A generation Utah couldn't afford to leave out.
Political tension was rising and trust in institutions was falling, but the systems built to bring young Utahns into civic life hadn't kept up. Gen Z wanted in. We built the door.
Utah is the youngest state in the country. Its youngest voters were the least reached.
Gen Z made up a growing share of the electorate, but almost no one was knocking on their doors, calling their phones, or showing up where they already were. Civic education stopped short of the parts that mattered most: how local power actually works, who holds it, and how to influence it. Ignite Utah started as a bet that if you met young Utahns with real information and a real ask, they would show up. They did.
Door by door, call by call, we turned that bet into a track record.
Before 2026, our work was ground-level: get young Utahns registered, informed, and turning out.
Starting in January, we stopped running as a project and started building an institution.
Everything before this year proved the need was real. This year, we built the foundation to meet it for the long term.
We incorporated
We recruited a board of directors
We secured our first major grants
New support from the Alliance for Youth Action and the Park City Community Foundation.
We built a new identity
A new brand identity, a messaging guide, and a social manifesto.
We grew our digital presence
2,500 Instagram followers and tens of thousands of views across social media platforms.
Voices of the Next Majority
Our largest statewide Gen Z event to date: a congressional candidate panel for Utah's new First District, held ahead of the primary at Salt Lake Community College.
The foundation is built. Now we scale it.
This year gave us the structure to meet young Utahns at that scale, statewide, election after election.