I just read this on a Reddit politics GOTV thread, and it was profound. To set this up, there were a few people, myself included chatting about voting. I'm a Gen-Xer, and will take these threads to discuss how a lot of us tuned out in the 90's, and we all know what happened then. Could have been avoided too.
One person was explaining to another one how every election matters, not just the big ones, and a third was obviously reading and chimed in...
1: I only vote Presidential elections
2: You need to vote every election. Local races, ballot initiatives and just showing confidence in your party really matter. This year there are lots of progressive ballot initiatives too.
[some dialog]
(what didn't get said is there are a lot of regressive ones as well)
1: I'll do it, but it sure seems like it's a waste of time.
2: Get your friends to vote too.
3: Hey, I'm a youth voter and how do I find out about these Progressive ballot initiatives? They don't send 'em to my cell phone.
Full stop!
Now that thread is seeing some action, and this kid is going to get told how and where to look, but it's not going to keep them tuned in. Or not likely to anyway. That's a good thing, and we are all doing it regularly, I assume. I know I am.
The profound bit is that there are people out there who need some organization or software to remind them about these things.
We still are not good enough at reaching younger people.
IMHO, this needs to be an organization that won't abuse the cell phone. Texts and maybe some social media notifications, calendar notices, etc... When a new progressive political action comes up, push out the notification with a quick communication, that's it. Ask them to vote, or show up, or whatever it is, and make this separate from asking for money.
Make them trust and depend on it, so they know when they can invest a little time and really make a difference and they can tell their friends.
Use a different channel for fundraising. I know that's hard, but if this were done, most of the young people I know would sign up and just feel secure in that they know when and where and what to do when needed. Unity. They grok it. Let's unify them.
UPDATE: And let them close the loop. They can say they did it, and get some recognition for that, or a link to share, or something. If they want to comment, make that easy too.