Video-Game Company Signs Deal With Voter Group

September 18, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute

The use of video games as a tool for social change has garnered a lot of attention recently, and now video-game systems are getting into the act.

Xbox has formed a partnership with Rock the Vote that will allow gamers to register to vote, express their opinions about the presidential candidates, and participate in campaign polls through Xbox LIVE, the company’s online social network.

“We’re looking for new and innovative ways to reach young people,” says Chrissy Faessen, deputy director of Rock the Vote. “Historically it used to be the 30-second television ad, and now we’re finding different ways through mobile phones, through gaming consoles, through the Internet, and social networks to reach out to people where we know they are.”

For more information: Go to http://www.rockthevote.com.

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.