Running head: PAF 112 Final Paper 1

DoSomething.org

Leandra C. Vosburg

Arizona State University

PAF 112: Identity, Service, and American Democracy

Dr. Jonathan Koppell

December 9, 2020
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DoSomething.org

The youth are the future, and DoSomething.org is a non-profit organization

that encourages gen-Z, specifically ages 13 to 25, to be a part of social change (DoSomething).

DoSomething encourages youth by relating to their audience using social media, making it easy

for their members to take part in causes they care about and prove the change made possible by

their organization. DoSomething uses its digital platform to encourage youth to be more active in

their community and be progressive in social change. DoSomething posts volunteer opportunities

and civic action campaigns for an audience of American kids and young adults as shown with

their social media-driven, tech-savvy organization. Civic engagement and mobilization from

DoSomething contribute to American identity and community building because their identity is

American youth, they mobilize through social media, and they contribute to American identity

by encouraging youth to be active in social change.

Research

Identity

Identity plays an essential role in the ability to form a group to achieve a goal. In module

4: Identities and mobilization, Dr. Koppell explains that the best way to get people together is

through a shared identity or purpose (Koppell, 2020). This identity or purpose creates a common

ground that makes people want to work with the group and feel safe. DoSomething's common

identity is the youth in America. This identity focuses on a particular group to bring them
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together to work towards social change. The shared identity of age and nationality make teens

feel more comfortable stepping outside their comfort zones to support causes that they care

about. Civil engagement can sometimes seem like a grown-up thing to do. It is not always easy

to get involved, or it could be intimidating for younger people. DoSomething makes it easy for

young people to get involved. Young people are connected to causes they support with

like-minded individuals that are their age.

Social Capital

For DoSomething to have an Identity, they need to have social capital. Their social

capital includes everyone that works for DoSomething, from the CEO to the Social media

director, to all the youth volunteers. DoSomething recruits youth through their website, social

media, and word of mouth. They are a large digital platform aimed to encourage youths to take

action in their communities and social causes that they care about. Even though their targeted

audience are the youths of America, because their efforts are made on social media, they reach

millions of people all over the world of all ages. Their campaigns and social causes influence

other people of any age to get involved indirectly. It is easy to become a member too. A member

has to be a youth and participate in a campaign, fundraiser, or any other DoSomething event to

be considered a member. DoSomethings social capital contributes to the American identity and

community building by making it possible for youths of America to come together for a social

cause that they care about.

Civic, Political, and/or Social Engagement

DoSomething is centered on digital social engagement to build social capital. One of their

most effective ways of encouraging youth to get involved is through a one hundred percent
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online platform. They describe themselves as "A digital platform powering real-world impact"

(DoSomething), which invites young people who spend most of their time online to join the

cause. This is a perfect way to engage with their community because young people have grown

up using technology and are the most comfortable with it. DoSomething provides many ways for

the youth to engage with society from social, political, or civic action campaigns. In a Forbes

interview, CEO Aria Finger shared:

We are consistently checking ourselves to make sure we’re offering actions that are most

relevant to our audience. In the past few years, that’s meant more campaigns around gun

violence prevention, climate change, and student debt. It also meant that in 2018 we ran

our first concerted effort around nonpartisan voter registration and Get Out The Vote

(GOTV), garnering 118,711 registrations and adding to the largest youth voter turnout in

the last 30 years. As we grow, we’ll continue to advocate for and mobilize around the

causes that young people champion. (Strub, 2020)

DoSomething offers a variety of ways to get involved that caters to their interest group.

There is no shortage of ways for the youth to be involved in social change. DoSomethings civic

engagement contributes to American identity and community building by providing many

campaigns for American youth to get involved in.

Mobilization

DoSomething gets a lot of their engagement by mobilizing online. Social media outreach

is one of their most effective ways of outreach. Once one person gets involved, they share it on

social media, which leads to others getting involved. Similar to the #MeToo movement,

DoSomething has a lot of movements that are designed for social media. Using a hashtag is a
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great way to mobilize while gaining social capital. DoSomething also offers scholarships that

encourage youth to get involved in their community. They bring together youth from all over

America to bring about social change for their communities and society. DoSomething offers a

large variety of ways to get involved on their website at all times. There are easy ways to get

involved, such as using a specific hashtag and forms that require more time and effort, like

participating in a can food drive. DoSomething mobilization contributes to American identity

and community building by making it accessible for American youths to get involved in social

change.

American Democracy

Mobilization is one of the essential parts of American Democracy. Without mobilization,

people's voices would not be heard. In Module 1, The Distinctiveness of American Democracy,

Dr. Koppell says, "What we will see is that in general Americans form groups to address these

issues, either through political action or through social action and civic association." (Koppell,

2020) Do Something is just like an American Democracy in a way that they provide groups for

youth to join that address issues through political or social action and civic association. They are

unique because they cater to the youths of America who are often left out of political or social

decisions. DoSomething contributes to the American Identity by being a source for people to

rally together for social, political, or civic issues.

Summary

DoSomething uses civic engagement and mobilization to contribute to American identity

and community building. Through this organization, youths from all over America can come

together to support change in causes that they care about. DoSomething uses American
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democracy's backbones by providing groups to get politically, civically, or socially involved.

This encourages young people to get involved because they share an identity within the group,

are encouraged to engage through social media, and mobilize quickly to contribute to social

change.
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References

DoSomething CEO Envisions Equal Voting Influence For Generation-Z [Interview by C. Strub].

(2020, January 17). Retrieved 2020, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisstrub/2020/01/17/ariapart1/?sh=40d6b8227b5

DoSomething. DoSomething.org: Join Our Youth-Led Movement for Good. Retrieved

December 09, 2020, from ​https://join.dosomething.org/

Koppell, J. (2020). ​Identities and Mobilization​. Lecture presented at PAF 112 in ASU online.

Retrieved 2020, from

https://courses.ea.asu.edu/courses/course-v1:ASU+PAF112+2207B/info​.