CIRCLE

What CIRCLE does

CIRCLE (Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) is a nonpartisan research center housed at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life in Medford, Massachusetts, founded in the early 2000s. The organization focuses exclusively on studying youth civic learning and engagement in the United States, producing longitudinal research on youth voting patterns, civic education effectiveness, and barriers to political participation. Its served constituencies span K-12 and higher education institutions, policymakers and election officials, youth-serving nonprofits, journalists, and philanthropic funders, with no commercial customer relationships.

CIRCLE's core outputs are four: (1) the Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI), a data-driven ranking of U.S. Senate, House, and gubernatorial races where young voters have the highest potential to influence outcomes, built on demographic indicators, past voter participation, policy factors, and electoral competitiveness; (2) the CIRCLE Growing Voters (CGV) framework, a three-pronged analytical model that measures civic ecosystem conditions across access, support, and culture using a 13-point scale; (3) the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which provides colleges and universities with student voter registration and turnout data for institutional benchmarking; and (4) interactive data visualization tools exploring youth voting patterns by demographics, geography, and election cycle. The center has produced dedicated election coverage for the 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2026 cycles.

CIRCLE operates as a nonprofit research entity within Tufts University with 1–10 employees and no commercial revenue model. All research, data tools, and publications are distributed free of charge via circle.tufts.edu, supplemented by email newsletters, social media (Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn), conference participation, and recurring citations in major media outlets. Funding is derived from Tufts University support and external research grants, with Carnegie Corporation of New York identified as a core funder; other named partners include When We All Vote, Protect Democracy, Rural Youth Catalyst, Campus Compact, Generation Vote, the Opportunity Youth Forum, the New Voters Collaborative, and the Youth Engagement Fund.

Name

CIRCLE

Legal name

Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)

Website

https://circle.tufts.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CIRCLE is a nonpartisan research center at Tufts University's Tisch College that studies U.S. youth civic engagement, producing longitudinal voting data, the Youth Electoral Significance Index, the CIRCLE Growing Voters framework, and the NSLVE campus study for educators, policymakers, nonprofits, journalists, and funders.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Engagement Research and Youth Voting Data

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Educational Support Services (611710), Civic and Social Organizations (813410)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy (BPAGAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Social Studies & Civics Instruction (School-Delivered) (EDAJAFAI)

Keywords

• Civic engagement research
• Youth voting analysis
• Electoral data tools
• Civic education research
• Nonpartisan policy research

Headquarters

HQ city

Medford

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CIRCLE is a nonpartisan academic research center at Tufts University that produces research, data tools, and frameworks on youth civic learning and engagement in the United States. It provides free access to longitudinal election data, the Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI), the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) for colleges, the CIRCLE Growing Voters framework, and interactive data exploration tools to inform educators, policymakers, nonprofits, media, and funders.

Product overview

CIRCLE (Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) is an academic research center at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life that focuses exclusively on research and analysis of youth civic engagement in the United States. CIRCLE does not offer a commercial product portfolio; instead, it provides research services, data tools, and frameworks including the Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI), CIRCLE Growing Voters Framework, National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), and various data visualization tools for exploring youth voting and civic engagement data.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI): A data-driven ranking tool that identifies U.S. Senate, House, and Governor races where young voters have the highest potential to influence election outcomes.
• CIRCLE Growing Voters Framework
• NSLVE (National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement)

Products and services

• Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI)
• CIRCLE Growing Voters Framework
• National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE)
• Youth Voting and Civic Engagement Data Exploration Tool

Quantifiable outcome

• For every 1-point increase in CGV score, youth are 8% more likely to vote
• +2 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• When We All VotecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 January 2026CIRCLE partners with When We All Vote, Michelle Obama's civic initiative, to conduct major youth surveys including the 2026 Youth Poll. Fielded January 26 to February 12, 2026, the survey captured opinions of over 5,000 young people ages 18-29, oversampling young Black and Latino voters whose voices are often underrepresented.
• Rural Youth CatalystcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Rural Youth Catalyst to conduct a learning community with anchor organizations from diverse rural places that provide support to young people. Goals include learning from experiences working with rural youth, wrestling with systemic challenges, and co-creating a vision for increasing civic participation across rural communities.
• Youth Engagement FundminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Youth Engagement Fund to conduct a landscape scan of youth civic engagement infrastructure in Alabama, examining how organizations support youth political participation.
• Protect DemocracyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to produce a major report examining young people's attitudes toward the U.S. system of government, combining CIRCLE's research expertise with Protect Democracy's focus on democratic institutions.
• Campus CompactminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on the Rural Youth Voices Initiative, a summer fellowship supporting rural youth (ages 18-22) to reshape national narratives around rural youth engagement.
• New Voters CollaborativeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with the New Voters Collaborative, which hosted the National High School Voting Summit at University of Maryland. CIRCLE participates in the New Voters Research Network Conference to share data on youth voice impact.
• Generation VoteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for the Electoral Justice Summit held in Phoenix, where CIRCLE presented research on the youth electorate including barriers, views on democracy, and youth-led organizing.
• Opportunity Youth ForumminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with the Opportunity Youth Forum in Boston, a network of 40 urban, rural, and tribal communities working on reconnection pathways for opportunity youth. CIRCLE held workshops on supporting civic engagement.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Knight Foundation: A major foundation funding journalism and civic engagement research; an important funder in CIRCLE's ecosystem and a peer in the civic-data-and-research landscape from a grantmaking perspective.

Broad incumbents

• Center for American Progress: A public policy research and advocacy organization that produces research on democracy, voting rights, and civic participation, addressing similar audiences of policymakers, media, and civic organizations.
• Tufts Tisch College of Civic Life: CIRCLE's parent institution, Tisch College conducts broader civic life research and runs civic education programs for undergraduates — the closest structural peer as the academic home for CIRCLE.
• Brennan Center for Justice: A nonpartisan law and policy institute at NYU that conducts rigorous research and advocacy on voting rights, election administration, and democratic participation — directly overlapping with CIRCLE's focus on civic engagement and electoral access.

Direct peers

• When We All Vote: Michelle Obama's civic engagement initiative and CIRCLE's survey partner; comparable in its youth-focused, nonpartisan voter mobilization mission, though operating in voter activation rather than research.
• National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC): A nonprofit chartered by Congress that tracks civic participation indicators and publishes research on civic health across U.S. communities, closely aligned with CIRCLE's research-and-data mission on civic engagement.
• iCivics: A nonprofit founded by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor focused on K-12 civics education through curriculum and games; directly comparable to CIRCLE's K-12 civics research focus while operating in the practitioner/curriculum delivery space.

Emerging players

• Campus Compact: A national coalition of colleges and universities advancing civic and community engagement in higher education; directly comparable in its higher-ed civic learning focus and NSLVE-adjacent constituency.
• FairVote: A nonpartisan election reform organization that conducts research on voting systems and electoral participation; overlaps with CIRCLE on turnout analysis and electoral competitiveness research but with a reform-advocacy orientation.
• Mikva Challenge: A nonprofit that empowers youth through civic engagement programs in Chicago and beyond; comparable to CIRCLE in serving the youth-civic-engagement field but with direct-service delivery rather than research.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/civicyouth
• Facebookfacebook.com/CivicYouth
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/circleresearch/about

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about CIRCLE