Norman continued its support of voting rights projects through the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the NAACP, and the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation — organizations working to protect and expand the right to vote through litigation, advocacy, and community organizing.

Among the new civic participation investments was Norman’s early support for the Human Service Employees Registration and Voter Education Fund (Human SERVE, Norman grantee 1984–1987). Founded in 1983 by Columbia University sociologists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, Human SERVE pursued a bold and simple idea: government agencies (e.g., social services offices, unemployment offices, motor vehicle departments) should be required by law to offer voter registration to every person they served. Human SERVE directly lobbied mayors, governors, and state legislators to mandate voter registration as part of the routine delivery of public services, targeting the very agencies most frequented by low-income people and communities of color.

Human SERVE’s vision became law on May 20, 1993, when President Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act (also known as the “Motor Voter Act”) that requires government agencies to offer voter registration services. The law has since registered tens of millions of voters, disproportionately benefiting low-income people and people of color. It remains one of the most significant expansions of voting access in American history and a profound testament to what early, visionary philanthropy can help make possible.