TurnUp | Turnout Activism Inc. (c3)
Organization Description
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 600,000 young voters, texted 45 million young voters, talked to 1.2 million young voters via phone, and graduated 18,000 youth from our internship program.
2026 Programs
In 2026, TurnUp is focused on registering 190,000 young voters in swing states and districts, while mobilizing over five million to vote. 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.
2025 Programs
We achieved our 2025 goal of registering 170,000 young voters who will be critical to the 2026 election! This is the highest number of registrants TurnUp has achieved in an off-year. Young people in our targeted counties were motivated to register to vote, so our fellowship, relational, and internship programs ran at almost election-year levels this year, allowing us to reach this goal. TurnUp also played an important role in the 2025 elections in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey through our voter registration and turnout efforts.
2024 Programs
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.
Mission
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, AR, CA, FL, GA, IA, ME, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TX, VA, WI
Geographic Coverage by Congressional District:
AK-01, CA-13, CA-22,CA-48, NJ-07, NY-03, NY-04, NY-17, NY-19, OR-05, CO-08, NM-02, WA-03, NE-02, ME-02, VA-02, VA-07, FL-01, FL-02, FL-03, FL-04, FL-05, FL-06, FL-07, FL-08, FL-09, FL-10, FL-11, FL-12, FL-13, FL-14, FL-15, FL-16, FL-17, FL-18, FL-19, FL-20, FL-21, FL-22, FL-23, FL-24, FL-25, FL-26, FL-27, FL-28, NE-01, NE-02, NE-03, NC-01, NC-02, NC-03, NC-04, NC-05, NC-06, NC-07, NC-08, NC-09, NC-10, NC-11, NC-12, NC-13, NC-14, WV-01, WV-02, AK-AL, GA-01, GA-02, GA-03, GA-04, GA-05, GA-06, GA-07, GA-08, GA-09, GA-10, GA-11, GA-12, GA-13, GA-14, ME-01, ME-02, MI-01, MI-02, MI-03, MI-04, MI-05, MI-06, MI-07, MI-08, MI-09, MI-10, MI-11, MI-12, MI-13, NV-01, NV-02, NV-03, NV-04, SC-01, SC-02, SC-03, SC-04, SC-05, SC-06, SC-07, TX-01, TX-02, TX-03, TX-04, TX-05, TX-06, TX-07, TX-08, TX-09, TX-10, TX-11, TX-12, TX-13, TX-14, TX-15, TX-16, TX-17, TX-18, TX-19, TX-20, TX-21, TX-22, TX-23, TX-24, TX-25, TX-26, TX-27, TX-28, TX-29, TX-30, TX-31, TX-32, TX-33, TX-34, TX-35, TX-36, TX-37, TX-38, WI-01, WI-02, WI-03, WI-04, WI-05, WI-06, WI-07, WI-08, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, AZ-05, AZ-06, AZ-07, AZ-08, AZ-09, MT-01, MT-02, OH-01, OH-02, OH-03, OH-04, OH-05, OH-06, OH-07, OH-08, OH-09, OH-10, OH-11, OH-12, OH-13, OH-14, OH-15, PA-01, PA-02, PA-03, PA-04, PA-05, PA-06, PA-07, PA-08, PA-09, PA-10, PA-11, PA-12, PA-13, PA-14, PA-15, PA-16, PA-17, WA-01, WA-02, WA-03, WA-04, WA-05, WA-06, WA-07, WA-08, WA-09, WA-10, IA-01, IA-02, IA-03, IA-04 Geographic Density Focus: Rural / Suburban / Small city (<100k), Urban - Large city or suburb of 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
Top Priority Issues: Civic engagement, Voter participation, Youth activism
Lead Contact:
Zev Shapiro, Founder and Executive Director, he/him, zev@turnup.us
Last Updated: January 14, 2026

