How We Inspire Our Audience to Take Civic Action

At Galvanize USA, we’re scaling up to become a civic action-boosting cultural force in the lives of millions of ideologically-moderate women over the next few years. We’ve built an excellent foundation of trusted programming that women love and return to week after week. Not only because they really enjoy the entertaining content, but because they feel seen and supported by the programming we offer as we inspire pro-democracy civic action.

Let’s follow the journey of a Galvanize Together subscriber to learn how it works!

First, we advertise to our audience on social media, where our research tells us they already are. Here’s an example of a Facebook ad women see. When they like it enough to click through, they subscribe and provide a phone number. Then we send them personalized text messages a few times a week. Those texts drive them to content on our website where they can learn more, go deeper, share their own opinions, and see how the rest of the community is responding, too. That’s social proof in action!

Here’s an example we love: 

We asked women if they remember their first grade teacher via text message, and then invited them to share their own experience with school and reflect on how public school shaped their life and community. At a time when public schools and the Department of Education are under attack, this kind of gentle engagement prompted our audience to reflect on the value of public education. We’ve taken a big civic topic they are probably hearing about and made it personal and salient. That raises the stakes and increases their will to defend public education!

We also send Dear Grace, our prosocial advice column, to readers via SMS. This fan favorite meets our audience where they are on the specific issues that matter to them. Women write in and ask Grace hundreds of questions every month. These real questions are what is top of mind, what is taking up women’s mental space in a world where attention is at a premium. Grace responds to reader questions in a way that is entertaining, but also kind, relatable, solutions-oriented, and fosters personal growth. 

Here’s another example we love:

This subscriber wrote to Grace saying she really likes a guy, but she can’t get over the appearance of his teeth. This is the type of engaging, juicy relationship content that research shows our audience loves—that’s the hook to get them reading, to get them wondering what on Earth Grace will say! Once they start reading Grace’s answer, they’ll see that she:

• Reminds readers not to judge a book by its cover, gently discouraging “othering”
• Comments on the expense of dental care, connecting this topic back to the economy and systemic inequality
• Encourages the reader to reflect on her own priorities and trust herself, boosting her self-esteem and personal efficacy

No matter what question Grace tackles, she’s always trying to get readers to think about their own values and honor those values through their actions. It’s a subtle way of nudging women to align their personal and civic choices with the prosocial values we know they hold!

It also helps to show women they are not alone in their values and opinions, which is part of why we run a series of In Focus community conversations every month. These conversations are focused on a single topic like love and dating, menopause, reproductive freedom, and motherhood. We invite the whole community to apply, and those who are selected earn $100 for their time. We arrange the groups so that women can see themselves reflected in the conversations, the stories they hear resonate with them, and they feel a sense of belonging and connection. In Focus helps women see that they are not alone, and that their well-being is linked to that of the women around them! 

The conversations are meant to move participants toward prosocial growth, and publishing the clips allows many thousands more women to laugh, cry, and learn right along with them! Here’s an example of a clip we’ve previously texted out to our subscribers:

What you heard there is that women are talking about their fear of conflict and how that can hold them back from fully engaging with our democracy. We hear that they want themselves and their children to be able to speak up and make a difference. It’s authentic, it’s relatable, and it’s designed to tap right into what motivates ideologically-moderate women and address the specific barriers that prevent them from showing up for our democracy.

Taken together, this work supports a ladder of engagement that builds women up. It helps move them from a place of caring about the issues that affect us to a place of actively making an America that works a little better for everyone. 

If you haven’t taken a tour of Galvanize Together yet, go check it out! This incredible programming is off to a great start, but slow and steady growth isn’t going to be enough if we want to compete for women’s attention in this fast-paced, crowded media landscape. Stick with us as we rapidly grow this digital community, apply new learnings from our research, expand into new platforms, and create more of the issue education ads you know and love!