May 22, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Rock the Vote — which encourages young people to vote and get involved in politics — has found text messaging to be “incredibly effective” in carrying out its mission, said Heather Smith, the group’s executive director, who spoke Wednesday at a Washington panel about how the Internet is changing politics and philanthropy.
The nonprofit group says that reminding young people to register and vote with text messages increased voter turnout by 4 percent among people age 18 to 29 — the same percentage increase achieved with in-person requests, Ms. Smith said. And “it’s very cost effective,” she said.
Ms. Smith said her group’s work has also been furthered by the use of online badges or “widgets” that enable people and organizations to post Rock the Vote’s online voter-registration materials on their Web pages. Some 8,500 people ave added the Rock the Vote widget to their Web sites or social-networking pages, Ms. Smith said.
Some charities might think Rock the Vote’s methods are successful only because they’re aimed at young people who are comfortable with the new technologies. But Ms. Smith and other speakers said that assumption misses an important fact: Baby boomers and others are increasingly using text messages and social-networking sites to keep abreast of what their children and other young family members are doing.
