coalition goals

Each year, the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition collectively sets goals to guide us as a coalition. Our goals are developed based on input from hundreds of partners and refined by our team, our Executive Committee, and our Advisory Board. Our nine guiding principles, especially our principles of committing to racial justice and contributing to an equitable democracy, set the foundation and are woven throughout each of our annual goals.

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, the SLSV Coalition’s theme for 2026 is “Rising to the moment.” Our goals reflect ambitions built on a decade of nonpartisan movement-building, partnership, and collaboration, at a time when student voters have an enormous opportunity to change our democracy for the better. This year’s goals will focus on the following themes:

  • Increasing the national college student voter turnout rate to 40% in the 2026 midterm elections (up from 31% in 2022), increasing the national college student voter registration rate to 80% (76% in 2022), and closing turnout gaps between students of all backgrounds, ages, and institution types.
     
  • Helping partners address key gaps in their networks and nonpartisan student voter engagement strategies in order to account for new realities, including college students’ growing challenges in meeting their basic housing and financial needs, and an increasingly complex climate for nonpartisan student vote leaders in building and sustaining institutional support for their work.
     
  • Growing the reach and efficacy of core programs, such as Ask Every Student, Campus Takeover of the Civic Holidays, and National Voter Education Week, in order to support student voter registration, mobilization, and education nationwide.  

  • Deepening engagement by continuing to grow and strengthen SLSV Coalition in-person and virtual gatherings, while strengthening our network’s capacity and storytelling capabilities by growing collaboration with key Coalition stakeholders such as national leaders in campus Greek life, Local Election Officials, and campus media organizations.
     
  • Prioritizing usability and reducing barriers to entry for partners seeking to use and navigate SLSV-created resources that are especially relevant to nonpartisan student voter engagement in 2026. 

 

  • Building knowledge in the nonpartisan student voting space, including and especially about the relationship between nonpartisan student voter engagement work and academic success, and the state of nonpartisan student voter engagement at community colleges.
Check out our 2026 Goals

PAST GOALS

The SLSV Coalition’s theme for 2025 is “Democracy Doesn’t Stop,” a reflection of the state and local elections that will impact voters througåhout the US this year, as well as the critical moment currently facing our country and our democracy. This year’s goals will focus on the following themes:

  • Helping college campuses adapt to a changing landscape by helping them conduct successful nonpartisan student voter engagement activities amidst changing policies and conditions regarding voter access and student belonging.
  • Exercising the SLSV Coalition’s unique role as a convener and unifier in the nonpartisan student voter engagement space by mapping shared community spaces for use by our Coalition partners, and bringing our Coalition together for the 2025 National Student Vote Summit.
  • Building knowledge and capacity within the SLSV Coalition by facilitating the submission of nonpartisan democratic engagement plans for the 2026 election cycle, revamping core #StudentVote resources, and conducting trainings throughout the year.
  • Strengthening campus partners’ nonpartisan student voter engagement efforts by providing direct funding and strengthening the Ask Every Student Initiative with revamped resources and robust data collection on AES strategy implementation and voter registrations achieved through AES strategies.
Check out our 2025 Goals

The 2024 agenda, and SLSV Coalition as a whole, have a collective theme for the year ahead: “Building Power in Numbers.” Accordingly, the Coalition’s 2024 goals and resulting work will focus on helping student voters realize and exercise their enormous power to impact our country’s democracy for the better, with a focus on the following priorities: 

  • Sustaining and building upon the high registration and turnout rates among student voters in recent federal election cycles.
  • Closing the existing racial and ethnic participation gaps that currently exist between white and nonwhite student voters, as well as any gaps between first-time eligible college student voters ages 18-21 and college student voters of other ages.
  • Continuing to grow the number of college campuses actively participating in nonpartisan democratic engagement action planning programs, while working to deepen the engagement strategies of campuses already doing so.
  • Addressing widespread feelings of disillusionment among college student voters by highlighting the opportunities they have to make a positive difference through democratic engagement, especially at the local level. 
Check out our 2024 Goals

While 2023 is not a federal election year, there are no “off” years when it comes to institutionalizing and investing in the future of our democracy. In the coming year, the SLSV Coalition will work together to build on the #StudentVote movement’s extraordinary growth with a focus on the following priorities:

  • Deepening engagement to support campuses in implementing advanced nonpartisan student voter engagement strategies.

     

  • Continuing to support campuses as they complete the SLSV Checklist – including and especially during non-federal-election years, personnel transitions, and assessments via Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE).

     

  • Working with local, state, and national nonprofit partners to coordinate support for campuses to meet their needs without overwhelming them. 
Check out our 2023 Goals

In 2021, following a transformative election cycle, we focused on building the processes and infrastructure needed to sustain a movement that had reached historic heights the year before. In 2022, our focus shifts from building to implementation. It’s time to use our new tools, and hard-earned experience, to further institutionalize student nonpartisan democratic engagement on college campuses around the country, and ensure the student vote continues its extraordinary growth.

Check out our 2022 Goals

Our overarching theme, reflected in our 2021 goals, is “bringing presidential election energy to an ‘odd’ year.” While 2021 is an odd-numbered year without federal elections, it’s more than that for us. After the past year, 2021 will be another odd and unprecedented period – a year of reintegration after a global pandemic and re-envisioning what our democracy can be as we strive for ideals of justice and equity that have never been fully realized in our country.

There are no “off” election years. This work does not stop, so neither will we. These are the goals we have set and will collectively work toward together in 2021.

Check out our 2021 Goals

Recognizing the importance of getting college students more engaged in our democratic processes, the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition was founded in February 2016 to design and advance a shared agenda around student voting and political learning in higher education. Comprised of a diverse group of nearly 400 local, state, national, and student nonpartisan organizations working with over 1,600 campuses, the SLSV Coalition is the national hub and the largest nonpartisan network in the U.S. dedicated to increasing political learning and college student voting. These are the goals we have collectively set for ourselves for 2019 & 2020.

Check out our 2019-2020 Goals

Since its founding in early 2016, the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition has experienced robust growth in reach and capacity to improve student voter registration, education, and turnout. Not believing that an “off-year” election exists, the Coalition kept the momentum going in 2017, issuing over $300,000 in subgrants to 15 coalition partners, helping to increase student voter turnout in state/local elections around the country. With the 2018 midterm elections on the horizon, the Coalition intends to build off of its previous successes and reach new heights in youth democratic engagement. This document seeks to outline the goals the Coalition is setting this year to maximize its impact across its 200+ coalition partners around the country.

Check out our 2018 Goals