Support us
From university presidents to undergrad students, local leaders throughout the country are building a #StudentVote movement. Support the trusted collaborator and resource hub for all things student voter engagement in over 1,600 college communities nationwide.
The Students Learn Students Vote Coalition is the national hub and the largest nonpartisan network in the country of campus, nonprofit, community, student, and philanthropic leaders who help student voters get more involved in our democracy. We support campuses by facilitating collaborations across national, state, and local organizations, coordinating national programs and campaigns, and distributing resources and funding directly to local leaders in their communities.
Since 2016, Coalition partners have transformed the student democratic engagement landscape, with efforts contributing to a historic 66% college student voter turnout rate in the 2020 Election — a 14-percentage-point increase over 2016. Outreach and education on college campuses has grown tremendously, but we are just getting started. By donating to the SLSV Coalition you can help ensure campuses & local organizations get the resources, connections, and funding they need to turn out the #StudentVote.
We know that local campus leaders (faculty members, campus administrators, and student leaders) know their communities best, have access to local social networks, and are the most culturally equipped to lead voter engagement efforts on their campuses. Every campus is different: with diverse student populations, varying resources available, and unique challenges. We approach this work from an understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to registering and turning out students to vote.
By creating a network of diverse partners, providing spaces where they can come together to share knowledge, and facilitating collaboration that puts the voices, needs, and lived experiences of Coalition partners’ communities first, the SLSV Coalition helps leaders throughout the nonpartisan student vote movement build and access the capacity and resources needed to energize student voters. Key to this approach is centering and trusting local leaders – working with partners throughout the Coalition to understand their needs first-hand, with the knowledge that success means elevating, not erasing, their work.
Additionally, The SLSV Coalition coordinates highly collaborative and successful initiatives like Ask Every Student, Campus Takeover, and National Voter Education Week that make it even easier for campuses to welcome first time voters into the democratic process. Our innovative, human-centered design resources, subgrant opportunities, and strategic support energize campus leaders and arm them with the tools they need to be successful in their own institutional context.
With nearly 4,000 colleges and universities nationwide supporting 17 million college students, investing in the #StudentVote is one of the best ways you can support our democracy. College and university campuses are ideal settings for cultivating democratic values, because student voters are often first-time voters. Our goal is to ensure that their first experience with elections is as easy as possible to encourage them to become lifelong voters.
Student voters represent diverse and intersectional perspectives. The SLSV Coalition includes a variety of stakeholders that seek to advocate for and uplift the needs and unique challenges of the largest and most diverse generation of student voters. From rural campus communities to major cities, from disability advocates to Black leaders, SLSV Coalition partners ensure the diverse perspectives of college students are represented in the #StudentVote movement.
Minority-Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities have long been centers of civil and voting rights advocacy, while also supporting communities that have been the most impacted by regressive voting policies, gerrymandering, and systemic racism. Similarly, community colleges have been routinely left out of civic engagement conversations for decades – often due to lack of resources and funding for the efforts, despite the fact that the nearly 1,500 community colleges in the United States educate and reach more than 7 million students collectively.
Over the last five years, we’ve seen many MSI & community college voting rates skyrocket thanks to the work of local leaders, supported by Coalition partners. HBCU voting rates increased 13 percentage points from 2016 to 2020, and community college voting rates increased 10 percentage points in the same period. Increasing equity in democratic engagement is a priority to us and our partners, and a key tenet of our work.
You don’t have to wait until November of a federal election year to make a difference in our democracy. Throughout history, students have been at the center of civil and voting rights movements, and today students are still the beating heart of our democracy – leading protests, standing up for civil rights, and turning out in record numbers to vote.
By participating in or donating to the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, you can directly support the largest nonpartisan network in the country working year-round to bring unprecedented levels of civic education and voting access to college students across the country.
The best way to take giant strides on your #StudentVote journey is to officially join our national network as an SLSV Coalition Partner. Doing so unlocks unique resources, trainings, and opportunities to collaborate with hundreds of #StudentVote partners and the SLSV team. You can also level up your engagement by participating in our committees and programs like Ask Every Student and Campus Takeover.
There is no financial commitment required to join our Coalition or participate in any of our programs. Our support is completely free.
You can have a huge impact on the #StudentVote movement by financially contributing to the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition. Campuses rely on resources and support from nonprofit partners and networks like ours to help grow their civic engagement work, pay student workers, and so much more!
You can scale your money’s impact by donating to the SLSV Coalition and investing in local leaders across the country.
You can also propel this work by spreading the word about the SLSV Coalition! Since our founding in 2016, hundreds of partners have officially joined the #StudentVote movement, but there are still thousands of campuses across the country that haven’t started strategically using their resources to welcome students into our democratic process. We particularly are looking to grow our cohort of local, community organizations and BIPOC, disability, and LGTBQ+ serving organizations. If you know anyone in your networks that would be interested in or benefit from this work, please let us know!
