50CAN

50CAN (The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now) is a nonprofit education advocacy group founded in January 2011 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. According to its website, 50CAN's mission is to advocate for a high-quality education for all kids, regardless of their address. The organization aims to find, connect and support local leaders in states across the country to help them improve educational policies in their communities.

History
50CAN grew out of ConnCAN (founded in 2005) and was incubated inside the Connecticut nonprofit in 2010 before being formally spun off as an independent organization in 2011. Marc Porter Magee left his role as ConnCAN chief operating officer to establish 50CAN. He become 50CAN's first president, later becoming the organization's chief executive officer. 50CAN employs 34 people, and it runs education campaigns in nine states.

Affiliate offices
50CAN currently operates policy campaigns in nine states. In 2016, it announced it would grow to additional states by merging with StudentsFirst, and that former StudentsFirst chapters would retain their branding within their states.

Trainings
50CAN offers several programs to engage local leaders in the education advocacy movement, including the Education Advocacy Fellowship, YouCAN and National Voices Fellowship. The organization provides trainings to other education and advocacy groups, including Advocacy 101 and Political Advocacy 101.

In the fall of 2015, 50CAN published The 50CAN Guide to Building Advocacy Campaigns: 2nd Edition on iBooks and Kindle. In 2019, the organization published a companion book, The 50CAN Guide to Political Advocacy.

CEO Marc Porter Magee, in collaboration with FutureEd at Georgetown University, launched AdvocacyLabs, an initiative that gathers both data and the perspectives of social scientists to inform advocates about best practices in the field.