We can all agree 2020 was a historic year that produced unprecedented challenges: a global pandemic, a reckoning with racial injustice, a presidential election, a massive recession, and more. As the largest organization exclusively for young people and social change, DoSomething activates members from every US area code and in 131 countries join our volunteer and civic action campaigns, which tackle a variety of cause areas. Last year, in our time of enormous need, DoSomething mobilized members to show up for their communities with compassion, action, and world-changing impact. Here’s a snapshot of some of our 2020 campaigns:
“Our 2020 Vision” campaign aimed to register over 250K young people ahead of the 2020 election.
Our “Disrupt Racism” campaign aimed to provide 50K young people with customized actions they can take to “disrupt racism” in their communities as a response to the wave of protests sparked by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among others.
Our “No-Sew Mask” campaign sought to mobilize thousands of young people to create 50K face masks for themselves, their families, and for vulnerable populations in their communities.
Our “Healthier Us” campaign aimed to mobilize thousands of young people to collect 40K kits of personal care or cleaning products to help students in need stay healthy and perform their best ahead of the new school year.
Finally, our “Mental Note” campaign aimed to promote positive mental health to 65k men.
Throughout COVID-19 until the election, we conducted weekly surveys to over 5,000 of our members (ages 13-25) to explore what matters to them most and how they’d like to make an impact on the problems facing the country in 2020. We pivoted our existing projects, added relevant tactics, and created entirely new campaigns based on these insightful and timely survey findings as the state of the country was rapidly evolving.
For each campaign, we created separate landing pages, included incentives such as scholarships and school volunteer credits, leveraged our vast SMS and email subscriber lists, and worked with stellar marketing, corporate, and cause expert partners to amplify our campaigns. Here’s how:
“Our 2020 Vision” campaign ramped up its efforts to include new initiatives to make registering to vote virtually easier. This includes an absentee ballot request tool powered by BallotReady, and our Online Voter Registration Drive (OVRD) tool, a unique tool developed by DoSomething and powered by Rock the Vote. DoSomething worked with organizations like The College Board and March For Our Lives which promoted these tools to help register students to vote at scale.
Our “Disrupt Racism” campaign challenged young people to use our targeted guides for white members, BIPOC members, and Black members to start a conversation with other about how to actively be anti-racist and disrupt racism in their communities (or practice self-care if you identify as Black). They also received advocacy actions that can take to make an impact to protect Black lives, such as petitions and emailing their representatives.
Our “No-Sew Masks” campaign provided young people with fun guides on how to make DIY cloth masks for themselves, their families, and vulnerable populations in their community. Our survey revealed that young people missed attending school events that brought a sense of social connection, so we challenged them to create masks inspired by their school’s colors and sports teams to create a sense of community during a time of isolation.
Our “Healthier Us” campaign aimed to address the issue of hygiene poverty by challenging young people to donate 5 personal care items to students in need. We provided educational resources that demonstrated how COVID-19 and hygiene poverty affected BIPOC disproportionately. We worked with CVS to connect members to their local Boys and Girls Club to donate the products. Our members also used our online tool to email their representatives to support legislation for added health benefits for low-income families.
Our “Mental Note” campaign aimed to address the fact that men are less likely than women to recognize mental health symptoms by challenging young people to give a man in their life one of our Mental (Health) Notes with access to mental health resources. As COVID-19 led to 4 out 5 young people reporting negative impacts on their mental health in our weekly surveys, we pivoted our campaign to encourage young people to share resources with all of their friends. We worked with partners like Blavity, fraternities, and influencers like Connor Franta to amplify the campaign.
As our campaigns aimed to attack some of the biggest challenges our country has ever seen, young people were ready and eager to take action and make a difference. Don’t believe us? The numbers speak for themselves:
“Our 2020 Vision” campaign registered 255,000 young people to vote ahead of the 2020 election.
Our “Disrupt Racism” campaign generated over 48,000 conversations held and pledges signed to protect Black lives.
Our “No-Sew Masks” campaign led to the creation of 59,000 masks for young people, their families and friends, and vulnerable populations in need at homeless shelters, medical facilities, and more.
Our “Healthier Us” campaign generated 30,000 sign-ups, 10,700,000 impressions, 564 advocacy emails sent to local representatives, and 71,000 personal care and health products donated to young people in need during the back-to-school season. 92% of participants were interested in taking action after the campaign to support their peers experiencing hygiene poverty.
Our “Mental Note” campaign reached 97,000 men, generated 137,000,000 impressions, and received 105,000 signups, surpassing our goal by over 60%! 84% of those who texted in to receive the collection of mental health resources say that after accessing the resources they are more likely to check in on their friends and themselves.
