Patagonia will give you $100 to get your friends to vote

FastCompany: You probably know friends or family members who didn’t vote in the last election. Patagonia wants to offer you $100 to nudge three of them to vote in November. The company is investing $11.2 million in the nontraditional get-out-the-vote campaign. The dollar amount (you get your money as a credit, not in cash) was inspired by a startling fact: An estimated 11.2 million environmental voters—Americans who see the climate and environment as a top priority—don’t vote. “We couldn’t believe that,” says Corley Kenna, who leads Patagonia’s communications and policy team.

“We thought, okay, if we know these people, we maybe can help get them out to vote in this election when the state of our planet, things have never been so dire. We need as many people who care about the health of our planet to vote. And so we want to do what we can to get those people out.” [Image: Courtesy Patagonia] Anyone who’s interested will be able to sign up beginning September 26 via a platform called Relentless embedded on Patagonia’s site.

After you enter the details for three people who you want to encourage to vote, the platform creates a voting plan based on their address, including information about where they can vote, whether they can vote early or by mail, and whether they’ll need to show an ID. You can text or email them the information. Once you say that you’ve done that, you can choose between a $100 credit at Patagonia or a $100 donation to the League of Conservation Voters.

(The incentive doesn’t depend on whether or not your friends end up voting; it’s just meant to get you to take the first step.) A legacy of action The outdoor retailer has always been known for its environmental protection work. And it has a history of encouraging people to vote that goes back to 1978, beginning with a local newspaper ad in Ventura, the company’s California hometown, that argued for pro-environment candidates and ballot measures. In the 2024 election, the company succeeded in getting around 5,000 people to vote and volunteer, Kenna says.

Now, as the Trump administration has taken hundreds of anti-environmental actions , Patagonia wanted to go further. Instead of traditional advertising, it chose to put money into relational organizing—asking Patagonia’s community to mobilize their friends, families, and neighbors. An organization called the Environmental Voter Project , which focuses on encouraging environmentalists to vote, calculated the 11.2 million number through detailed research on voters. There are multiple reasons why someone who cares about climate and the environment might not be voting, says Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the nonprofit.

“First, people who care deeply about climate are more likely to be young, people of color, or lower income Americans,” he says. “And it’s just harder for those people to vote because of voter suppression efforts.” There’s another, hidden reason. “Our research shows that Americans view the climate crisis as a series of personal failings as consumers or commuters rather than as a systemic problem that should be addressed through political action,” Stinnett says. “And so political solutions don’t even occur to many environmentalists.

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Patagonia's campaign is significant for the brand/design industry as it combines social responsibility with marketing strategy, offering a fresh approach to engaging consumers while directly appealing to brand strategy professionals.