Our future, and that of Silicon Valley’s, will be determined by our community’s voter turnout in 2020. The quality of our schools, affordability of our housing, abundance of our open spaces, and so much more depends civic participation in the year ahead. Yet, report after report has shown that youth, people of color and lower-income individuals face significant barriers to voting and other forms of civic engagement. Fortunately, Silicon Valley has many organizations working within and on behalf of underrepresented communities to ensure that all voices have a role in shaping our future.

SVCF has partnered with Magnify Community to highlight some of the leading organizations strengthening civic participation in Silicon Valley. The nine organizations listed below have significant track records of success, and all have played leadership roles in ongoing efforts to strengthen local democracy. They serve an incredibly diverse set of communities and are constantly finding new ways to amplify their impact.

  • Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus Asian Americans Advancing Justice -Asian Law Caucus (ALC) combines grassroots community engagement, legislation, and litigation to close California's deep and persistent voter participation gaps to ensure the voices of Asian Americans, Latino, and all immigrant and limited-English speaking voters are heard.
  • Californians for Justice Californians for Justice empowers youth of color to push for racial justice and transform schools into places where all students have the opportunity and support needed to succeed in college, career, and life. Californians for Justice works statewide, and has trained hundreds of youth from San Jose to be community leaders and organizers, and transform school policies.
  • Faith in Action Bay Area Develops sustainable grassroots leadership, promotes civic engagement, and bridges communities across differences of class, race and language, in order to confront power and change systems.
  • People Acting in Community Together A multi-faith, grassroots organization that provides leadership training and experience to community members of many different ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Read the full list of organizations strengthening civic participation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.