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Getting Started: The First 15 Years of Growth
Where Are We Now?
Where Do We Go From Here
Key Elements of the New Growth Strategy
KVUSA's Future in 2016
Getting Started: The First 15 Years of Growth
In 1991 the founders of Kids Voting knew they had a promising idea and decided to share it with the rest of the nation. Their vision was to make Kids Voting a universal experience for every student in Kindergarten through high school in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Executives of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation shared the founders’ enthusiasm and agreed to underwrite a new national organization and its initial efforts to grow.
The new organization, Kids Voting USA (KVUSA), served a number of vital functions. It defined important core values such as nonpartisanship, established the essential elements of the KVUSA program including an authentic voting experience, built the brand, created education materials, and, most important, grew the organization.
Throughout the 1990’s the strategic imperative was to establish a KVUSA affiliate in every state, which, in turn, would license and service smaller community-based sub-affiliates. A sub-affiliate was typically organized as a grassroots initiative of a particular community. It worked with schools and elections officials, raised funds, recruited and trained volunteers and engaged in other related activities to sustain the KVUSA program locally.
Where Are We Now?
The original strategy has succeeded in North Carolina, Minnesota and Kansas, where state affiliates have achieved consistent growth by building networks of community-based affiliates. It has also succeeded in a few states where a single affiliate serves an entire state – most notably Arizona, Hawaii, Missouri and South Dakota. Lastly, the strategy has evolved in Ohio, Florida and Nevada in the form of strong, city-focused affiliates, which operate without the help of a state-wide affiliate. These successes clearly demonstrate that KVUSA’s original expansion strategy can work well in certain circumstances.
The strategy also has some serious shortcomings:
- the establishment of affiliates and sub-affiliates has been more opportunistic than strategic;
- practices and impact have varied widely across the affiliate network;
- one third of affiliates/sub-affiliates have failed in the first four years; and
- a licensed affiliate/sub-affiliate has not worked for most large metropolitan areas, where there has been a disproportionately high failure rate.
Inadequate funding is a common denominator for the majority of affiliates/sub-affiliates. This chronic condition has certainly contributed to the shortcomings listed above. However, funding issues, per se, are not an intrinsic flaw of the expansion approach; rather they seem to reflect a general bias toward setting expectations too low for the cost of delivering a high quality, sustainable program.
Where Do We Go From Here?
In 2003, New Profit Inc. and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation launched a joint venture to support KVUSA in strengthening its network of affiliates, expanding to critical new markets, and growing new capacities to increase impact and create policy change. With support from New Profit Inc. and Monitor Group, KVUSA has developed a long-term, comprehensive growth strategy that addresses the challenges of growing the organization effectively in metropolitan areas that have the most potential to benefit from its high-impact innovation in civic learning.
Key Elements of the New Growth Strategy
The new growth strategy is intended to help KVUSA realize a vision that is both critical and daunting: one day all citizens will be educated, engaged voters.
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Guiding Principle |
Strategic growth will increase the number of students served while also achieving sustainable impact and influencing systemic change. |
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Program Model |
The main civic learning focus will continue to be on voting and elections with a variety of other year-round civic learning opportunities. A more structured relationship between KVUSA and schools will better support classroom implementation. |
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Major Market Focus |
Major market sites are targeted for expansion based on size, diversity and voter turnout of 18-24-year-olds. |
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Organization |
An expanded, more complex national organization will manage owned-and-operated major market sites. |
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Site Development |
The start up of major market sites will be strategic and take place in phases. The idea is to launch fewer but larger sites that are sustainable over the long term. |
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Growth Capital |
At the national level, organizational capacity must be increased to manage a larger affiliate network and to fund the major market site development process. Resources also are needed to launch major market sites. |
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Revenue Model |
The new structure is designed to leverage funding opportunities for major market sites and the national organization. It also increases the appeal of Kids Voting USA for corporate sponsors. |
KVUSA's Future in 2016
By 2016, KVUSA wants to create a future where:
- The number of 18-24-year-olds who register and vote has doubled – through KVUSA programming and policy impact. Also more young people are running for office at their first eligibility.
- There is a KVUSA affiliate in all top-10 markets.
* KVUSA plays a bigger role in the inner city.
* The KVUSA program has engaged the immigrant population in all parts of the country.
- KVUSA is reaching nearly half of all K-12 students in the U.S.
* 20 million students participate annually in a wide range of meaningful civic learning activities.
* KVUSA participants are voting in every election (not just Federal), even in some primaries.
- KVUSA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
- Civic education is once again an integral aspect of elementary and secondary education with educators and administrators committed to preparing young people for college, work and life-long citizenship.
- KVUSA is a leading developer of civic learning programs and known as an authoritative source by media and elected officials.
- Corporate America seeks KVUSA as a partner because of the importance of its mission, its demonstrated social impact and its balance of large, medium and small markets throughout the country.
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