what we do
Launch State based Youth Chapters
We partner with in-state allies to identify and equip emerging youth leaders to launch and lead local chapters. Within weeks, each new team taps into YCA’s ready-to-go infrastructure, including finance, HR, payroll, benefits, vendor contracts, compliance, legal, fundraising systems, digital tools, and strategic coaching, so they can immediately begin organizing, running voter registration drives, advocating on issues, contesting local elections and ballot measures, and developing leadership pipelines in their communities. Over the next 3 to 4 years, chapters grow into fully independent, donor-ready organizations with the capacity to win lasting policy and political change.
The Backbone: Our Operations Hub
While local chapters focus on growing their teams and organizing voters, YCA manages the operational engine: finance, HR, payroll, benefits, vendor contracts, compliance, legal, fundraising systems, cybersecurity, digital security, and data. This shared backbone allows chapters to confidently scale digital and field programs across campuses, neighborhoods, and online spaces. With continuous coaching and infrastructure in place from the start, chapters can onboard staff, deepen training, and launch high-impact campaigns in their first weeks, while building the maturity over 3 to 4 years to spin off as fully independent, donor-ready organizations.
Win Policy & Political Change
Chapters run year-round campaigns that advance policy priorities, protect ballot access, and drive youth and BIPOC voter turnout in high-stakes elections. From voter registration and GOTV to issue advocacy, ballot measures, local school board contests, and statewide legislative fights, our programs are built to win, and built to last. With shared data systems, compliance infrastructure, and fundraising capacity, chapters can track impact, share learnings across states, and rapidly scale what works. Whether it is passing local ordinances, securing abortion rights, defeating restrictive voter ID proposals, or winning competitive races, our chapters organize with urgency and strategic clarity to meet the moment and shape the future.
About Youth Civic Accelerator
The Youth Civic Accelerator (YCA) is a new national operations hub and incubator, created to launch and scale youth-led civic infrastructure in the states that need it most. We focus on places where youth power is untapped, where organizing capacity is thin, and where the political stakes are highest for our generation.
Too often, young leaders are asked to do transformational work, organize, register voters, win elections, and shift policy, with little to no real support. YCA flips that script. We eliminate the barriers that burden emerging organizations by centralizing the operational backbone: finance, HR, payroll, legal, compliance, data, fundraising systems, benefits, vendor contracts, and digital security. Instead of spending their first years building infrastructure from scratch, chapters tap into a ready-made support system that allows them to launch visible programs within weeks, and over 3 to 4 years, mature into fully independent, donor-ready organizations.
This model allows local organizers to focus on what they do best, building relationships, mobilizing their peers, and leading bold campaigns that protect democracy, advance justice, win ballot measures and local elections, and deliver real policy change for their communities.
That is why we call it an accelerator, we help youth-led efforts move faster, scale smarter, and go deeper than they ever could alone.
The Accelerator Model
Seed
We raise the resources, in close partnership with in-state allies and aligned funders, and connect emerging youth leaders to our legal, compliance, finance, data, and coaching backbone. New chapters can launch visible programs within weeks, and over the next 3–4 years they mature into independent, donor-ready organizations. This incubation model shortens the runway by years, saves hundreds of thousands in build-out costs, and ensures chapters are equipped from the start to lead voter engagement, advocacy, and electoral campaigns.
Build
Chapters recruit volunteers, hire and train organizers, and begin executing advocacy, legislative, and turnout campaigns. As they grow, YCA manages the essentials, compliance, payroll, HR, benefits, vendor contracts, fundraising systems, digital security, finance, and data infrastructure, so local leaders can focus on what matters most: developing strategy, hitting political goals, and building durable leadership pipelines.
Scale
With a solid foundation in place, chapters expand operations to meet the moment. They grow voter registration, GOTV, and issue campaigns across campuses, neighborhoods, and digital platforms, while taking on ballot measures, school board contests, and statewide fights. This bold, youth-led organizing drives real policy wins and shifts power in ways that endure far beyond a single election cycle.
