Photo Courtesy of Herald Post
Q: What can teens do to help change the world with no money, no car, and no adults?
A: More than you think, according to DoSomething.org.
Last week DoSomething.org held its annual meeting to review the past year and discuss the year ahead for this 19-year-old organization. If Nancy Lublin, CEO and self-proclaimed “Chief Old Person,” and Aria Finger, COO of DoSomething.org, get their way… teens across the country will be able to choose from 25 to 30 different campaigns this year to get engaged and make a difference in their communities.
Fostering the next generation of Social Citizens, the organization’s purpose is rooted in its goal to “make community service as popular, cool, and most importantly, normal as watching TV or playing sports—something so ingrained in young people that they wouldn't think twice about helping others or volunteering.” As Aria puts it, "To DoSomething.org, teenagers are NOT future leaders. That's right. They are leaders right now. We've seen 17-year-olds register 10,000 bone marrow donors to save lives, outfit thousands of homes with energy-saving light bulbs, and clothe millions of homeless people nationwide.
They do not need to wait. They can use their passion, smarts, and fearlessness to change the world right now."
So far so (very) good. Currently, DoSomething.org is one of the largest social change organizations in the U.S. for teens and they are aiming for five million active members by 2015. They are well on their way to reaching this goal both in the scale of its programs and depth of engagement. Aria noted in her presentation that DoSomething.org’s programs numbered 12 in 2010 with 1.2 million teens participating, and 16 in 2011 with 2 million teens participating—in 2012 they want to create 30 programs such as: Teens for Jeans; Give a Spit About Cancer; Animal Welfare; Cause Scavenger Hunts; and Grandparents Gone Wired, all to generate even more teen involvement.
Their formula for success is simple, but reflects years of refinement and the smarts to bring together the right team to execute these types of projects. Aria explained that their team decides what projects to undertake based on three key factors:
- Pop culture/current events: What are people talking about? Has a celebrity that teens respect taken up a new cause? Has a natural disaster impacted teens somewhere in the world?
- What do people want?: DoSomething.org relies heavily on crowdsourcing. In fact, they have a youth advisory council which they convene every two weeks to find out what’s on their minds and consequently, what DoSomething.org should be thinking about as well.
- Data: The numbers don’t lie. The team looks regularly at data, online rankings, Facebook traffic, number of unique visitors to their website, and other quantifiable stats that clearly show where their constituents’ interests lie.
Are you interested yet? I know we are. To learn more about DoSomething and how you can get involved, check out dosomething.org.