League of Young Voters

We are community-based: We are the only major young voter group that focuses on non-college youth, especially people of color and youth from low-income communities (only about one third of young people between the ages of 18-24 are enrolled in college full-time). It takes long-term commitment to build leaders and civic infrastructure in historically under-represented communities. We don't disappear after elections: We don't just register voters or get out the vote right before elections. Young people trust and believe in us because we make real changes in their communities and we don't just show up every four years. Even when it isn't election season, we are mobilizing young people around issues they choose as most relevant to their lives, such as violence prevention, student debt, etc. We break silos: We're not a single-issue organization. We bring young people together across race, class, culture, issues and ideology to build trusting relationships. These relationships form the basis for the progressive governing majority we are working to build. We're multi-pronged: We are the most legally sophisticated youth group that has ever existed on any side of the political spectrum. While we are a 501(c)4 organization, we also have a connected 501(c)3 non-profit that does non-partisan education, voter engagement and election protection work. Additionally, we have a Federal PAC as well as State PACs through which we can endorse candidates and impact races up and down the ballot. We build on existing social networks: From hip-hop to MySpace to barber shops, we tap local "influencers" from existing social and cultural networks to engage spheres of unlikely voters. We help create cohorts of young people who not only vote, they also "get the bug" to organize their peers. We keep it fun: Young people don't do boring. Neither does the League.