2024 Annual Report
Building Power
In 2016, I co-founded the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition with Clarissa Unger in order to make an immediate impact improving college student voting rates, while also building the power to create American election systems and culture that include everyone. Nine years later, this network has grown dramatically. The SLSV Coalition is now one of the nation’s most vital institutions dedicated to strengthening and repairing our democracy.
Nearly 20 million Americans attend college. More than half are first-generation students. Over a third go to a community college. 25% are parents. And the SLSV Coalition is at the forefront of efforts to help them all become lifelong voters.
For several years, SLSV has been the largest national network and strategy hub for efforts to improve student voting rates, with a reach of more than 300 organizational members with a presence on more than 800 campuses. Today the SLSV Coalition is one of the largest networks of any kind working to strengthen democracy in the United States and operates at a scale that rivals those of legacy democracy organizations.
Through SLSV and coalition partners like the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and Campus Vote Project, thousands of local campus leaders build dynamic teams and develop locally rooted plans customized to their campus to systematically register all eligible students when they matriculate, educate students about why they should vote and what’s on the ballot, work with election administrators to serve millions of student voters and so much more. Over 600 colleges and universities developed an institutional action plan to improve student voting rates in 2024. More than 1,400 campuses participated in key campaigns like National Voter Registration Day, National Voter Education Week, and Vote Early Day.
The SLSV Coalition has cultivated a grassroots network that has the breadth to reach all colleges and universities, not just the ones with the biggest names and brands. And that network has the depth to identify, cultivate, and inspire talented students to become dedicated professionals and activists working to strengthen American democracy. The students that SLSV Coalition partners serve are the next generation of voting rights advocates, election administrators, policy makers, and local civic leaders who will determine the direction of our democracy. Their careers and lives as civic leaders working to strengthen democracy will be one of the most important legacies of our work at the SLSV Coalition.
There has never been a greater need for institutions dedicated to strengthening democracy. Institutions that are authentically rooted in communities all across the country. Institutions that cultivate the skills and courage and vision of local leaders from all backgrounds – especially young people. The SLSV Coalition does all this and more.
We are so proud of what we have accomplished in 2024 and over the past 9 years. And we’re so excited to roll up our sleeves and get to work on what’s next for 2025 and beyond.
Sam Novey
Chief Strategist, University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement
Nearly a decade after the founding of the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition, we are tasked with navigating a landscape with more complicated and pressing challenges, and more resistance to the ideals of inclusive and equitable democracy than ever before.
In all likelihood, our 2025 annual report will reflect significant shifts in strategy and tactics as we adapt to a new normal. Here’s what won’t change:
- Our vision – a future in which every college student has easy and equal access to participate in every election.
- Our guiding principles – including our commitment to racial justice, centering and trusting local leaders, and collaborating for greater impact.
- Our nonpartisan values – a commitment to democracy that is shared, and fought for, by people from across the political spectrum – though not by everyone.
These are the constants that have guided us to this point, and every accomplishment in this report is a testament to their strength and unifying power. They’re the reason why our network is stronger and more sustainable than ever before, and why 2024 saw more, and more diverse, campuses than ever engage directly with our programming while hundreds of already-engaged colleges and universities significantly deepened their commitment to nonpartisan student voter engagement compared to years past. Consider the following:
- In the run-up to the 2024 election, 1,447 college campuses celebrated at least one of the fall Civic Holidays – National Voter Registration Day, National Voter Education Week, Vote Early Day, and Election Hero Day – through Campus Takeover.
- We saw massive growth in engagement at 2-year institutions in 2024 thanks to the Community College Concert Competition, with 155 community colleges submitting nonpartisan democratic engagement action plans and 215 joining Campus Takeover.
- We raised and distributed $478,110 in Ask Every Student Implementation Grants to 107 different colleges and universities.
- We held our largest-ever National Student Vote Summit, with 330 attendees, including 200 students.
These achievements made a real impact on the 2024 election while simultaneously strengthening our position for the long term.
Just as importantly, the information we gathered from our increased engagement in 2024 offers invaluable lessons that we will use to iterate and operate our core programs and initiatives as effectively as possible in 2025, and every year going forward, as we support nonpartisan student voter engagement in every election.
Investing in student voter education.
As we build knowledge as a Coalition, so will the student voters we serve. If 2024 demonstrated anything, it’s the glaring need to prioritize voter education alongside all other forms of voter outreach. Student and first-time voters often lack vital information on the voting process, which in many states has been changed or complicated due to recent legislation. We can also do more to educate new voters on why their vote matters, looking beyond the most visible national races that are often decided by results in just a handful of states to the local issues and offices that impact their day-to-day lives and are most often decided by the smallest margins.
In the absence of a federal election cycle, 2025 will afford us an opportunity to analyze recent voter education efforts to better understand how to encourage student participation, while also honing voter education strategies that focus on the hundreds of local and statewide elections taking place this year.
We also have a chance to reflect on the education and experiences of the students who are personally involved with nonpartisan student voter engagement work, in order to deepen our understanding of how they interact with our Coalition, the resources we provide, and the strategies we craft collectively. Their education, not just as voters but as future leaders of our democracy, is at the core of our mission as well.
Strengthening the ties that bind us.
In November, we had the extraordinary opportunity to hear directly from 330 individuals who operate across different vantage points, expertise, and experiences within our Coalition at the 2024 National Student Vote Summit. Of all the unlikely reasons for optimism coming out of 2024, the Summit is the most visceral: A three-day, in-person gathering that offered a rare example of a community coming together to examine how we move forward together while listening to and learning from each other in real-time.
Our network’s ability – and willingness – to discuss the real challenges facing nonpartisan student voter engagement, and explore tangible solutions to those challenges, will continue to inspire and propel us into the future perhaps more than anything else that happened last year.
For me personally, thinking back to the Summit is a powerful antidote to fears induced by the current tenuous nature of our democracy. For three days, the core values and genuine partnerships that power our Coalition were on full display, offering a real-time reminder that student voters from every part of the US are striving for a better democracy they will one day lead.
I’m proud to lead a Coalition that includes and empowers their work. And I look forward to taking on the coming year’s challenges alongside them.
Clarissa Unger
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Students Learn Students Vote Coalition
Building Power in Capacity by
Providing tools, resources, and training to Ask Every Student.
In 2024, the SLSV team helped level-up Ask Every Student, national, nonpartisan, joint initiative that supports higher education institutions to implement, institutionalize, and scale strategies to help campuses ask every student to participate in the democratic process.
2024 also marked the most significant and successful effort to date in tracking voter registrations attained through implementing AES strategies – a significant challenge in years past. With increased support and collaboration from the SLSV team, 104 AES commitment campuses reported more than 69,000 student voter registrations attained through AES strategies.
To help AES’ resources meet the moment in 2024, SLSV collaborated with nonprofit and campus partners to create or revamp several key resources in the Ask Every Student Toolkit, including the AES Conversation Guide, Voting as a Student 101, Federal Work-Study for Voter Registration, and Your Major on the Ballot.
“We want to express our deep gratitude for the support provided this year. The grant funding, especially the ability to compensate our 12 Student Voter Ambassadors, was truly transformative. Without these paid positions, we would not have been able to mobilize our voter registration and civic engagement efforts as effectively. The students’ dedication and hard work were instrumental in reaching our campus goals, and compensating them ensured we could recruit committed, diverse ambassadors who made a significant impact.”
- Manuela Hill-Munoz, Director of Social Impact and Communications at University of St. Thomas
“While developing our action plan, our campus voting coalition set a goal to increase faculty engagement. Using the Ask Every Student academic integration toolkit, we launched a Faculty Civic Engagement Champion Program and facilitated faculty voter outreach workshops with resources from Miami Dade College. As a result, we doubled faculty engagement compared to previous years. The SLSV Coalition has been instrumental in our success at Inver Hills Community College. Their coalition meetings, online resources, and staff support have empowered our campus voting coalition to transform ideas into actionable strategies.”
- Shannon Williams, Community-Based Learning Coordinator at Inver Hills Community College
“The funding from AES, along with the toolkit, and post-election conversation guides were most helpful in enhancing our voter engagement efforts. These resources provided a clear and practical framework, and was a helpful blueprint for us to advance our initiative effectively. Equally important was the one-on-one support from the AES team–their prompt responses, insightful guidance, and collaborative approach were instrumental in successfully implementing our program.”
- Angeline Vuong, Assistant Director, Community Engagement and Public Service Programs at University of San Francisco
Helping campuses access resources for their nonpartisan student voter engagement efforts.
On February 26th, the US Department of Education issued updated guidance stating that Federal Work-Study funds could be used to support nonpartisan “broad-based get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker.”
With the release of this guidance, SLSV, working alongside the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project, brought together expert partners to help campuses navigate the often-complicated FWS application process and ensure that their applications laid out uses appropriate for the federal funds. The resulting toolkit offers user-friendly guidance for obtaining funds and federally compliant suggestions for how to use them in a way that supports voters without contributing to any partisan causes.
“Engaging federal work-study students in the civic capacity building experience of learning the Ask Every Student framework to conduct nonpartisan voter education and engagement helped the Rowdy Corps Civic Scholars unleash their leadership skills and create innovative, human-centered activities, such as “Election Trivia with Democracy Dino”. Their work, augmented by an Ask Every Student Grant, included goals of reaching First-Year Experience students as outlined in the RowdyVOTES civic action plan. The students took an active role in conducting nonpartisan voter education and engagement activities equipping their peers with nonpartisan voter ready information.”
- Noelani Cubillos-Sanchez, Civic Leadership Program Specialist at University of Texas at San Antonio
“Being a part of the development of the Federal Work Study Implementation Toolkit has been incredibly rewarding. This initiative has empowered campuses nationwide to enhance their civic engagement efforts, providing students with meaningful opportunities to contribute to their communities while gaining valuable work experience. It's inspiring to see how this toolkit has fostered a culture of service and civic responsibility among students, helping to build stronger, more connected communities.”
- Daniel Tome,Director of Community Engagement in the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey – Camden
Empowering partners to make the right choices for their communities.
The proliferation of digital voter access tools in recent years has been a boon for student voter engagement efforts, offering a simplified, accessible path to helping voters register, make a plan to vote, learn what’s on their ballot, and help others do the same – with one caveat: The numerous available options make it hard to choose which one best fits the needs of any given community.
In response to feedback from hundreds of campus partners, the SLSV Coalition created a Voter Access Tech Guide to centralize information about the variety of voter access tools and other civic technology available today. Incorporating direct input from representatives of these voter access tools, the resource makes it easy to compare 16 different digital tech platforms and voter guides that campuses can use to support their students, enabling users to make more informed decisions about what makes sense for their context, budget, and needs.
Bringing nonprofits and campuses together with intention.
Nonprofit organizations are uniquely positioned to support nonpartisan student voting coalitions in their communities, but sometimes lack the institutional knowledge necessary to form effective partnerships with campus administrators or student-led groups. To help bridge the gap between the nonprofit sector and the burgeoning nonpartisan student vote movement, the SLSV Coalition Action Planning Working Group collaborated to create a centralized guide to help nonprofit organizations in any community engage in successful and respectful outreach to the student vote leaders they wish to support.
Helping nonpartisan democratic engagement action planning level-up.
Nonpartisan democratic engagement action plans are fundamental to any college or university’s ability to grow, sustain, and institutionalize democratic engagement over time. That’s why, in 2024, the SLSV Coalition and our partners at the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and Voter Friendly Campus set out to ensure more campuses throughout the US would complete action plans ahead of the 2024 election, and that those campuses would reflect the diversity of our country.
Through the Action Planning Working Group, the SLSV Coalition team helped lead a series of workshops to help partners initiate, develop, and improve their nonpartisan democratic engagement action plans, as well as guidance specifically for nonprofit organizations on how to support campuses in creating and executing action plans.
These actions supported efforts that resulted in the most – and best – action plan submissions of any election cycle to date.
“It’s with great pride that the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge had a record 630 participating institutions create and implement nonpartisan democratic engagement action plans in 2024! Thanks in part to creative efforts such as the Community College Concert Competition organized by ALL IN, the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, Good Trouble Collaborative, Levi’s and SHOWTIME/MTV Entertainment Studios, we were able to increase community college action plan completion by 49%.! We’re inspired by the collaborative efforts that took place in 2024 and are looking forward to continuing to find creative outlets to collectively support campuses with institutionalizing civic learning, political participation, and student voter engagement.”
- Olivia Antigua, Program Manager at ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
Empowering the next generation of student vote leaders.
Over the summer, SLSV partnered with the University of Maryland’s Maryland Democracy Initiative to create the Laufer Democracy Internship Program. Through this collaboration, the SLSV team helped place 18 interns in paid summer positions at different Coalition partner organizations that serve student voters throughout the US.
"Xceleader is proud to be part of the SLSV Coalition and honored to have participated in the Laufer Fellows Program. Through this program, we were provided with a unique opportunity to welcome a University of Maryland College Park student as a summer fellow, who brought his passion for Black colleges and social justice to our Vote HBCU team. Their assistance was instrumental in helping to plan and coordinate logistics for our Vote HBCU Leadership and Advocacy Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, and researching impactful HBCU student leadership stories for our social media channels and on-tour conversations. The SLSV Coalition has been a great supporter of our Vote HBCU program, emphasizing the importance of community in our mission to educate and mobilize young people. Their partnership has strengthened our efforts to empower HBCU students, providing the resources and connections needed to foster civic engagement on campuses.”
- Tevon Blair, Co-Founder of Xceleader
“We are incredibly grateful to Sam Novey and SLSV’s partnership in 2024! 2024 proved to be a year charged with political intensity. Their thoughtful monthly meetings and the resources ranging from the Ask Every Student Toolkit to the Digital Organizing Toolkit were instrumental in empowering our Youth Ambassadors from across the nation. SLSV continues to contribute to our mission at APIAVote to create positive change for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities across the country. In particular, the Laufer Fellows Program supported APIAVote (Asian Pacific Islander American Vote) immensely by connecting us with passionate interns who assisted in the planning and executing our Presidential Town Hall where we invited both Presidential candidates to address issues impacting the AANHPI community. As an organization, we remain committed to cultivating meaningful experiences, fostering essential organizing skills, and empowering the next generation of leaders to engage in the nonprofit space.”
- Kareena Salvi, Youth Engagement and Field Associate at APIA Vote
Building Power in Education by
Leading the largest-ever celebration of National Voter Education Week.
Since its launch in 2020, the SLSV Coalition has served as the managing partner for National Voter Education Week, an open-source, nonpartisan campaign to give voters the tools and information they need to cast their ballots with confidence. To help voters meet the challenges of the 2024 election – including new and more restrictive voting laws in several states and a complicated information ecosystem – the SLSV team and NVEW Steering Committee revamped the NVEW website and toolkit to help voters and organizational partners access key information more easily, increased giveaways and support to encourage more in-person mobilizations, and shifted its approach to recruitment and creative content partnerships to provide more diverse content and reach more audiences with empowering messages around voter education. This set the stage for the largest NVEW celebration in the five-year history of the holiday the week of October 7-11, 2024.
“Working with the Students Learn Students Vote coalition is valuable for our work in many ways, perhaps most significantly by helping our students and I understand the role of our on campus work within larger national efforts to protect the student vote. Working with the SLSV coalition, and other partners, to organize our National Voter Education Week event, Pace Drags Out the Vote, was a highlight of our fall 2024 election work! This event helped us to center joy and community during an election season that was stressful for our study body, while continuing to provide concrete support related to voter registration, voter ID, and absentee voting so that Pace students could exercise their right to vote.”
- Erin Mysogland, Assistant Director of the Center for Community Action and Research at Pace University
Shaping Resources from National Leaders in Education.
When two of the nation’s preeminent organizations dedicated to serving educational institutions published toolkits on nonpartisan student voter engagement, both turned to the SLSV Coalition’s resources and expertise to guide their vast constituencies. The US Department of Education consulted with SLSV while developing its Toolkit for the Promotion of Voter Participation for Students to use numerous examples of Coalition partners to illustrate how institutions can put the Department’s official recommendations into practice, while the American Council on Education’s “Student Voting and College Political Campaign-Related Activities in 2024” toolkit refers to SLSV explicitly and cites Coalition resources including Ask Every Student, the Nonpartisan Messaging Guide, and the Federal Work-Study for Voter Implementation Toolkit.
Publishing the latest research from leading voices in the nonpartisan student voting space.
In its third year of publication, the State of the Student Vote Substack covered topics ranging from how strategic capacity can help achieve 100% student voter participation, to combating student voter disillusionment, and the extraordinary level of nonpartisan democratic engagement action planning in 2024. Reaching more than 950 subscribers and garnering nearly 27,000 unique views, the Substack proved to be a valuable tool in spreading awareness, consensus, and new strategies – including the use of Federal Work-Study funds for nonpartisan student voter engagement – to the broader student voter engagement space.
Building Power in Participation by
Addressing student voter disillusionment with the #StudentVote Messaging Toolkit.
The 2024 election brought new messaging challenges to the nonpartisan student voter engagement space, as a divisive national political environment necessitated an updated strategy to break through some students’ skepticism of the electoral process. To empower our partners with new messages, the SLSV Communications Working Group collaborated to create a messaging toolkit designed to meet the moment.
Containing user-friendly conversation guides, research-backed insights into the root causes of polarization and disillusionment, and multimedia first-person stories from students from throughout the US, the toolkit offers a detailed manual for executing a two-pronged approach to student vote messaging: Engage in deep listening, and focus on local issues. By making students feel seen, heard, and validated in their dissatisfaction, and then connecting their interests to local ballot choices, student vote leaders could communicate with their campus communities in productive ways that steer clear of the national political pressure points turning many Americans off from engaging altogether.
Creating the first-ever Campus Athletic Engagement Guide with The Team.
In the run-up to Campus Takeover 2024, the SLSV Coalition and The Team collaborated on a new resource to help #StudentVote leaders leverage student athletes’ unique visibility and standing within a campus community in order to support nonpartisan student voter engagement efforts. The campus athletic engagement guide helps users identify the right people to contact at a given institution, ascertain how to approach them in a manner that creates trust and facilitates collaboration, and come up with ideas for how to successfully incorporate student athletes into nonpartisan student voter mobilizations.
Connecting classroom learning with democracy, focusing on fields with historically lower voting rates.
One of the SLSV Coalition’s most-requested resources, Your Major on the Ballot was created in 2022 to help draw connections between democracy and the many different fields students study in the classroom – especially STEM fields and other subjects with historically lower voting rates among their students. With an eye toward the unique challenges of the 2024 election, the SLSV Coalition incorporated input from leading experts to create more fully built-out guidance that brings real issues to the forefront of what students are learning in class.
The guide helps users identify the right people to contact at a given institution, ascertain how to approach them in a manner that creates trust and facilitates collaboration, and come up with ideas for how to successfully incorporate student athletes into nonpartisan student voter mobilizations.
Putting our expertise into practice.
Over the past four years, the SLSV team and key partners have collaborated to create and update dozens of resources that support nonpartisan student voter engagement efforts on everything from conducting productive peer-to-peer conversations to staffing and hosting a voter education event. In 2024, the SLSV team hosted dozens of trainings to ensure these key resources were accompanied by live guidance from an expert deeply familiar with its use case.
Highlighting impactful stories from campuses across the country.
In all, 64 unique organizations attended SLSV’s Local Media Training. Here are news stories about the efforts of several SLSV partners who attended:
Johns Hopkins University: ‘There are young people that care about the issues on the ballot’
The Loyola Phoenix: Students Find a Way to Engage in Election Through Poll Working
Vanderbilt Hustler: Vandy Votes hosts Ballotpalooza
Building Power in Celebration by
Making 2024 the Biggest Civic Holiday Season Yet.
In 2021, the SLSV Coalition team created CivicHolidays.org, an online hub for the joint efforts of the four fall Civic Holidays: National Voter Registration Day, National Voter Education Week, Vote Early Day, and Election Hero Day. Each holiday represents a different aspect of the voting experience, so bringing them together to one hub with a joint sign-up page enables partners to better support their communities by signing up for multiple holidays seamlessly.
In 2024, more than 1,000 partners used CivicHolidays.org to register for the holidays – more than any other year! The SLSV team also led efforts to create more collaborative programming between leaders of each Civic Holiday, resulting in more comprehensive trainings for partners and presentations to prominent organizations including the League of Women Voters, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions.
Mobilizing 1,400+ Campuses for Civic Holiday Celebrations.
Each year the SLSV team supports college campuses’ efforts to grow nonpartisan democratic engagement through Campus Takeover, a nationwide effort to mobilize students around elections and the Civic Holidays. In helping elevate these fun and accessible forms of engagement, more new and potential leaders are exposed to SLSV programming each year, often leading them to deeper engagement with the Coalition. 2024, saw the largest mobilization in Campus Takeover history.
SLSV also provided giveaways and support to 157 campuses in the form of free pizzas provided to National Voter Education Week celebrations, minigrants for Vote Early Day events, posters and stickers made in partnership with the historic Globe Press, and $50,000 worth of discounts via Lyft codes to help students get to the polls.
Beyond the 2024 election, Campus Takeover proved to be a valuable entry point for campuses to begin sustained nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts, with 70 Campus Takeover campuses joining the Ask Every Student initiative as commitment campuses.
Deepening Democratic Engagement at 2-Year Institutions.
The SLSV Coalition partnered with Levi’s, SHOWTIME/MTV Entertainment Studios (MTV), the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) and the Good Trouble Collaborative to launch the nonpartisan Community College Concert Competition (CCCC) in an effort to close the 10-percentage-point turnout gap that existed between students at two-year and public four-year institutions in 2020. To enter the CCCC, campuses were required to sign up for Campus Takeover, celebrate at least two Civic Holidays, join ALL IN, and submit a 2024 nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan.
Thanks in large part to the focused outreach and resources conveyed through the CCCC, 155 community colleges submitted a democratic engagement action plan in 2024 and 215 community colleges joined Campus Takeover – both dramatic increases over previous comparable years in past election cycles. The SLSV Coalition played a major role in all aspects of the CCCC, leading outreach to campuses and helping select the eventual winner, Austin Community College, which hosted a free concert by country music star Jessie Murph on October 24.
"ACC’s Vote Early Concert was just awesome! Ahead of the 2024 Election, many ACC students reported feeling disillusioned and pessimistic about national politics and voting in general, but the concert showed just how fun and empowering civic engagement can be. We also got to celebrate student leaders who worked so hard on our voting action plan and give them a huge stage to call on other students to join their efforts to boost youth voting power at the ballot box. The whole concert competition process helped us strengthen institutional buy-in across multiple areas of the college. I can't wait to see what kind of exciting things we can do to spread joy and connect students with their power in the future!”
- Cassie Fitzgerald, Director of Public Affairs, Elections & Voter Registration at Austin Community College
“The Community College Concert Competition and Purple Tour Party were game-changers for our civic engagement efforts at Mesa Community College. These opportunities energized our campus, bringing together students who might not have otherwise engaged with voting initiatives. Through this event, we reached new audiences and strengthened our voter registration efforts. Partnering with the SLSV Coalition has been transformative, providing us with the tools, creativity, and connections needed to make a lasting impact in our community.”
- Alejandra Maya, Civic Engagement Program Coordinator at Mesa Community College
Distributing $89,000 to Support Early Voting Events.
Vote Early Day helped millions of voters cast their ballots before Election Day 2024, and supported hundreds of thousands of people as they marched, danced, celebrated, and voted in their communities. As a Vote Early Day partner and the leaders of Campus Takeover, the SLSV Coalition proudly collaborated with SHOWTIME/MTV Entertainment Studios to award and distribute funding to community college campuses to ensure student voters throughout the US were able to take full advantage of their early voting options.
“Being a campus partner with the SLSV Coalition has been a game-changer for Central Lakes College. We have often felt like a small fish in a big pond, with larger, more urban campuses seemingly more engaged in this important work. Now, SLSV has brought our small rural community college to a level where voting is something our college celebrates and tries to find creative ways to institutionalize into our everyday practices. The training, support, and grants have allowed us to truly live out our college’s mission.”
- Erich Heppner, Director of Student life at Central Lakes College
Building Power in Person by
Hosting the largest annual gathering in our history.
On November 20-22, more than 330 nonprofit leaders and college students, administrators, and faculty members gathered at the 2024 National Student Vote Summit at the University of Maryland, College Park for three days of learning, community, and goal-setting for a future beyond the most recent election cycle.
The Summit served not only as a platform for advancing the collective #StudentVote movement, but also as a vital space for connection, networking, and relationship-building for leaders from across the country tasked with navigating an uncertain future. In all, representatives from college campuses in 35 different states and the District of Columbia attended NSVS 2024, bringing a truly nationwide and diverse set of concerns and perspectives to the three-day event.
The Summit served not only as a platform for advancing the collective #StudentVote movement, but also as a vital space for connection, networking, and relationship-building for leaders from across the country tasked with navigating an uncertain future. In all, representatives from college campuses in 35 different states and the District of Columbia attended NSVS 2024, bringing a truly nationwide and diverse set of concerns and perspectives to the three-day event.
“My experience with the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition has been life-changing. In the summer of 2024, I started by registering voters and poll workers at Miami Dade College and soon found myself traveling to Milwaukee and Chicago for Youth VoteFests alongside the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. These events connected me with student leaders nationwide who shared my vision for equitable voting access and allowed me to engage with political leaders from both major parties.
The Coalition then gave me the incredible opportunity to visit the White House on National Voter Registration Day. There, I participated in a roundtable discussion on nonpartisan voting strategies with students, nonprofit leaders, and Biden-Harris officials. Sharing my perspective as a first-year community college student was an unforgettable experience that deepened my commitment to empowering student voters.
After the 2024 General Election, I attended the National Student Vote Summit at the University of Maryland, where I presented on my campus efforts and SLSV experiences. Thanks to the Coalition’s consistent support, I’ve grown personally and professionally, traveled to places I never dreamed of, and gained the tools to create lasting change in my community. I am deeply grateful to the amazing team behind the SLSV Coalition and look forward to continuing our work to shape the future of voting nationwide."
-Giancarlo da Motta, Student at Miami Dade College
Supporting student voter engagement summits in 15 different states & regions.
#StudentVote leaders from throughout the country gathered at statewide summits in 2024 sponsored by the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project and other SLSV Coalition partners to address the challenges and conditions unique to their home states. The SLSV Coalition team attended and provided in-person support at 15 statewide gatherings, conducting expert presentations and providing logistical support.
Empowering student leaders at Youth VoteFest.
SLSV and University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics hosted student vote activists for two days of workshops, speakers, and networking.The events, called Youth VoteFest, took place in Milwaukee and Chicago during the week each city hosted a major political convention in the run-up to the presidential election. At each Youth VoteFest, SLSV Coalition team members and partners hosted nonpartisan interactive workshops for student attendees in the morning, with prominent speakers appearing in the afternoon. In total, nearly 400 students from more than 70 different schools attended the two events.
Bringing student vote leaders to the White House for a youth roundtable.
For National Voter Registration Day on September 17, the White House hosted a Youth Civic Engagement Roundtable for leaders to share about their nonpartisan efforts to help young Americans register to vote and participate in the democratic process. University of Alabama student and SLSV Advisory Board member Rolland Grady, Miami Dade College student Giancarlo da Motta, University of Maryland student Laiba Nisar, and Macomb Community College student Abdullah Aljanabi joined SLSV Executive Director Clarissa Unger and a handful of delegates from around the country for the event in Washington, DC.
“With the support of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, I was able to attend the Youth Civic Engagement Roundtable hosted by the White House. Here I was able to share about the work being done by the UA Vote Everywhere team and many others in Alabama to increase the youth vote for the 2024 election on a national scale. I was able to share stories about how the UA Vote Everywhere teams works to incorporate the story of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney into our work and how we use our unique situation as a campus in the Deep South to reflect on the work done by Voting Rights activisits, many of who were our age doing this work. Additionally, I shared about how the UA Vote Everywhere team has registered at least one student to vote from all of the fifty states and how each semester we reach thousands of students. The Students Learn Students Vote Coalition has given me endless opportunities and support, as I have had to learn to navigate through legislative challenges to voting access in Alabama. SLSV has supported me not only professionally but also personally as I have gained access to a network of students experiencing similar things and have been able to cultivate friendships and gain advice from countless mentors.”
- Rolland Grady, Student at the University of Alabama
Building Power in Preparation by
Providing the first opportunity to prepare for a new landscape in 2025.
The 2024 National Student Vote Summit proved to be valuable as an opportunity to reflect on the just-completed 2024 election, as well as a chance to reckon with new challenges likely to arise in 2025. Interactive discussions, panels, and training sessions focused on topics ranging from election engagement and administration in a heated political environment to nonpartisan organizing in the face of increased legal barriers to student voting access. A common through-line of every discussion and training was the value of knowledge-sharing and collaboration, facilitated by a support network like the SLSV Coalition.
Helping campuses prepare for what comes next.
Knowing the likelihood of another close presidential election and the emotional toll that can take on students, the SLSV Coalition worked with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge to revamp the Post-Election Campus Resource and Response Guide to help campus communities in the days and weeks following the election. The resource provided actionable advice to help campus partners meet the needs of their communities with a focus on mitigating unrest and violence, managing distrust in election outcomes, addressing emotional distress among the campus community, safeguarding campus climates and intergroup relationships, and combating disinformation.
Building Power in 2025 by
Continuing to advance our agenda and grow our Coalition – because democracy doesn’t stop.
In 2025 we look forward to building an even stronger #StudentVote movement, providing resources, support, and funding to empower our partners to capitalize on the momentum we built together during the presidential election year. Our theme for 2025 is “Democracy Doesn’t Stop,” and neither will we as our Coalition takes on this critical moment together.
Here are our top priorities for 2025:
Helping Campuses Adapt to a Changing Landscape
We will develop a dynamic response framework to help Coalition partners comply with changes to voter access and inclusion-related policies while still conducting successful nonpartisan student voter engagement activities, as well as a partner-informed guide of meaningful ways that engagement resources can promote belonging for all student voters in compliance with new laws.
Building Capacity and Knowledge to Address Core Issues
We will work with partners to help at least 100 colleges and universities develop and submit nonpartisan democratic engagement action plans by the ALL IN Challenge’s early submission deadline for the 2026 election cycle. We will also identify a researcher to work with various types of higher education institutions to study causes of student voter burnout and potential strategies to address this issue.
Raising Funds That Go Directly to Campus Partners
We will raise and distribute $200,000 directly to colleges and universities to support nonpartisan student voter engagement efforts throughout 2025 and going into 2026. As always, we will prioritize giving to community colleges, minority-serving institutions, HBCUs, rural-serving institutions, and campuses with high rates of Pell Grant recipients.
Revamping Core Resources and Trainings to Meet the Moment
We will update the #StudentVote Messaging Guide for 2025, with guidance for state local elections and the incorporation post-2024 voter context. We will also create a centralized, searchable resource where partners can access stories of campus-level successes in nonpartisan student voter engagement. Throughout the year we will emphasize trainings and community learning spaces, hosting at least 20.
Strengthening the Ask Every Student Initiative and Accompanying Resources
We will work with 4-7 campus leaders to revisit and update existing AES resources with relevant guidance for campuses to build out their own AES strategies. We will also add at least 20 AES Commitment Campuses and attain reports from at least 60 AES campuses on the strategies they employ on their campuses, as well as reports from at least 40 campuses on the number of voter registrations they attain through implementing AES strategies.
Mapping Shared Community Spaces for Coalition Use
We will create a comprehensive map of all existing spaces for shared learning, collaboration and connection, prioritizing venues for discussions related to nonpartisan student voter engagement but also encompassing partner-led efforts around broader issues facing institutions of higher education.
Bringing our Coalition Together for the 2025 National Student Vote Summit
We will register at least 275 attendees for the 2025 National Student Vote Summit, where we will unite to build connections within the nonpartisan student democratic engagement space, share valuable lessons learned, provide comprehensive training and resources, and build a shared momentum toward our collective goals going forward.
Financial Report
Income
$3,445,727
Grants, Donations, & Sponsorships
Operational Expenses
$1,475,662
Salary, Benefits, Program Expenses, Operational Expenses, & Fiscal Sponsor Administrative Fee
Subgrants Distributed
$630,610
Ask Every Student Implementation Grants; Contributions to Community Colleges to support Vote Early Day Activities; Travel Stipends for the National Student Vote Summit, Youth VoteFest, and Other Convenings; and Contributions to Other 501c3 Organizations
Acknowledgements
2024 Advisory Board
- Olivia Antigua, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Naomi Barbour, Eastern Michigan University
- Loren Belew, Wichita State University
- Andrew Brown, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
- Bonnie Chang, City of Madison, Wisconsin
- Naomi Cohen, University of Maryland College Park
- Nicholas Crookston, Voto Latino
- Ben Goodrich, American Political Science Association
- Mary-Pat Hector, RISE
- Rolland Grady, University of Alabama
- Fred McBride, Southern Poverty Law Center
- Diane McMahon, Allegany College of Maryland
- Helen-Margaret Nasser, CUNY Kingsborough
- Christian Núñez Ramirez, When We All Vote
- Blake Robinson, Georgia Southern University
- Frank Wood, Bethune-Cookman University
2024 Executive Committee
- Chair: Sam Novey, University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement
- Secretary: Pam Coleman, Leadership Coach & Strategic Consultant
- Mike Burns, Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project
- Mike Dean, North Star Prosperity
- Joy Fulkerson, East Tennessee State University
- Tamer Mokhtar, All Americans Vote
A special thanks to
- The SLSV Team
- Our Coalition partners
- NEO Philanthropy
- The Student Vote Research Network
- Ask Every Student Steering Committee members and campuses
- Campus Takeover partner organizations and participants
- National Voter Education Week Steering Committee members and partners
- The Civic Holidays Joint Collaboration Committee members
- SLSV Working Group members and chairs
- Every Statewide Student Democracy Summit committee
- Naomi Cohen, Lena Morreale Scott, and the University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement
- Every SLSV Coalition partner and stakeholder who attended the National Student Vote Summit
- The Community College Commitment
- Daniel Fidalgo Tomé
- Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin
- The University of Chicago Institute of Politics
- The Center for Artistic Activism
- Everyone who contributed to the revamp of the Your Major on the Ballot resource
- Tony’s Chocolonely
- Pizza to the Polls
- Daybreaker Party to the Polls
- The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Student PIRGs
- Unify America
- The Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project
Join us!
Join the movement
This work is a team effort, and we can only keep making an impact when people like you step up and get involved. Whether it’s partnering with us, spreading the word, or supporting our efforts, every action helps strengthen our democracy. Join us and be a part of the nonpartisan #StudentVote movement!