Empowering the Fastest-Growing U.S. Electorate: Asian Fraternities and Sororities Shaping Civic Power
New York, NY—NAPA partners with Dare to Change Consulting to share insights from a recent voter engagement survey and provide an action plan for improving voter engagement among Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) membership.
Greek life emerges as a rising force in AAPI political mobilization
In partnership with Dare to Change Consulting, NAPA leadership launched the NAPA Voter Engagement Survey to assess the political attitudes and policy priorities of NAPA-affiliated individuals during the 2024 US Presidential Election cycle. Conducted across 18 member organizations, the survey collected insights from 245 respondents between September 2024 and November 2024.
The priorities of NAPA-affiliated voters reflect a deeply nuanced, issue-driven political consciousness, balancing economic stability, social justice, public safety, healthcare access, and policies that impact the long-term well-being of AAPI communities. These voters are highly engaged with issues that shape their daily lives, including financial security, racial equity, immigration rights, and education access, demonstrating a broad and intersectional approach to civic engagement.
“The insights in this report are designed to equip advocacy organizations, policymakers, community leaders, and Greek life networks with the tools they need to activate this crucial voter base,” says NAPA Director of Research Zaria St. Lawrence. “By harnessing the collective power of NAPA-affiliated individuals, we have the potential to build an engaged, informed, and mobilized electorate that will shape the future of AAPI political influence for generations to come.”
A modern approach to civic engagement for a new generation of voters
NAPA’s new civic engagement toolkit—a voter engagement survey, policy blueprint, and action plan—equips fraternity/sorority leaders with actionable strategies to institutionalize civic power within their chapters. The toolkit grounds advocacy in data, shapes narrative through lived experience, proposes actionable solutions, and embeds those solutions into institutional systems, ensuring that Asian Greek life moves from the margins of democracy to the center of its transformation.
- NAPA Voter Engagement Survey Results: reveals both progress and persistent barriers in AAPI civic participation; while voter registration rates are high, systemic obstacles—including language inaccessibility, voter suppression, and lack of political representation—continue to suppress turnout and limit long-term civic engagement.
- AAGLO Action Plan: provides a structured, long-term framework to integrate civic engagement, policy education, and leadership development into every AAGLO chapter, ensuring that voter participation and advocacy become core pillars of Greek life.
- Policy Blueprint: outlines strategies to enhance the political power of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities as an electorate.
The toolkit resource aims to educate the broader community on examining the civic engagement gap in APIDA communities and the role of Greek-letter organizations in closing it; exploring scalable models for integrating voter registration, policy advocacy, and leadership pipelines into Greek life (e.g., Civic Engagement Chairs, voter drives, lobbying days); and showcasing success stories of AAGLOs mobilizing their networks for voter turnout, language access initiatives, and AAPI political representation.
Why AAPI voter turnout could be decided on college campuses
APIDA voters represent one of the fastest-growing electorate bases, yet they face systemic barriers like language access, voter suppression, and political underrepresentation. AAGLOs are uniquely positioned to transform civic engagement within their communities. NAPA’s research reveals how Asian fraternities and sororities may hold the key to unlocking unprecedented AAPI political power across colleges and universities.
AAGLOs can boost AAPI voter turnout by institutionalizing civic engagement through chapter leadership roles, mandatory voter registration during new member intake, and campus-specific voter drives. Their tight-knit networks enable peer-to-peer mobilization to overcome language barriers and voter suppression tactics targeting students. By embedding political advocacy into Greek life traditions, AAGLOs transform social organizations into powerful turnout machines for the fastest-growing U.S. electorate.
“The contributions of AAPI leaders remain overlooked in mainstream narratives—a reality that mirrors the broader challenges of political invisibility and systemic exclusion,” says Dare to Change Consulting Founder Clifford Robin Temprosa Li. “Today, NAPA-affiliated fraternities and sororities have a unique opportunity to reclaim this history, harnessing their collective power to drive civic engagement, social change, and policy advocacy.”
Leaders and advisors of NAPA member organizations are encouraged to download toolkit assets and share them broadly with the chapters, students, and alumni they serve. NAPA Speakers Bureau subject matter experts and Dare to Change Consulting staff are also available to provide presentations upon request to explain toolkit assets in greater detail.
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About NAPA
NAPA organizations set the gold standard for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) fraternities and sororities. NAPA unites APIDA-affiliated Greek-letter organizations, advancing excellence and growth.
NAPA Contact
Zaria St. Lawrence, Director of Research
research@napa-online.org
https://www.napahq.org/
About Dare to Change Consulting
Dare to Change Consulting specializes in culturally responsive strategies and solutions for elevating unapologetic impact for the Asian community and diaspora. The Asian-owned and managed firm believes that to build power for the diaspora, the most effective results are delivered by people of the diaspora.
Dare to Change Consulting Contact
Clifford Robin Temprosa Li, Founder and Managing Consultant
clifford@wedaretochange.com
https://www.wedaretochange.com