Programs Overview
The Andrew Goodman Foundation’s mission is to make young voices and votes a powerful force in democracy by training young leaders, engaging low-propensity voters, and challenging restrictive voter suppression laws. The organization is named after Andrew Goodman, a Freedom Summer volunteer and champion of equality and voting rights who was murdered by the KKK in 1964 at 20 years old while registering African Americans to vote in Mississippi.
Vote Everywhere
The Foundation’s Vote Everywhere program partners with America’s colleges and universities to provide resources, visibility, and mentoring to a national network of student leaders who involve their peers in participatory democracy through long-term voter engagement, public policy, and social justice initiatives. The program provides extensive training, resources, as well as a peer network to support its Ambassadors while they work to register voters, bring down voting barriers, and tackle important social justice issues on their college campuses.
Puffin Democracy Fellowship
The Puffin Democracy Fellowship, the Foundation’s multi-year fellowship, is available to several exceptional leaders who are passionate about organizing, public policy, and expanding political equity for youth voters. The Puffin Democracy Fellows program is a two-year fellowship available to exceptional emerging leaders from around the country. Our Puffin Fellows have experience with and a passion for organizing and public policy, as well as a desire to work on expanding political and social equity in the United States, especially around modern civil rights issues. The Fellows’ work focuses on crafting an actionable advocacy project on the local, state, regional, and/or national level around civic policy issues in areas of votings rights, civil rights, and/or social justice.
National Civic Leadership Training Summit
The annual National Civic Leadership Training Summit (NCLTS) is the Foundation’s annual convening of Vote Everywhere team members. Over several days of intensive training, young leaders are provided with the strategies and tools they need to become influential voices in today’s democracy. The NCLTS empowers young voters to become advocates for civic engagement. Every year, we bring together Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere Ambassadors to learn about the fundamentals of impact-oriented campus organizing and voter engagement.