Mobilize is an American technology platform and network that allows volunteers to sign up for events such as rallies,

virtual meeting Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-l ...

canvassing Canvassing, also known as door knocking or phone banking, is the systematic initiation of direct contact with individuals, commonly used during political campaigns. Canvassing can be done for many reasons: political campaigning, grassroot ...

, phone banking, and

get out the vote "Get out the vote" or "getting out the vote" (GOTV) describes efforts aimed at increasing the voter turnout in elections. In countries that do not have or enforce compulsory voting, voter turnout can be low, sometimes even below a third of the e ...

. Founded in May 2017 by Allen Kramer and Alfred Johnson, the platform is used by Democratic Party candidates, progressive organizations, and

non-profits A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

to recruit and mobilize volunteers. In November 2020, Mobilize was acquired by EveryAction, the parent company of

NGP VAN NGP VAN, Inc. is an American privately owned voter database and web hosting service provider used by the Democratic Party, Democratic campaigns, and other non-profit organizations authorized by the Democratic Party. The platform or service is u ...

. In November 2021

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...

acquired NGP VAN in a $2 billion deal.

History

2017-2020

Mobilize was founded as MobilizeAmerica in May 2017 by Allen Kramer and Alfred Johnson. Kramer previously worked for

Bain & Company Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and nonprofit organizations. One of the Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three management co ...

and on the

Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign In 2016, Hillary Clinton ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. Clinton ran as the Democratic Party's candidate for president, in which she became the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political pa ...

. Johnson previously worked in the financial technology sector after working on the

Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama, then junior United States senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for president of the United States on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois. After winning a majority of delegates in the Democratic primaries of 2008, ...

and joining the Obama administration. Until the company's acquisition in 2021, Kramer served as president of the company, and Johnson as CEO. MobilizeAmerica allows volunteers to sign up for political campaign events such as

, door-knocking, phone banking and

. It started with seed funding from Higher Ground Labs, a progressive technology accelerator based in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and chaired by

Ron Klain Ronald Alan Klain (born August 8, 1961) is an American attorney, political consultant, and former lobbyist who served as White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023. A Democrat, Klain previously served as chief of sta ...

. Kramer and Johnson recruited a team of engineers and organizers to create the platform, and first launched with Democratic Party campaigns in the 2017 Virginia House of Delegates elections. Ten out of the eleven candidates for the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

who used the platform in 2017 won their elections with the Democratic Party gaining a new majority in the legislature. The platform was next used by the successful campaign to elect

Conor Lamb Conor James Lamb (born June 27, 1984) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district from 2018 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the ...

from Pennsylvania to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in a special election, and Mobilize quickly spread after that. Several political groups also began using the platform including

MoveOn MoveOn (formerly known as MoveOn.org) is a progressivism in the United States, progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown ...

, Swing Left and Indivisible. In the 2018 election cycle, Democratic Party candidates from all levels of government used the Mobilize platform to manage volunteer work. By November 2018, Mobilize was serving 515 campaigns and more than 640 organizations, including the

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. The DCCC recruits candidates, raises funds and organizes races in ...

2020-2021

In January 2020, Mobilize raised $3.75 million in a

Series A funding A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in excha ...

led by Higher Ground Labs. Among other investors were

Lowercase Capital Lowercase Capital was an American venture capital firm that provided seed and early-stage funding for several successful startups, including Twitter, Twilio, Kickstarter, Uber, Instagram, and Stripe. It raised over $1 billion in capital, and s ...

and

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily ...

. Mobilize was used by 20 candidates in the

2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 election. The primaries and caucuses took p ...

, including Joe Biden's campaign which continued to use the platform through the general election. With the spread of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, by March 2020, almost all volunteer campaign work switched to virtual events over

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Zoom'' (2006 film), starring Tim Allen * ''Zoom'' (2015 film), a Canada-Brazil film by Pedro Morelli * ''Zoom'' (2016 Kannada film), a Kannada film * ''Zoom'' (2016 Sinhala film), a Sr ...

with volunteers signing up through Mobilize which was updated to accommodate the shift to virtual events. According to the company's data, thousands of new volunteers registered on Mobilize each day. In August 2020, Mobilize also created GetOutTheCount.com as a central resource hub for volunteers assisting with the 2020 United States census and to amplify efforts to increase participation in the count during a difficult census being conducted amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021-present

In the last four days of the

2020 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's nominee, former Vice presidents of the United States, vice president Joe Biden, defeated incu ...

, 551,000 volunteers had worked more than 1 million shifts through the Mobilize platform, and the platform had been used by a total of more than 4 million volunteers. In late November 2020, Mobilize was acquired by EveryAction, the parent company of

. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed and the platform continued to operate as a unit led by Johnson. Johnson left the company in 2021 to join the

Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021, and ended on January 20, 2025. Biden, a member of the Democr ...

as deputy chief of staff of the Department of the Treasury. In November 2021,

acquired Mobilize's parent, NGP VAN, in a $2 billion deal. Apax created a subsidiary, Bonterra, to oversee the company. In the summer of 2024, technicians from

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

worked to fix technical problems with the site, which were highlighted in the 2024 Presidential election. The company hosted maps for the April 5, 2025,

Hands Off protests The Hands Off protests were a series of demonstrations launched across the United States on April 5, 2025, in what was the largest one-day, nationwide display of public resistance against Second presidency of Donald Trump, the second administr ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://mobilize.us/ 2017 establishments in Washington, D.C. Political software Privately held companies based in Washington, D.C. Software companies based in Washington, D.C. Web design companies of the United States