Minneapolis/St. Paul – The NBA announced today that the Minnesota Timberwolves received the league’s annual Inclusion Leadership Award for its “Pack the Vote” initiative. The award recognizes an organization’s history of and commitment to inclusion as a key business strategy, evaluating the team’s full slate of inclusion programming. The recognition was part of the team awards programming at the NBA’s annual Sales & Marketing Meeting.
The Timberwolves “Pack the Vote” initiative launched in 2020 and focuses on providing nonpartisan voter education, increasing voter registration and civic engagement. “Pack the Vote” has evolved into an ongoing annual initiative to help Timberwolves and Lynx fans and the greater Twin Cities community stay informed about local and national elections, provide educational voter resources, voter support for future elections and encourage individuals to have their voices heard at the polls.
“On behalf of the Timberwolves organization, I would like to thank the NBA for recognizing this important work, while acknowledging our entire staff and all our nonprofit partners who have worked diligently to drive meaningful change in our community,” said Timberwolves and Lynx CEO Ethan Casson.
Since the program’s inception, the Timberwolves have partnered with local non-profits in various under-resourced communities in the Twin Cities and helped residents become registered to vote and complete the United States Census. In addition, the organization has offered an online portal and text service that allows all eligible residents throughout the country to become registered to vote.
In February 2023, in partnership with the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, Restore the Vote Coalition and National Basketball Social Justice Coalition Board Member Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves leveraged its platform to support the restoration of voting rights in Minnesota as lawmakers were moving the HF28 bill through the state legislature. Collectively, this working group raised awareness around the bill and policy, which would restore the right to vote to formerly imprisoned citizens, secured support for bill passage and drove voter registration. The bill was signed into law on March 3, 2023 and went into effect on June 1, 2023, granting 50,000 Minnesotans that were previously incarcerated or on parole the right to vote.
As a part of ongoing voter education to the public, the Timberwolves hosted a Pack the Vote Community Conversation earlier this year focusing on the Restore the Vote law at All Square, a non-profit social enterprise that invests in those impacted by mass incarceration. The panel was moderated by Co-Executive Director of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, Elizer Darris and featured Towns, MN Senate President & Chair of the MN Senate Jobs & Economic Development Committee Bobby Joe Champion, Director of Pathways Program at New Justice Project Jasmine Kitto and Author & MNJRC Community Engagement Manager Zeke Caligiuri.
About NBA Inclusion Leadership Award:
The Inclusion Awards recognize NBA teams for outstanding programming that promotes inclusion and inclusive practices. The NBA defines inclusion as recognizing, valuing, and fully leveraging different perspectives and backgrounds to drive results. The Inclusion Leadership Award recognizes an organization’s history of and commitment to inclusion as a key business strategy, evaluating the team’s full slate of inclusion programming.