Many university students engage in socially progressive activism (e.g., activism on behalf of marginalized groups), which has been key to societal change benefitting disadvantaged communities. However, limited social change and external support can lead to activist burnout, and, in turn, discontinuation of social justice efforts - this harms the efficacy of activist movements. Self-compassion has been associated with lower burnout among workers (McDonald et al., 2020); higher hope (Neff & Faso, 2015); lower hopelessness (Kelliher-Rabon et al., 2021), which is a component of activist burnout (Chen & Gorski, 2015); and increased goal adjustment (Miyagawa et al., 2018). To determine if and how self-compassion might affect burnout and intention to quit activist work among student activists, the current study surveyed 175 socially progressive student activists on their levels of self-compassion, burnout, hope, hopelessness, goal adjustment and intention to quit activist work. Mediation analyses assessed possible mediation models (parallel, sequential) linking self-compassion to burnout and intent to quit through hope, hopelessness, and goal adjustment. Parallel mediation analyses found that self-compassion significantly predicted burnout through the mediators hope and hopelessness, and in turn burnout was the only variable to mediate the relationship between self-compassion and intent to quit activist work. The sequential model predicting intent to quit found that hope and burnout significantly mediated the contribution of self-compassion. Qualitative results supported hope and hopelessness as constructs relevant to how student activists think about their social justice efforts. The results of this study add to the body of research indicating an important role for self-compassion in maintaining hope and reducing hopelessness and that these effects help reduce burnout in, and intent to quit activist work. These results may be valuable for student activist organizations seeking to promote the motivation and well-being of their membership.