Students Learn Students Vote Coalition to distribute $158,000 through national initiative to support college student voter engagement activities in 2025 and 2026
Ask Every Student (“AES”), a national, nonpartisan, joint initiative that supports higher education institutions to implement, institutionalize, and scale strategies to help campuses ask every eligible student to participate in our electoral process, announced today its cohort of 2025 grantees. In total, 48 institutions were awarded funds to help implement AES strategies ahead of elections in 2025 and 2026.
Of the 48 institutions, 11 are community colleges, three are rural-serving institutions, and 12 are either Minority-Serving Institutions or Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU’s).
Five institutions – Allegany College of Maryland, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bowling Green State University, Central Lakes College, and Mesa Community College – were awarded additional funds to participate in the 2025 AES Codesigner Cohort, a diverse group of campus leaders who will work throughout the year to collaboratively design innovative tools and resources for other campuses implementing AES strategies. Past Codesigner Cohorts designed the resources currently found in the AES Toolkit, a groundbreaking set of nonpartisan strategies, tools, and tactics tailored to help institutions of all types and sizes work toward 100% voter registration rates. This year’s Codesigners will create or update resources focused on building institutional partnerships, classroom visits, orientation integration, creating a faculty champions program, and developing student ambassador programs.
“Our 2025 grantees have all demonstrated an impressive commitment to making nonpartisan voter engagement a part of the student experience at their institutions,” said Sithara Menon, the Campus Engagement and Support Manager for the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, which leads Ask Every Student in partnership with AES Steering Committee members the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Voter Friendly Campus, a program of the Campus Vote Project and NASPA. “These grants will help them engage even more deeply with their campus communities in ways that normalize and encourage voter participation while welcoming students into our democracy.”
The SLSV Coalition has distributed more than $1.7 million in grants through AES since the initiative’s founding in 2020 to help campus partners implement AES strategies. In 2024, 104 campuses participating in AES reported more than 69,000 student voter registrations attained through the implementation of AES strategies.
“We’ve seen extraordinary growth in the reach of Ask Every Student, as well as the sophistication and efficacy of the strategies implemented by AES campuses,” said SLSV Coalition Deputy Director Eddy Zerbe. “This funding will help our partners continue to iterate and improve on strategies that are helping ensure democracy is a consistent presence on campuses nationwide.”
There are 49 Ask Every Student 2025 Implementation Grantees, including the following institutions:
- Allegany College of Maryland
- Appalachian State University
- Bates College
- Borough of Manhattan Community College
- Bowling Green State University
- California State University – San Marcos
- Cedar Crest College
- Central Lakes College
- Eastern Illinois University
- Gallaudet University
- George Washington University
- Harford Community College
- Inver Hills Community College
- Jacksonville University
- James Madison University
- Mercer University
- Mesa Community College
- Metropolitan State University of Denver
- Michigan State University
- Middlesex College
- Montclair State University
- Northampton County Area Community College Foundation (on behalf of Northampton Community College)
- Northern Illinois University
- Pace University
- Ringling College of Art and Design
- Rose State College
- Scottsdale Community College (Maricopa County)
- Shenandoah University
- Southern Maine Community College
- Suffolk University
- The University at Buffalo, State University of New York
- University of Michigan
- The University of Oklahoma
- The University of Texas at El Paso
- Trinity University
- University of Houston – Hobby School of Public Affairs
- University of Maine
- University of Mary Washington
- University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
- University of Minnesota – Duluth
- University of Nebraska – Omaha
- University of Texas at San Antonio
- Webster University
- William & Mary
About Ask Every Student
Ask Every Student is a national joint initiative led by the SLSV Coalition in partnership with the AES Steering Committee, which is made up of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and Voter Friendly Campus, a program of the Campus Vote Project and NASPA. Together they work with campus leaders to create resources, host trainings, and support campus implementation of different AES strategies.
About the SLSV Coalition
The SLSV Coalition is the national hub and largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to increasing college student voter participation. The Coalition convenes and connects partners, campuses, and students with each other and with resources and programming towards achieving a vision of ensuring that every student has easy and equal access to participate in every election. They use data, relationships, celebration, and easy-to-follow planning structures, to help campus and local leaders register and turnout more student voters every year. The SLSV Coalition is a project of NEO Philanthropy. NEO Philanthropy is strictly nonpartisan, and does not support or oppose any candidate or party.