We can serve in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona, never in California. Most nonprofit corporation acts do not require one at all. |
| Nominations and candidate statements | Your board | Your nominating committee builds the slate. We publish exactly what it hands us. |
| Legal review | Your board | Your counsel reads the bylaws and the notice. We are not your lawyer and do not read them for you. |
| Adopting election rules | Your board | The board adopts the procedure. We run the election inside the procedure you adopted. |
What makes a nonprofit election different
An HOA election is governed by a statute written for HOAs. A nonprofit election is governed by your state's nonprofit corporation act plus your own bylaws, and the two ask different questions. Three of them decide whether there is an election here for us to run at all.
Members elect directors. Directors do not vote by email.
These are two different votes under two different rules, and treating them as one is the mistake that gets an election set aside. A member vote — members electing directors, amending bylaws, approving a merger or a dissolution — is the vote we run, and most states allow it to be cast electronically where the bylaws authorize it. A director vote is the board acting as a board: in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts a director may not vote by proxy at all, and acting without a meeting generally takes the unanimous written consent of every director (Cal. Corp. Code §5211(b)). We will not run a ballot that stands in for a board meeting, because in those states the ballot would not count.
| State | Members by proxy | Members electronically | Directors by proxy | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | Yes — Corp. Code §5613 | Permitted with proper notice and documentation; the bylaws should authorize it expressly | Prohibited — Corp. Code §5211 | Corp. Code §§5110–6910 |
| New York | Yes — N-PCL §609 | Electronic consent mechanisms expanded by recent amendments | Prohibited — N-PCL §707 | N-PCL §§700–727 |
| Texas | Yes — BOC §22.160 | Yes where the bylaws authorize it; an electronic ballot counts as “written and signed” (BOC §22.160) | Per bylaws | BOC Chapter 22 |
| Florida | Yes — §617.0721 | Yes by remote communication where the board authorizes it and identity is verified by reasonable means (§617.0721) | Per bylaws | Fla. Stat. Chapter 617 |
| Illinois | Yes | Electronic consent permitted | Per bylaws | 805 ILCS 105 |
| Pennsylvania | Yes | Permitted | Prohibited — 15 Pa. C.S. §5727 | 15 Pa. C.S. Chapter 57 |
| Massachusetts | Yes | Electronic consent | Prohibited | MGL Chapter 180 |
Read off Nonprofit board election rules by state, which carries the full citations. The California row is the Corporations Code — the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law — not the Civil Code that governs HOAs, so a §5110 you find in one of them says nothing about the other. This is general information, not legal advice: your bylaws can add rules the statute does not, so have counsel confirm the procedure before you notice a vote.
If your board is self-perpetuating, there may be no member election
Plenty of nonprofits have no voting members at all: the sitting directors elect their successors, and California lets those boards run six-year terms rather than the four a member-elected director may serve (Cal. Corp. Code §5220). If that is your organization, there is no membership ballot for us to run, and we would rather you learned that here than on an invoice. What we can still run is a vote of chapter delegates or an advisory council, or a bylaw ratification your documents send to a wider body.
You probably do not need an inspector of elections
Unlike a California HOA, a nonprofit is generally not required by statute to appoint an independent inspector. A neutral party who receives and counts the ballots is a bylaws choice and a precaution for a contested election, not an obligation. Where you want one, vote.direct can serve as inspector for $499 in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona — and never in California. That last one is our policy, not your statute: Cal. Civ. Code §5110(b) sits in Davis-Stirling, which governs common interest developments and does not reach a nonprofit corporation. But it is the rule California wrote for exactly this conflict — a vendor inspecting an election it is paid to run — and we will not take the appointment in the one state that has legislated against it. There we will help you find someone independent instead.
Who may serve as inspector of elections, state by state
What it costs
How much does a secure voting platform cost for a nonprofit?
Two published numbers, depending on who does the work. If your staff runs the election, the platform is a flat fee per election on the ladder below — $4.99 at the small end, email and SMS verification included, no per-voter charge. If you want it run for you, a full managed nonprofit election is $199 for a digital election of up to 100 voters, or $99 if you only want the ballot built, the roster loaded, the notices sent and the election handed to you at open. For scale: a paper election for 200 members costs $2,000–$5,000 once printing, envelopes, postage in both directions and the labor to open and count are added up. That figure is worked out for a 200-unit association, and the arithmetic does not change when the 200 are members rather than units.
| Voters | Platform, per election |
|---|---|
| up to 50 voters | $4.99 |
| 51–100 voters | $9.99 |
| 101–200 voters | $19.99 |
| 201–550 voters | $39.99 |
| 551–1,550 voters | $79.99 |
| Above 1,550 | Talk to us |
- Government-ID verification: $3.00 per checked voter, on top of the flat fee.
- Mailed ballot packets on a managed election: $6.00 per packet, charged on what is actually mailed. That covers the round trip, so there is no separate postage line. A mailed ballot counts when it reaches our election address by the close date in your notice — received by, not postmarked by, so nobody has to adjudicate a smudged postmark after the count has started. We work backwards from your close date at kickoff and give you the mail-by date to print on the packet.
- vote.direct as your inspector of elections: $499 all in, in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona.
Platform prices above are promotional through August 31, 2026.
Questions nonprofit boards ask
What does it cost to have someone else run our nonprofit election?
$199 for a full managed election — a digital election of up to 100 voters, with the platform fee included. That covers the ballot build, the member roster, the notices, the reminder cadence, the voter support inbox, daily quorum monitoring, the close, the tally, and a result certificate with the audit package for your minutes. $99 buys the setup half only: we build it, load it, send the notices and hand you a live election to run yourself. Above 100 voters, or with mailed packets, the price is quoted on your roster. We need 10 days before ballots open.
Can our association's members elect directors by online ballot?
In most states, yes, where your bylaws authorize it. Texas is explicit that a member vote may be taken by mail, fax or electronic message when the bylaws allow, and that an electronic ballot counts as "written and signed" (Tex. BOC §22.160). Florida authorizes member voting by remote communication where the board approves it and voter identity is verified by reasonable means (Fla. Stat. §617.0721). California permits it with proper notice and documentation, and your bylaws should authorize it expressly. Check your own bylaws with counsel first: a statute that permits electronic voting does not override governing documents that require something else.
Can the board vote by email between meetings?
Generally no, and this is the distinction that catches nonprofits out. A member vote and a director vote are different things. Directors may not vote by proxy at all in California (Cal. Corp. Code §5211), New York (N-PCL §707), Pennsylvania (15 Pa. C.S. §5727) or Massachusetts, and acting without a meeting normally requires the unanimous written consent of every director (Cal. Corp. Code §5211(b)). vote.direct runs the membership vote. We will not run a ballot that substitutes for a board meeting, because in those states it would not count.
We have no voting members — is there anything here for us?
Possibly not, and we would rather say so now. If your board is self-perpetuating — the sitting directors elect their successors, which California allows on six-year terms rather than the four a member-elected director may serve (Cal. Corp. Code §5220) — there is no membership ballot for us to run. What we can still run is a vote of chapter delegates or an advisory council, or a bylaw ratification your documents send to a wider body. Call (512) 222-8191 and we will tell you in one conversation whether there is an election here worth paying for.
Do we need an inspector of elections, and can vote.direct be ours?
Most nonprofits do not need one: unlike a California HOA, a nonprofit corporation is generally not required by statute to appoint an independent inspector, so a neutral party who receives and counts the ballots is a bylaws choice and a precaution for a contested race. Where you want one, vote.direct can serve for $499 all in, in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona. Never in California — and that is our policy rather than your statute. Cal. Civ. Code §5110(b) is Davis-Stirling, which governs common interest developments and does not reach a nonprofit corporation, but it is the rule California wrote for exactly this conflict: a vendor inspecting an election it is paid to run. We will not take that appointment in the one state that has legislated against it. There we will help you find an independent one instead.
What about members who have no email address?
They get a printed ballot packet in the mail, $6.00 per packet on a managed election, charged on what is actually mailed. The packet ships with a pre-paid return envelope addressed to our neutral election address, and the returned ballots are counted in the same tally as the online ones, so there is no second election to reconcile. The per-packet price is the round trip — out, back and handled on arrival — so there is no separate postage line. A mailed ballot counts when it reaches our election address by the close date in your notice — received by, not postmarked by, so nobody has to adjudicate a smudged postmark after the count has started. We work backwards from your close date at kickoff and give you the mail-by date to print on the packet.
Hand us the election
Send your bylaws, your notice date and your membership roll. We will tell you what we would run, what it costs, and whether your state lets you run it that way, before you commit to anything. We need 10 days before ballots open.
Rather run it yourself? Nonprofit voting software · Managed elections for every organization type