We are celebrating two million volunteers taking four million actions on Mobilize to create a more just, inclusive, and democratic world! Among our 2,000 partner organizations, campaigns sought to represent communities, labor unions fought to expand workers’ rights, and nonprofit organizations supported and empowered vulnerable communities. These missions were supported by 2 million mission-driven individuals who took time out of their busy lives to give back to others, and that is pretty incredible.

How we got here

Mobilize’s supporter base scaled quickly. Like many other political technology companies, Mobilize was formed in 2017 to harness the activism following the 2016 election.

“In early 2017, we saw an unprecedented surge of grassroots energy and identified the need for an events platform that could channel motivated online audiences into meaningful action.”
—Alfred Johnson, CEO and Co-founder

Mobilize hit 1 million volunteers in January 2020, and that number doubled in just four months!

New software features

We hit this milestone so quickly because our product investments made it significantly easier for supporters to sign up for an action and bring others with them. To support organizers, Mobilize released several new features, like event suggestions and bring-a-friend prompts, designed to recruit more volunteers. These features accounted for 24% of the new volunteers since January. Volunteers became some of the most effective recruiters by bringing on friends and families to support organizations with them.

We’ve seen friends invite friends to hundreds of thousands of events—using their own social networks to build grassroots power for organizations and campaigns all across the country.”
—Alfred Johnson, CEO and Co-founder

Surprise surge in virtual actions  

When COVID-19 hit earlier this year, stay-at-home orders barred all in-person events. As our partners rapidly shifted to virtual opportunities, Mobilize saw a 4x increase in volunteer engagement. People were eager to get involved with this global crisis and had the ability to do so from the comfort of their homes. Our average shifts per volunteer increased 12%, with a particular focus on phone banks, community events, meetings, and trainings.

We also extended free services to all COVID-19 relief organizations and launched our central COVID-19 relief dashboard, VolunteerFromYourcouch.com, giving our volunteers the opportunity to directly help those working on the frontlines.

Major events

In the first quarter, the presidential primaries led to a peak in activity. Get out the vote and other campaign events before Super Tuesday brought in increased levels of volunteer engagement. More than 580,000 volunteers signed up for actions in February, nearly 3x the number of signups on Mobilize in the weeks before the 2018 midterms. At the end of February, we saw more than 53,000 signups on a single day.

In May, Mobilize also saw its all-time highest performing event, Run with Maud. Hosted by Action PAC, Run with Maud gathered over 170,000 attendees (not including individuals who participated without registering) from around the world to display solidarity with Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man who was unjustly killed on the street. In the week after this event, Mobilize hit the 2 million volunteers mark.

What’s next

This year, we anticipate that four million volunteers will take 10 million actions on Mobilize, and we’re well on our way. Be on the lookout for major product announcements that will save organizers time and connect them with our rapidly growing network of supporters.