About the League

The LWV Massachusetts Citizen Education Fund

Mission Statement
The Lotte E. Scharfman Memorial Citizen Education Fund was established as an educational trust in 1971 by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. It is a nonpartisan not-for-profit fund that supports voter education. Its mission is to encourage informed and active citizen participation in government through citizen education and voters service projects. It serves the public, both individuals and organizations, by providing advice and training on how to make government responsive and accessible.

The League of Women Voters Citizen Education Fund is a public education and charitable trust under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Fund was established in memory of a League president who died in 1970 on her forty-second birthday. Lotte was a refugee from Hitler's Germany who devoted her life to working for the democratic process and to helping citizens gain access to government. She is widely credited with coining the phrase," Democracy is not a spectator sport.”

Citizen Education Fund Projects

• Candidate Debates: The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts has built a solid reputation of providing fair, informative, and nonpartisan candidate debates for voters.
• Voters Guide: Since 1964, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and the Boston Globe have published a Voters Guide in state election years. The Guide contains pictures and biographies of candidates for statewide offices, candidates' answers to public policy questions, a chart of political districts for each city and town, and summaries of ballot questions. The Guide helps voters both to understand registration and voting procedures as well as to make informed decisions before voting.
• Voters Online Website: The League's one-stop location on the Web for non-partisan and inactive information about candidates, ballot questions, voting, state and federal government. The address is http://www.dnet.org/MA.
• A study of education reform in Massachusetts: This study will examine the effectiveness of the Education Reform Act of 1993 and will include an evaluation of education reform’s goals and effects, student and teacher testing, impact on municipalities and their public schools, and impact of charter schools.
• Voter Information Phone: The Voter Information Phone (VIPhone) was begun in 1971 to provide information about government to the citizens of the Commonwealth. The VIPhone helps citizens find out how government works, who works in government, and how government can work for them. The telephone number in the Greater Boston area is (617) 723-1421. For callers outside Greater Boston, there is a toll free number 1-800-882-1649.


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