In today’s political climate, the role of colleges and universities in fostering civic engagement is more crucial than ever. With National Voter Registration Day (September 17, 2024) and the 2024 presidential election quickly approaching, campuses are uniquely positioned to serve as trusted sources of voter information. By offering non-partisan, accurate resources and creating engaging programs, campuses can inspire students to participate in the democratic process. This blog explores strategies shared by our partners on how campuses can support voter engagement— from gamifying civic activities to leveraging peer networks and ensuring that election information is clear, credible, and accessible.
Supporting Voter Engagement on Campus
-
Reputable Sources Matter
Our partners at TurboVote shared that “More than 85% of Americans said that it is important for election information to be easy to understand, come from a credible and reliable source, and be up to date. Another 81% said information was trustworthy when it was relevant to their local community. That's where campuses can come in. You have a unique relationship with your students. More often than not, they're going to trust their institutions as a source of information. So when a trusted source like yours amplifies credible, nonpartisan election information, keep in mind that students are going to be more likely to listen.” - Anjelica, Democracy Works.
-
Vetted Content
Election information is extremely sensitive content, and simple details being miscommunicated can have significant impacts. When it comes to students, they may not know where to look, but they are frequently on your website. By adding vetted, accurate, and non-partisan voter and election information, you are providing students with access to accurate and reliable information they can read through and even share with their peers. Your website is a great place to add any voter engagement information, campus offerings related to civic engagement, voter registration events, and more.
-
Gamify Civic Engagement
When talking to our partners at Motivote, their number one tip for student-centered civic engagement was to gamify the experience. They shared with us that “competitions work best when they tap into existing communities, even rivalries.” Consider voter registration competitions between residence halls, Greek Orgs, class cohorts, local universities, etc., to get students excited about democracy! “Begin to think about how you can help participants understand their progress. This could be through leaderboards, trackers, or other rankings because people are much more likely to be invested in your competition if they can see where they stand.” - Jess Riegel, Motivote.
Pro tip: GivePulse comes equipped with features supporting the gamification of service and engagement on campus. Try out some of our most popular features like Leaderboards, Points, and Pledge events!
The Civic Action Scorecard was developed by iCED at Miami Dade College as a way to support students' community engagement activities, gamify the experience, and support various types of engagement across five different categories ranging from “Democratic Engagement” to “Arts & Culture.” As students complete activities related to the various civic actions, they receive points that can be redeemed for a reward or prize from the institution. The CAS is a great tool not only to support civic engagement on campus during this election cycle but also as a way to continuously keep students engaged on campus and in your community.
-
Staying Non-Partisan
As you look to support your campus community, staying non-partisan is key. In a time where even registering to vote is highly politicized, it is important to share accurate and vetted information, including reputable sources. As mentioned above, students look to your institution as a source of information. Our partners suggest that you be diligent, do your research, and only share reputable information that doesn’t show favor for either side—our partners at Guides.Vote create informative guides in English and Spanish and are vetted by C3 nonprofit lawyers to ensure that the language is nonpartisan and impartial while providing the facts. The guides are also intentionally easy to read and digest, with sections one to two sentences long, allowing students, faculty, staff, community members, and more to go in with as much depth as they need.
-
Working Across Disciplines
Oftentimes, voter engagement programs and initiatives are happening in different pockets across campus. There may be student groups working on tabling and voter registration, departments sharing voter education resources, or nonprofits looking to come to campus to support civic engagement. Claire Adams from Guides.Vote shared, “I would encourage everyone to think across disciplines. Where are your science people? Where are your geography people? Voting isn't just for humanities and social sciences.” When looking to engage your full student body and campus community, it is important, as Jess mentioned, to think beyond this election cycle and “about the goal of institutionalizing your civic engagement initiative, I would suggest you write things down and have notes and contacts in a place that is easy to pass down when its time for the next leaders to take on.”
-
Engaging ALL Students
When thinking about voter engagement and civic engagement on campus, Stephanie King, ALL IN, shared that it’s critical to address and “consider your whole student body population. There might not just be international students, but there might be those that qualify as DACA or undocumented, or those that have a felony conviction, or those that are pre-registered.” Thinking about engaging all students in the conversation and holding “conversations across differences, and supporting students in understanding the political landscape in the U.S. or in their home countries.” Begin thinking about ways that you can support these students in participating in civic engagement if they cannot do so themselves through “participating in debate watch parties, taking part in things like tabling, working the polls (depending upon the county and state), academic classes, etc. Ultimately, there are a plethora of ways to engage all persons in the democratic process, even if it’s not by proxy of casting a ballot in any election.” - Stephanie King, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
Celebrating students for completing “micro-milestones,” such as checking their registration status, adding election day to their calendar, accessing accurate non-partisan voter information, etc., encourages students to continue being involved in the process. Consider setting point values for each milestone that students can redeem for things like swag, dining dollars, or bookstore credit. When talking to our partners at Motivote, they shared that they would “also recommend thinking about how you might leverage group-based rewards because that's another great way to promote the positive peer pressure and encourage students to help make sure their peers are getting all these steps done. So, an idea we've seen that we really like is unlocking a reward when 25% of your group makes a voting plan and then another reward at 50% participation.”
-
Campus Branding
Consider developing cohesive campus branding around your voter engagement initiatives. Let students know this is a campus-wide initiative and that all are invited to participate. Cohesive branding also helps you stand out from the noise and lets your students know you are providing trusted and valuable information relevant to them, Jess from Motivote shared, “and this is really great for being able to unify your cross-campus efforts and making it really easy to promote.” This may be the first time students are able to participate in an election, and knowing resources are available to them on campus takes a load off their plate.
-
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
One of the most powerful tools you have as a campus community is P2P outreach. Information is valuable when it is shared organically between peers, friends, classmates, etc. “Given what we know about social norming and about peers being the best messengers to each other, you might think about incentivizing outreach through a voting captain or ambassador model.” - Jess Riegel, Motivote
-
Civic Holidays
Take advantage of Civic Holidays leading up to November 4, 2024. CivicHolidays.org has information, toolkits, communication plans, and more that your institution (and community partners) can use to support civic engagement, voter registration, and voter turnout.
Interested in learning more? Watch the full webinar here on demand.
About GivePulse
GivePulse's mission is to enable everyone in the world to participate and engage in lifting their community to new heights. We do so by providing a platform to list, find, organize, and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and volunteerism.
Founded in 2012 in Austin, Texas, GivePulse works with 650,000+ groups, including colleges and universities, nonprofits, businesses, K-12/school districts, and cities and municipalities. Together, we connect millions of people in a,n effort to create positive social change.
Are you looking to learn more? Schedule a demo here, and start making a difference today by visiting www.givepulse.com.