How a Non-Profit Leverages a Social Media Storytelling Contest to Increase Voter Awareness

It’s another election year, and voter turnout is more important than ever before. With important measures and rights on the ballots this year, voting organizations want turnouts to be high. One organization called Why Do You Vote?, an initiative of Money Out Voters In, a 501(c)3 non-profit with one goal in mind: to spread the word about voting and increase young voter participation. Holly Mosher, the Executive Director of Why Do You Vote, has been a filmmaker for over a decade. She is passionate about creative storytelling and was inspired to take action after attending The American Democracy Summit last fall. Holly was thinking about increasing young voter turnout by using her storytelling background. She realized that social media is basically where young people digitally gather short stories. Inspired by the Summit, she says, “Nothing opens people's hearts and minds like a good personal short story.” And thus, Spark the Vote was born. 

Spark the Vote Challenge

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The Spark the Vote Challenge aims to create a social media buzz where young voters post, interact and share their personal stories about why they are voting this year. This initiative is vital to increase Gen Z voter participation. In 2022, 28.4% of youth ages 18-24 cast a ballot (Census Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration Supplement). This is a higher percentage than generations before Gen Z, but can still be increased significantly. As social media continues to be a vital communication tool among young people, Mosher and her team knew it was the route to go to incentivize young voters and share meaningful messages amongst themselves. 

By using ShortStack’s upload field, voters can upload their video directly to the campaign or via Vimeo, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram URLs. Holly encourages young voters to post their stories on their social media platforms first, then enter the contest via the upload options. By doing so, Mosher and her team encourage word-of-mouth marketing and democratizing young people’s voices in a virtual public square to spread and foster even more engagement. 

“Videos should be submitted by September 15th, which is both Democracy Day and the weekend before National Voter Registration Day. The idea is to flood the internet with videos about voting to inspire people to register to vote and cast their ballots by election day on November 5th” explained Holly. 

Once all the short stories have been submitted, and each entry has been vetted (more on that later), the public will be able to vote on their favorite submissions in each category. Categories for submission include Voting, Democracy, Climate, Equality, Healthcare, Liberty, Public Safety, Supreme Court, Song, and Dance. Entrants can enter into multiple categories, for example, if they wrote a song about healthcare and public safety.

The stakes are high for this marketing campaign, with $50,000 in total cash prizes. Young storytellers and voters have the opportunity to spread their stories for a chance to cash in.

ShortStack x Why Do You Vote

Given the high prize value as well as the gravity of her cause,, Mosher did not take her search for a platform that met all of her needs lightly. A top priority was to be able to manually approve entry submissions before they appeared live within the campaign. Non-profit organizations are restricted from participating in political campaigns, either in favor of or in opposition to any candidate.  With candidates so polarizing this year, Mosher and her team needed to ensure contestants only stuck to general issues and why they are voting. 

In addition to entry moderation, Mosher has been very pleased with the additional features ShortStack offers such a high level of customizability and flexibility available in the Campaign Builder. The Spark the Vote campaign utilizes ShortStack’s ability to create category navigation within the campaign and display entries within their respective category.

As a non-profit organization, money is always tight, but with ShortStack’s no-cancellation fee and monthly subscription, Mosher can run the campaign for the time they need, export all entry data, including the video files, and cancel her subscription or downgrade to a free account. If she needs to store media assets or entries for later, she can take advantage of a subscription pause period for up to 3 months. ShortSack's flexibility allows every company to create engaging campaigns on their schedule. 

Overall, Mosher has been pleasantly surprised with the support team. Stating, “They have been wonderful people, so amazing…answering all of our questions, getting it to look the way we want it to look. …So in seconds, they're like, oh, yeah, oh, I can do that.” ShortStack’s customer support is available 24/7/365. We have agents monitoring tickets over the weekends and on holidays to ensure seamless support when you need it. In addition to that, we offer new users a 30-minute video call to help them get started and learn the platform hands-on with an agent. 

Entry Moderation and Customization Makes for a Successful Campaign

The team at Why Do You Vote? is very excited for this campaign to take off in early September. With the customization, entry moderation, and export capabilities that ShortStack offers, Holly is confident in the success of this marketing campaign. 

With features such as multi-stage photo contests, unlimited customization to fit brand guidelines, flexible payment plans, and unwavering support, Holly Mosher and her team are ecstatic about their choice to use ShortStack for their campaign. 

Ps: This campaign is running now! Check it out and Spark the Vote. 

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