March/April 2005

Every Child Matters Uses the Internet to Get Out the Vote

by Mitch Arnowitz, Tuvel Communications

During the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, Every Child Matters (ECM), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes important policies for children and families, helped make children's needs a national political priority by using an innovative Internet-based program to "Get Out the Vote." ECM's sister organization, the more political Vote Kids (http://votekids.everychildmatters.org/), helped by bringing family issues to the voting public's attention and pushing for accountability among elected officials based on their voting records on children and family issues.

The Washington, DC-based ECM worked with online communications firm, Tuvel Communications, to develop a plan for Internet-based fundraising, viral marketing and list-building, and to educate and mobilize more than 1 million underserved voters including parents, grandparents and caregivers. ECM launched the campaign by distributing Halloween trick-or-treat bags, filled with nonpartisan voter information, to more than 250,000 children from primarily low-income or working-poor families. At the same time, Vote Kids executed an online viral marketing campaign to fuel additional fundraising and support.

Using its house-generated email list, ECM created virtual networks connecting organizations that protect and advocate for children with state volunteer captains who distributed Get Out the Vote (GOTV) materials at Halloween events. This integrated approach helped locate volunteers, and create awareness and excitement.
 
ECM created a compelling message — "We Need to Do More for America's Children: Vote for Kids" — and used Convio Internet software for targeted email marketing and list development. The clear, time-sensitive message conveyed urgency.

Convio's functionality for Web content updates helped ECM use its Web site (http://www.everychildmatters.org/) to convey this message through news, fundraising appeals and outreach programs, and to identify voters, children who might relay material to those voters, and volunteers in children's issues. ECM also used Convio to regularly update a Vote Kids Web page; online tools made it easy to spread the word and fulfill requests for Halloween trick-or-treat bags. In addition, the organization used online petitions for email list-building.

Virtual networks increased participation by staff at domestic-violence programs, homeless shelters and after school care centers. Online contests including "Color the Pumpkin Vote for Kids Day" created excitement and awareness for events. One-on-one, personalized email and larger-volume emails to the entire organizational database also were key parts of the campaign.

Every Child Matters used email messages and frequent
Web site updates, coordinated with offline activities,
for an integrated campaign to get out the vote for children's issues.

Results
ECM raised awareness and made children's healthcare issues and policy part of the presidential election debate. The campaign garnered media coverage in leading publications, and Vote Kids received widespread Internet exposure in blogs and social-networking groups that reached another 100,000 weekly readers. Vote Kids raised money for full-page newspaper ads that reached combined readerships of almost 675,000.

In addition, viral and interactive capabilities helped the organization to create an email list of several hundred passionate supporters. ECM formed virtual GOTV networks in target states, and distributed 2 million pieces of marketing materials to 1 million-plus underserved voters through more than 250,000 children. The group also added more than 1,000 organizations serving children to its database, which grew by 35 percent. Web site traffic included almost 10,000 monthly downloads.

Using the Internet strategically, ECM communicated its message and mobilized grassroots supporters to act fast. The creative, high-energy campaign was instrumental in ECM getting its message to more people.

Lessons from this campaign include: 

• A strategy with ongoing communication is critical for building and sustaining long-term relationships.
• Both personalized, one-on-one communications and targeted, larger email campaigns can be effective.
• An organization should send different messages to different supporter groups for the same campaign.
• Sustainable Web site traffic requires frequently updated content, good design, easy navigation and messages that are repeated. 
• Powerful content-management software such as Convio is essential for campaign success. 

Mitch Arnowitz is managing director of Tuvel Communications (http://www.tuvel.com/), an online communications firm for "Engaging Your Customers in Unconventional Ways".

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