Become a Speaker for Young America’s Foundation
Thank you for your interest in becoming a speaker for Young America’s Foundation. The Conservative Movement needs more leaders who are willing to engage America’s youth.
The Foundation specializes in sending prominent leaders to college and high school campuses. Students want to hear from policy-makers, celebrities, and newsmakers, rather than obscure professors. The large audiences these speakers generate show their college communities that students are eager to hear conservative ideas. They give our cause a sense of excitement!
At times, the Foundation will consider adding those who are still building a following to our list of speakers. However, even though you may be an excellent speaker, that alone does not mean students will be immediately drawn to hear you speak.
Why is Your Speech Topic Compelling to Students?
As explained above, big names are attractive to students. Beyond name recognition, students also consider whether a speaker’s topic is compelling, relates to other students, and is easy to market. Those who speak on broad topics such as the economy, leadership, or current events are not invited as frequently as those who have a defined topic niche.
New York Times bestselling author Jonah Goldberg is one speaker who has successfully developed a following among young people. He delivers a strong, yet entertaining speech. Goldberg also focuses on one topic, “liberal fascism,” and this garners the attention of student organizers looking to host a conservative speaker.
Why Should Students Pay You to Speak?
We also recommend you closely review the honorarium you might request. There are some known conservatives who request modest honoraria. You should assess what qualities about you and your speech that helps you stand apart from the other known conservatives on our list.
A few prospective speakers suggest that they don’t need an honorarium and are happy to speak for free. We applaud those who take this approach. However, we have found that student clubs that get a free speaker rarely do the work necessary to make an event a success. There are exceptions of course, but we usually ask every student club we work with to raise at least a modest honorarium so they have some funding invested in the program.
Furthermore, the free approach may sound like a no-risk, low-cost opportunity, the reality is that to turn out an audience with a number of competing events on campus still requires hours of work to secure even a minimal turnout. In our experience, these events do not reach a large enough audience to make the club appear exciting and relevant.
How to Apply:
Those who have had high-level public policy positions and/or have had a record of attracting large audiences are encouraged to apply. Please submit following information to yaf@yaf.org.
- A complete bio
- Suggested speech topics
- Requested honorarium
- A complete video of one of your presentations, ideally in front of students. Appearances on Fox News, CNN, or other news channels are not accepted as being representative of a potential speaker’s presentation.
Because of the number of requests, we aren’t able to respond to all inquiries. We will be sure to contact you if we feel you would be a good addition to our program.