Since IGNITE’s founding, we have inspired and empowered the next generation of women* to become civic and political leaders. For 15 years, as our organization evolved, we’ve provided an unwavering commitment to their growth, voice, and power. In our first year (2009–2010), with $29,206 in funding from a small number of forward-thinking philanthropists who recognized the potential of our vision, IGNITE developed and piloted what has become our signature high school and college curricula in the Bay Area, California. Building upon the success of this pilot, we have expanded exponentially to become the largest and most diverse political organization dedicated to activating and training young women and gender-expansive youth across the United States of America.
Our scale-up has been strategic, ensuring that we maintain high-quality programming every step of the way. We worked not only to reach more young women where they are, but to ensure they received deeper, more comprehensive support—expanding beyond traditional political training to include advocacy, community-building, research, and more. We also continually use feedback from our participants to shape our programs as we respond to the ever-evolving cultural and political environment.
Our growth and results are the clearest testament to our success.
Dr. Anne Moses founded IGNITE with a passion for social justice and a clear understanding that achieving gender parity in political leadership begins early, by socializing young women to believe that they can and should lead. Her vision was both bold and practical, to center young people, especially those closest to community challenges, in shaping policy solutions, and to build a pipeline of young women prepared and motivated to become the next generation of political leaders. So far, we’ve celebrated the wins of 120 alumnae who have won elections in their schools, in their communities, and at the state level.
Initially, IGNITE focused on campuses, providing young women in high school and college with resources and support to become civically engaged. As we expanded our programming, we identified an opportunity to create a new pathway for passionate leaders to hone and practice their skills while helping us mobilize nationally. In 2016, we launched the Dr. Anne Moses Fellowship program, empowering deeply engaged young women to flex their leadership by organizing their peers. Our fellows serve as frontline leaders in our movement, activating entire communities of young people to become civic and political powerhouses on campuses and in communities across the nation.
Reaching young women in middle school, high school, and college is a key first step to building a pipeline of future women political leaders. By age 14, young women have the potential to hold officials accountable and to shape policies that affect them and their communities. We offer participants skills building opportunities, normalize their political participation, foster dialogues around identities, and empower them to lead through their lived experiences.
After piloting our curricula in three Bay Area schools, IGNITE launched our first program in Texas in 2011 with seed funding from the Boone Family Foundation. In 2014, we expanded to Colorado. Since then, we've scaled programming across 44 states.
Our programs provide young women with a foundation of knowledge and skills to become politically aware and civically engaged. Our campus programs also provide young women a network of peers with whom they feel safe sharing their ideas and aspirations as they learn to navigate political systems and influence legislation together.
Every IGNITE high school and college chapter is student-led, allowing us to invest in politically motivated young women seeking community, while enabling them to adapt our model to the unique needs of their campuses. IGNITE provides toolkits that help students organize chapter, school, and community events. We also facilitate workshops and networking opportunities—virtual and in-person—for young women to learn more about political processes, advocacy, candidacy, and board and commission seats, and to develop the skills they need to successfully lead—now and in the future.
The “now” is especially noteworthy. While we are fostering a pipeline of women to bring us to the gender parity envisioned at our founding, these young women are already changing the world in meaningful ways. They are identifying issues that affect their communities, developing thoughtful solutions, and bravely championing the change they want to see. They are not waiting for legislators and decision-makers to solve their problems; they are harnessing their passion and power to create real and lasting change for themselves and future generations.
The Dr. Anne Moses Fellowship program is an essential part of IGNITE programming. Each year, we engage a new cohort of enthusiastic and energetic young women with political ambition, organizing skills, and a desire to build the next generation of political leaders. These changemakers gain access to IGNITE resources, training, and networks—which they leverage to support activities on college campuses and in communities across the country. Fellows serve as ambassadors for the organization, amplifying our mission and vision and exemplifying the passion and power we promote in political spaces. Since the founding of the fellowship program, IGNITE has engaged 160 fellows across 26 states.
At IGNITE, we believe that young women can solve social problems that affect their communities. They bring personal experiences that inspire them to make a difference and the skills to champion effective change. This is why our approach to civic learning extends far beyond the classroom. IGNITE supports participants in researching local and statewide legislation, building broad coalitions, advocating for important policy changes affecting them and their families, and leveraging their experience to educate and engage their peers.
In the spring of 2022, IGNITE launched Activate Your Advocacy Bootcamp, a virtual program for young women interested in becoming community changemakers. The bootcamp is a six-week training program focused on writing policies, navigating the legislative process, advocating for policy change, and implementing and evaluating campaigns. In addition to learning about the legislative process, IGNITE mentors participants and helps them apply for internships with legislators. Through the mentoring and internship placement component, these young women gain invaluable experience to help them launch their careers in public policy. IGNITE has facilitated eight Activate Your Advocacy Bootcamps to date. Nearly 500 young women from across 48 states have completed these bootcamps. We’ve also helped 25 bootcamp alumnae find internships in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Our IGNITE the Capitol series gives young women in high school and college opportunities to advocate for issues that matter to them with the lawmakers who have the power to enact change. We gather hundreds of young women at their state capitols and in Washington, DC, and train them on legislative processes and advocacy strategies. Then they meet with legislators and staffers to their share stories and perspectives on the policies that affect their lives. These advocacy days serve as accessible and deeply impactful opportunities for young women to shape legislative agendas and influence policy decisions affecting their communities and beyond.
Since 2014, IGNITE has organized 34 IGNITE the Capitol events. An estimated 1,300 young women have gathered at statehouses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington; at the capitol building in Washington, DC; and virtually in Florida and Tennessee.
“Lobbying at the Capitol was simultaneously one of the hardest and most freeing things I have ever done. As a female who has experienced sexual assault firsthand on campus, showing up to talk to my legislators about why they should support Colorado Senate Bill 7 took a lot of courage but also changed the way I view politics and my role in the political system. For the first time since my assault, I felt I truly had the power to help push along systematic change to end violence against women.” A participant who wished to remain anonymous shared these sentiments after attending our IGNITE the Capitol in Denver in March of 2019. She and her peers were rewarded for their efforts, as the Colorado General Assembly signed SB 19-007: Prevent Sexual Misconduct At Higher Education Campuses into law in May of 2019.
Sriya Srinivasan, a high school student attended her first IGNITE the Capitol in Sacramento in 2023, where she was inspired to advocate for better menstrual health support in schools. “I saw lawmakers sit up in their seats as I spoke and they connected the dots. I didn’t know how the legislature worked; I was just passionate about politics. I learned so much.” Sriya then partnered with IGNITE, menstrual advocates, and legislators to successfully lobby for menstrual health education at IGNITE the Capitol 2024. Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 229, the “Know Your Period Act”, into law later that year. Sriya is now studying political science and government at Solano Community College and continuing to advocate for inclusive policies and programs for girls and women at the college and across the state.
We know that policy decisions at all levels affect individuals and communities locally. Too often, legislators who are far removed from the consequences of their policies make these decisions. When decision-makers are disconnected from local problems, their policies fail, community issues remain or worsen, and trust in the system collapses.
We believe that the most effective approach to address this challenge is to amplify the voices of those most affected by such policies. We do this by training and mobilizing young women to become confident advocates, to serve as effective representatives for their communities, and to hold their elected officials accountable for meeting the needs of their constituencies.
With our participants, IGNITE has co-sponsored or supported more than 150 legislative bills at the federal and state levels. To date, lawmakers have passed 35 of these bills (2 federal and 33 state bills) and defeated 2 state bills that we opposed. IGNITE’s advocacy has led to policy change in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, and has advanced issues that matter particularly to women and gender-expansive people—menstrual equity, access to reproductive healthcare, childcare funds for candidates, fair pay and pricing, and protections against gender-based violence, discrimination, and harassment. We have also successfully supported legislation that expands civic education and participation, equipping young women to shape and lead more equitable communities.
Our policy success looks like:
Voter education has always been a core component of our work. IGNITE views voting as an on-ramp to civic activation—a tangible way to be heard and to create change. Our programs emphasize the importance of voting, understanding the ballot, demystifying the election process, and making a concrete plan to vote.
In 2011, we began focused voter registration efforts. In 2018, IGNITE partnered with Cosmopolitan and designer Rebecca Minkoff for the “Vote Twice” campaign, which aimed to raise awareness about voting in both primary and general elections. The following year, we launched IGNITE the Vote, a national initiative to boost voter registration and participation among young women. We have continued to implement and expand this campaign during every election cycle since.
For each IGNITE the Vote campaign, we couple organization-led digital promotion with a youth-led outreach initiative. Our digital approach combines email, text message, and social media campaigns with online educational resources, such as factsheets and messaging guides. IGNITE the Vote ambassadors complement and amplify our messaging, bringing the campaign to their friends, family, and communities. These youth receive tools, training, guidance, and other support from IGNITE, but they are empowered to be creative. While we provide guidance around the themes and cadences for social media, ambassadors create their own content before posting on their personal channels. IGNITE the Vote ambassadors also organize in-person events to help prepare their communities for the election—from voter registration drives, to ballot education sessions, to viewing parties for debates.
Passionate about the power of voting, Christina Williams founded the Clark Atlanta University Votes Initiative, a coalition of student organizations working to increase voter education and turnout on campus. After attending a local IGNITE event, Christina was inspired to become an IGNITE the Vote Ambassador in 2020. “Voting is a fundamental right that should be easily accessible to all Americans. Yet, in Georgia, (and across the country) the process of voting is becoming more and more challenging and confusing. I believe that making changes to many of the other issues that I care about starts with voting.” Christina launched an IGNITE college chapter at her university the following semester while serving as a Voter Protection Fellow with Fair Fight Action and later served as our 2021–2022 Atlanta fellow and then 2022–2023 Boston fellow. She has since earned a law degree from Harvard, where she served as a legal intern for a variety of organizations, including All Voting is Legal. Christina now works as a post-conviction litigation fellow with the Innocence Project.
Early in our journey, IGNITE recognized that for young women to fully own their power, we had to change how society views women—especially young women—in political leadership.
In 2016, IGNITE partnered with the advertising agency Pereira O’Dell and Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls to produce We All Belong Here, a powerful video affirming that every girl has a place in politics. With support from influential women like Kristen Bell and then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the video reached more than one million viewers and sparked a national conversation about representation and belonging.
Building on that momentum, in 2017, IGNITE and Pereira O’Dell created Writing Our Rights, a workbook that teaches handwriting using the words of 10 trailblazing women in history—helping girls develop their penmanship and their sense of political possibility. The workbook earned international recognition, winning three prestigious awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, including Gold in Publications and Editorial Design and Bronze in Design for Nonprofit Brand Identity.
In 2023, IGNITE took this work even further by launching No Master’s Class in partnership with creative agency Le Truc. A play on the popular MasterClass series, the campaign reminds young women that they don’t have to be famous to be powerful changemakers. Every day, ordinary people are modeling extraordinary leadership—teaching the next generation that lived experience and local action can drive real, systemic change.
To complement this work, we prioritize putting young women’s voices front and center of policy discourse. Over the last five years, we’ve helped 30 young women successfully place op-eds in key media markets.
Our culture-shifting work is informed and strengthened by data. Over the years, IGNITE has partnered with leading research academics and institutions to examine what drives and deters young women’s political engagement. Studies conducted with Sago Strategy + Insight and CIRCLE at Tufts University have deepened national understanding of how Gen Z women are redefining civic leadership. These findings underscore what we see every day—that young women are rejecting outdated models of power and are ready to lead in ways that are transparent, collaborative, and values-driven.
Together, our campaigns and research are shifting the narrative around who belongs in power—redefining what leadership looks like, sounds like, and feels like for generations to come.
What started as a clear commitment to bringing millennial women into power has evolved into meeting Gen Z women where they are, activating their leadership on their own terms. Now, looking ahead, we are committed to meeting the moment by equipping Gen Alpha, the newest generation of changemakers, with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to transform their communities.
Our learnings from the past 15 years directly informed our new strategic plan. We understand that young people today engage in civics and politics differently than previous generations. Previous generations typically engaged in traditional, institutional ways—volunteering for campaigns, attending town halls, and advocating for individual issues at the ballot box and beyond. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are digitally fluent, highly informed, and passionate about a variety of intersectional issues that affect them personally. They are organizing on social media and beyond. And, they are demanding urgent, comprehensive solutions, rather than piecemeal policies that offer incremental change at best.
Young people today seek meaningful opportunities to connect, learn, and act. They are frustrated with the polarization of the current political environment and they are looking for safe spaces where they can share their problems and perspectives, ideas and aspirations, and be heard without judgment rather than dismissed.
This is why our approach to civic engagement and empowerment, on campuses and in communities, has been so successful, and why we will continue leaning into peer-led programming and conducting research to inform our priorities. This is also why our new strategic framework centers those closest to the problems and ensures they have the power to solve them. We will continue to provide resources and mentorship opportunities, but we will lean even more on this new generation to guide priorities, co-create solutions, and drive impact. We believe this intentionally collaborative investment in these generations will lead to a truly diverse democracy.
By investing in Gen Z today and Gen Alpha tomorrow, IGNITE is not only preparing the future of our nation’s leadership, we are shaping that leadership. We are equipping young women to redefine what power looks like, build more equitable systems, and lay the foundation for a more just and inclusive future.
We are challenging ourselves and our participants to be bold. We envision IGNITE alumnae continuing to claim space in community leadership roles, to run and win at the state level, and, in the years ahead, to serve in Congress. The young women we engage today are creating real and lasting change, addressing the very issues that have long polarized and paralyzed our current leadership.
We are profoundly grateful to each and every supporter who saw the potential of our mission and invested in our movement. Each story shared and all of the remarkable achievements of our participants were made possible by your generosity and your commitment to young women leaders. Every contribution, no matter the size, played a role in enabling us to build this diverse movement of young women ready and eager to own their political power. We are deeply appreciative to the more than 3,000 individuals, foundations, and corporations who have become our partners in progress over the past 15 years, investing more than $25 million in our programs to date.
We are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished so far. As we look to the future, we invite you to continue this journey with us. Your transformational investments are needed now more than ever. Join us as we persist in a new mission: to unleash the political power in young women by developing their political influence and ability to navigate systems so they can transform the policies that affect their lives. Together, we can ensure that those closest to the most pressing problems in our society have the power to solve them. Please consider contributing to our next 15 years as we work to meet this critical moment with strength and purpose. Make a donation today and be a part of our story tomorrow.
