who we are
We believe democracy is a verb, donuts are magic, and young people can change the world if we invest in them today.
At the University of PA in 2024 - after 7 hours of tabling with donuts, we tapped out all three Dunkin Donuts and had to give cookies and candy.
A mom and her Gen Z daughter decided to toss out the old playbook after watching traditional voter engagement strategies - TV ads, canvassing, phone-banking, postcards, clipboards - fail with young voters year after year. In October 2024, they launched Donuts + Democracy with no website, no social media and no money. What they did have was a simple plan: show up with donuts where young people are and have real conversations about voting. It worked. Over the next five weeks, they hosted over 200 GOTV events with student organizers on 75+ campuses in 21 states.
Today, they have built a nationwide network of youth organizers and partnerships across colleges, communities, and high schools that continues to grow every day. With their tiny, but mighty team, they have hosted over 750+ campus and community young voter engagement events in 30 states on 180 college and high school campuses, reaching over 150,000 young people. Recently, they launched their inter-generational, one-of-a-kind mobile voter registration Donut Wagon program to provide opportunities to volunteers over 30 to engage young voters.