Remarkable People

Declare Yourself is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign to empower and encourage every eligible 18-29 year-old in America to register and vote in local and national elections. Using the power of strategic media and retail partnerships, celebrity spokespeople, and most importantly, mobile and Internet technology, Declare Yourself's campaign blankets the landscape of popular culture, as well as universities and high schools, with a simple, clear message: REGISTER and VOTE!

Since 2004, Declare Yourself has registered almost 4 million young people via our on-line registration tool, on-location efforts and Ultimate College Bowl contest, contributing significantly to the unprecedented turnout of youth voters in the 2008 Presidential Election -- 24 million – a major increase from 2004.

Declare Yourself is expanding and intensifying its youth engagement activities in 2009. Between elections, Declare Yourself will focus on empowering young people as next-gen citizens, dedicated to national and local service, thoughtful activism, and shared civic expression. To accomplish our goals, we build partnerships with civic-minded philanthropic, marketing, and media organizations around the country. We are also affiliated with two related initiatives: RemixAmerica.org and BornAgainAmerican.org.

Here are just a few highlights from 2008:

• More than 2.2 million young people used our online registration tool or registered through our Ultimate College Bowl national contest
• More than 6 million people viewed our viral videos and public service announcements
• Our “Only You Can Silence Yourself” print, video and billboard campaign (featuring actress Jessica Alba) achieved more than 100 million impressions through publications such as People, Seventeen, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and US Weekly
• More than 5 million people received text reminders to their cellphones
• A month-long registration drive with the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” yielded thousands of registrations and raised national awareness

Major publications recognized Declare Yourself’s emergence as a youth-oriented brand. The New York Times called us a “different kind of cultural phenomenon” (8/14/08). The Los Angeles Times (10/31/08) noted: “… Declare Yourself may turn out to have been one of this historic election's decisive factors. Lear emphasized the importance of the youth vote when most political professionals considered that wasted time.” Brandweek wrote: 

“Another high-profile, celebrity-centered link-up encompassing politics, marketing and civic awareness was initiated by Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan voter-registration group founded by legendary TV producer Norman Lear. Its eye-catching campaign to encourage voter involvement roped in A-list young stars like America Ferrera, Zac Efron and Jessica Alba…” (9/22/08) 

For the 2008 Election, Declare Yourself enlisted an unprecedented group of partners:

MOBILE CONTENT
Declare Yourself worked with Cricket Wireless and other mobile content partners to engage new voters through the mobile devices they use daily. We have sent more than five million targeted text messages to remind 18-29 year olds to register.

INTERNET
Declare Yourself’s campaigns leveraged the enormous reach of Yahoo!, MySpace, thinkMTV, Google, AOL and Good Search. Our 60 +viral videos, featuring stars such as Leo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderama, Ed Helms, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin in “Superbad”) among many others, are fully distributed across the Internet and have generated millions of views on-line (and hundreds of thousands of resulting registrations).

TRADITIONAL MEDIA
Media company partners enlisted to drive young people to our on-line voter registration tool through PSAs and show placements included: Fox, MTV, Clear Channel, Comedy Central, Spike TV, Lifetime TV, FoxSports, Cosmo Girl, GOOD Magazine, and Seventeen Magazine.

RETAIL
Retail partnerships were in place with Starbucks, American Eagle Outfitters, the Gap, Harper Collins Book Publishers, W Hotels, Six Flags, Borders, and many others.

OUTREACH
Declare Yourself partnered with Voto Latino, the leading Hispanic voter registration organization, the NAACP, Student Public Interest Research Groups, Headcount, The Youngest Candidate, Why Tuesday?, and the Warped Tour, among many others.

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Declare Yourself enlisted film actress Jessica Alba, ABC’s “Ugly Betty” America Ferrera and Hayden Panettiere from NBC’s “Heroes” as its chief spokespersons. Declare Yourself’s list of advisors and friends included actors Drew Barrymore, Tyra Banks, Adrian Grenier, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Cannon and Mandy Moore; sports figures Carlos Boozer, Freddy Adu, Brady Quinn and Stuart Scott, among many others.

Our Vision  

Save the Children's vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

Our Mission  

Save the Children's mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

Our Values

ACCOUNTABILITY: We take personal responsibility for using our resources efficiently, achieving measurable results, and being accountable to supporters, partners and, most of all, children.

AMBITION: We are demanding of ourselves and our colleagues, set high goals and are committed to improving the quality of everything we do for children.

COLLABORATION: We respect and value each other, thrive on our diversity, and work with partners to leverage our global strength in making a difference for children.

CREATIVITY: We are open to new ideas, embrace change, and take disciplined risks to develop sustainable solutions for and with children.

INTEGRITY: We aspire to live to the highest standards of personal honesty and behaviour; we never compromise our reputation and always act in the best interests of children.

Who we are

© UNICEF/HQ92-0017/Charton

A Kyrgyz nomad girl from the north west province of Xinjiang, China.

UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality.  That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young.

We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress.  UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path.  We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity.

We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.

We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children.

We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished, because it is wrong for a child to suffer or die from a preventable illness.

We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.

We involve everyone in creating protective environments for children. We are present to relieve suffering during emergencies, and wherever children are threatened, because no child should be exposed to violence, abuse or exploitation.

UNICEF upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  We work to assure equality for those who are discriminated against, girls and women in particular. We work for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress promised in the United Nations Charter. We strive for peace and security. We work to hold everyone accountable to the promises made for children.

We are part of the Global Movement for Children – a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of every child.  Through this movement, and events such as the United Nations Special Session on Children, we encourage young people to speak out and participate in the decisions that affect their lives. 

We work in 190 countries through country programmes and National Committees. We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.