We Day is an annual youth empowerment event organized by international charity, Free The Children. Held in major cities across North America, the event inspires young people to take action and become true agents of change.
The agency's task was to take all that inspiration and fit it into a mobile app that young people could use to document the good things they were doing every day. To be considered successful, it needed students to download the app 20,000 times, join 40,000 causes and accept 45,000 challenges in the first 12 months.
Most North American students must log at least 40 hours of volunteer time in order to graduate from high school. But when it came to tracking those hours, there was no system in place whatsoever and the spirit of giving back was getting lost in the lack of process.
The We365 multiplatform app that literally had the power to change the world. The app was simple in its focus – students could sign up, create a profile, and immediately start tracking the differences they were making every day. They could create their own volunteer opportunities, scroll through existing ones, follow their friends, and share their progress through photo and video uploads, status updates, and check-ins. And everything could be amplified further across their social networks.
A series of challenges motivated students to take their actions to the next level by performing simple acts of kindness in their day-to-day lives. These challenges ranged from holding the door open for a stranger, to standing up for someone being bullied. Successful challenges earned students badges and points that led to physical rewards, like scholarships and charitable grants.
Finally, for every person who downloaded the app, a child oversees would be immunized. This literally gave every student the opportunity to save a life.
On October 12, 2013, Free The Children's Craig Kielburger introduced the world to the We365 app. It was an instant success. Students accepted 62,000 challenges – 138% of the objectives, joined 53,000 causes – 133% of the objectives, and tracked 16,000 hours of volunteer time. The app has been downloaded over 35,000 times. Not only did that mean it hit 175% of the objectives, it also meant 35,000+ children would be immunized and have a chance at happier, healthier lives.