March For Our Lives is a national youth-led movement to end gun violence in America.
The primary focus of the Our Power Campaign is to increase voter participation among young voters by mobilizing them around issues they care about, including gun violence. In this election, Gen Z voters are projected to comprise one-in-ten eligible voters and most will have the opportunity to cast their first vote in a Presidential election in their lifetimes. But we also know they face unique barriers and require tailored outreach and engagement in order to show up to the polls. In 2018, March For Our Lives demonstrated the ability to reach Gen Z and Millennial voters and motivate them to register and turnout to vote, and invite friends to do the same. Gun violence is consistently ranked a leading issue for young people, and the coalition of groups and intersectional approach of Our Power invites young people concerned with climate change, immigration, racial justice, and more into our movement. And most importantly, the Our Power Campaign plan consists of repeated outreach through different mediums to young people by their peers for months leading up to the election--a tactic proven to increase voter participation among young people. March For Our Lives' authentic youth voice and platform, multi-faceted organizing and communications programs, and partnerships with other youth engagement and civic participation organizations made Our Power a leading national campaign to increase youth participation and create and mobilize a generation of lifelong voters through nonpartisan education and outreach.
Utilizing our digital channels, we regularly contacted young people through peer-to-peer texting, phone banking, SMS, email, and social media to register them to vote, check their registration status, request a mail-in ballot, complete the census, and more. Throughout the primaries, we contacted tens of thousands of young people by phone, email, and SMS, and peer-to-peer to provide nonpartisan information on how to (safely) cast a vote.
Through the summer of 2020, we hosted digital hubs, with special guests Sen. Warren, Sen. Ed Markey, Andrew Yang, Patrisse Cullors of BLM, and more. These hubs were livestreamed on all of our social channels, and created space for young people to hear from their favorite politicians, musicians, and activists.
March For Our Lives worked with artists to create a library of gifs about harnessing Our Power and our vote. These gifs have been naturally used on Instagram, Twitter, messages, and other platforms. Our goal with this content was to create sharable content that avoided organizational branding, impacting organically and culturally through social media. Our set of gifs have been interacted with over 400 million times.
We hosted REM!X events, a live video series where artists discuss their work through a lens of advocacy. Artists from across the nation joined together to show how they make change in their communities using their talents, and how young people can do the same in a world that increasingly needs creativity and imagination.
March For Our Lives presented IntoAct!on US with Sankofa.org, and one day of the program was dedicated to Our Power and young voters. IntoAct!on had an impact of over 8 million total interactions across all platforms. The programming was curated by MFOL youth, and featured John Legend, Billie Porter, and more.
We ran our first-ever TV ad during Fox & Friends and Morning Joe. Read the Washington Post exclusive and watch the powerful ad here. The ad garnered over one million organic views in the first 48 hours. It also ran across digital and broadcast platforms in FL, GA, PA, NC, TX, AZ, MI, CO, and WI. We ran a series of voter registration and GOTV ads and executed an event series with interactive art installations with a GOTV message through the summer in those same states.
The art installations in key states were paired with digital activations. These "digital rallies" recapped the art installation that happened in the key state, and allowed people nationwide to join the conversation safely. They featured local partner organizations that educated our base on the issues on the ballot, and discussed how our organizers can make an impact with their vote and with their power.
Overall, our strategy was focused on meeting youth where they are in regards to the 2020 election, and rather than push the usual "GO VOTE" messaging, we used art and validators to engage in a way that was conversational.
Since we launched Our Power, we have driven over 3,000 emails to Congress to advocate for funding to go to states for election protection and appropriate reforms.
Our National Organizing Team has held virtual events and relational organizing to engage young voters, invite them into the Our Power Campaign, and provide them nonpartisan information on voting and their rights. MFOL has:
MFOL registered over 160k voters in the Summer months, and continues to register voters up until state deadlines using the same tactics and partners.
Our first TV ad gained 1 million organic views on Twitter within 48 hours of launch.
Our total reach on digital platforms for the Our Power campaign (Gif Library, Livestreamed Events, Video Content, Graphics, Social Media posts) is an estimated 450-500 million. While MFOL has a large platform, our reach with this youth-led campaign has exceeded our expectations. All estimates include our organic interactions, none of our boosted post interactions.
