TurnUp's youth-led voter registration and turnout program targets competitive states and congressional districts. We conduct paid student-led on-campus voter registration and turnout drives at high schools and low-turnout community college campuses; relational voter registration and turnout programs targeting unregistered and low-propensity young voters; an educational internship program empowering youth to conduct text-banking, phone-banking, and canvassing; and innovative digital activities reminding young people to register and vote. Since 2019, we have registered over 400,000 young voters, texted 35 million young voters, talked to 900,000 young voters via phone, and graduated 13,000 youth from our internship program.
In 2025, TurnUp is focused on registering 170,000 young people to vote in key states and congressional districts for the 2026 elections and beyond. We are also registering and turning out young voters in the VA and PA elections. TurnUp is organizing the following programs to accomplish these goals paid student-led on-campus voter registration and turnout drives at high schools and low-turnout community college campuses; relational voter registration and turnout programs targeting unregistered and low-propensity young voters; an educational internship program empowering youth to conduct text-banking, phone-banking, and canvassing; and digital activities reminding young people to register and vote.
TurnUp's Youth-led GOTV program targets low-turnout community college campuses and low-propensity young voters. The program engages over 18,000 young interns, on-campus organizers, and relational organizers to utilize the following strategies: on-campus GOTV events, relational GOTV campaigns, canvassing, phone-banking, and text-banking.
We’re on a mission to strengthen democracy by increasing high impact youth civic action and closing the gap between young people who want to take civic action and those who actually take action. TurnUp includes five integrated programs that work together to increase youth voter
registration and turnout: the internship training program; online program; on campus and relational voter registration and turnout program; mobile app; and ideas incubator. Our goal is to increase youth voter registration and turnout, and build the most active, educated, organized, and powerful network of young progressive activists across the Nation
Budget Size:
Medium: Previous year budget $1M - $3M
States Engaged:
AK, AZ, FL, GA, MI, MT, NE, NV, NC, OH, PA, SC, TX, WA, WV, WI
Geographic Density Focus:
Rural, Suburban / Ex-urban, Urban - Small city (<100k), Urban - Large city (>100k)
Core Constituencies:
Black, Latinx, Youth and Students (aged 17-35)
Leadership Diversity:
Youth-led (aged 15-35)
Staff and Volunteer Balance:
Volunteer boosted - <50% of the programmatic activities are executed by volunteers
Contact:
Zev Shapiro, Founder and Executive Director, zev@turnup.us