Change.org
Change.org is a website which allows users to create and sign petitions to advance various social causes by raising awareness and influencing decision-makers. The site is a US-based for-profit company and claims to have nearly 500 million users as of December 2022.[3][4] Petitions often focus on causes such as general justice, economic justice, criminal justice, human rights, education, environmental protection, animal rights, health, and sustainable food.
Type of site
Incorporated in Delaware on February 7, 2007
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Worldwide
Change.org Foundation
- Benjamin Joffe-Walt (Chief Operations Officer)[2]
- Brad Henrickson (Interim Chief Technology Officer)[2]
- Duncan Lockard (VP Finance & Strategy)[2]
US$115 million (2021)
US$108 million (2021)
US$114 million (2021)
431
The site also provides support and coaching for organizations and paid members to help further advance their causes.[4]
History[edit]
Change.org was launched in 2007[5][6] by current chief executive Ben Rattray, with the support of founding chief technology officer Mark Dimas, Darren Haas,[7] and Adam Cheyer.[7]
In 2011, Change.org claimed it was the subject of a distributed denial of service attack by "Chinese hackers."[8] The alleged attack was related to its petition to the Chinese government to release artist Ai Weiwei.[9]
In 2011, there was a proposal to merge the Spanish-speaking counterpart website Actuable into Change.org; the merger occurred in 2012 when the voluntary union of Actuable users into the Change.org platform was approved.[10][11]
By February 2012, the site had 100 employees with offices on four continents.[12]
In 2012, Arizona State University decided to block access to Change.org in response to a petition created by student Eric Haywood protesting against "rising tuition costs at the school." University officials claimed that "Change.org is a spam site" and that the blocking was conducted "to protect the use of our limited and valuable network resources for legitimate academic, research, and administrative uses." The block was lifted the following day.[13]
It was reported on April 5, 2012, that Change.org hit 10 million members and was the fastest-growing social action platform on the web. At that time, they were receiving 500 new petitions per day.[14] On May 13, 2012, The Guardian, BBC News, and other sources reported that Change.org would launch a UK-specific platform for petitions, placing Change.org in competition with 38 Degrees,[15][16] a British not-for-profit political-activism organization.
In May 2013, the company announced a $15 million round of investment led by Omidyar Network and said it had 170 staff members in 18 countries.[17]
An August 2013 Fast Company article reported that Change.org would roll out features for petition recipients allowing them to respond to the petition publicly and create a decision-maker page where they could see all petitions against them in one place.[18]
On June 30, 2021, workers for Change.org announced that a majority of staff in the US and Canada had signed union authorization cards in favor of being represented for collective bargaining by CODE-CWA and that Change.org had voluntarily recognized CODE-CWA as the representative of the workers.[19]
Notable petitions[edit]
Brazil[edit]
On March 15, 2021, Supreme Federal Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes's impeachment request received more than 4,770,000 signatures.[20]
On October 13, 2017,[21] Ana Clara Leite was sexually harassed twice in taxis after drivers accessed her information using a mobile app called Easy Taxi. She won her petition asking Easy Taxi App to introduce safety measures, with the backing of more than 27,000 Brazilians.[22][23][24]
United States[edit]
In December 2011, a fourth-grade class in Brookline, Massachusetts, launched the "Lorax Petition Project" through Change.org requesting Universal Studios to include a more vital environmental message on its website and trailer for its upcoming film, The Lorax, based on the classic Dr Seuss children's story. The petitioners felt that the website and trailer lacked an important message from the book, "to help the environment." The petition collected over 57,000 signatures, and on January 26, 2012, the studio updated the website "with the environmental message the kids had dictated."[12]
On the morning of February 2, 2012, Stef Gray, a 23-year-old graduate in New York, held a news conference at the Washington offices of Sallie Mae, the "nation's largest private student-loan provider", presenting the results of her Change.org petition, which had received about 77,000 signatures. That afternoon, the company changed its forbearance fee policy.[25]
In November 2013, Aaron Thompson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, started a petition directed at Seth MacFarlane to bring back Brian Griffin of the TV series Family Guy after he was briefly killed off in the Season 12 episode "Life of Brian". Thompson's petition gained 30,000 signatures within 36 hours.[26][27] The character was brought back to the show a few episodes later.[28] However, this was not a result of the petition, as the episodes were conceived months prior.
In September 2014, Karol Wilcox of Hayti, Missouri, started a petition against the planned execution of Beau, a two-and-a-half-year-old dog in Dyersburg, Tennessee, for allegedly killing a duck on his owner's property. By November, the petition had gained over 540,000 signatures. The petition succeeded, and the dog was spared.[29]
On December 5, 2015, the U.S. Congress reauthorized the Zadroga Act, which provides funds to first responders "suffering debilitating illnesses and injuries due to their service." When Congress stalled on reauthorizing the bill, John Feal, an advocate for first responders to the September 11 attacks, started a petition in its favor that nearly 187,000 people signed.[30]
The New York Daily News reported:
Business model[edit]
Change.org makes revenue through a subscription membership model and people promoting petitions on the site.[68] In 2013 the organization’s CEO stated its mission: "Our role is to empower people everywhere to create the change they want to see."[69]
Change.org is a for-profit, "venture-backed company that hosts activist petitions written by members of the public, gathers email addresses from signees, and encourages people to circulate the petitions heavily on social media. While for-profit, Change.org is a public benefit company with B Corp status."[70] It has raised $72 million from backers, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Donations through the platform do not go to campaign makers. According to a Change.org spokesperson, "The money raised from petitions goes toward helping the campaign win and helping us build and maintain our technology platform, making it possible for us to provide people with the tools they need to win the change they want to see."[70]
Change.org members contribute monthly to sustain the technology and the small teams of campaigners who coach and support petition starters. Most of the company's revenue is from advertising; individuals and organizations who start or sign petitions then chip in to promote those petitions to other site visitors.
Change.org has raised $50 million from investors in business, technology and the media to date. In 2017 an investment round driven by Reid Hoffman helped drive the shift to the current business model.
After its inception, the website made revenue by running advertisements for advocacy organizations such as Amnesty International[71]
and list-building services to partner organizations.[72]
In May 2013, the website started "crowd-promoted petitions" that allowed a signatory to promote the petition by paying $5 to $1000 at the final stage of petition signing.
Criticism[edit]
Allegation of fake signatures[edit]
In 2018, Anne Savage, the CEO of Bicycle Queensland, claimed that a prominent Australian anti-cycling petition on Change.org was full of false names. She said Bicycle Queensland had received information that electronic "bots" created many names. A spokesperson for Change.org denied that the signatures were fake, saying that the organization's engineering team had double-checked the petition and confirmed there was no unusual activity.[62]
Visibility of personal information[edit]
Under certain conditions, signatures and other private information, including email addresses, can be found by search engines. Change.org operates a system for signature hiding, which works only if the user has an account on Change.org.[73] Conversely, the platform has been criticized for not providing enough information on who has signed a petition, such as a means of verifying that a petition protesting a politician has been signed by their constituents or that the signatures are genuine at all.
Nonprofit status and .org versus .com[edit]
Change.org is a Delaware General Corporation Law-organized benefit corporation and certified B corporation. This has resulted in debate and criticism[74][75] of its use of the .org domain suffix rather than the commercial .com. The site has been accused of fooling its users and hiding that it is "a for-profit entity with an economic incentive to get people to sign petitions."
Research[edit]
Change.org has attracted the interest of researchers working in the field of civic technology. In a quantitative analysis of the website's data, researchers found that while some users can be identified as natural "power" users, average users also learn from their experience; the Change.org recommendation system reinforces their willingness to continue using the website through tailored recommendations, turning them into "power" users.[88] Research also suggests that petitions containing positive emotions have higher chances of success, while petitions appealing to moral and cognitive content are less likely to be successful.[89] Another study examining a data set of 3.9 million signers of petitions across 132 countries showed that men and women have different policy priorities and that even though women create fewer petitions than men, their petitions are more likely to be more successful.[90][91]
