If you’re passionate about creating a change, no matter how small, and are looking forward to amplifying your voice, these six websites to start an online petition can give you a platform.
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What Is An Online Petition and Do They Really Work?
An online petition is similar to a real-life petition. The only difference is that instead of gathering physical applications, the signatures are collected online.
Similar to real-life petitions, you can bring massive momentum to your cause by adding more people to it. The more compelling your argument is, the more people will connect to it and help you spread awareness for it. They can align themselves with your cause by simply clicking a button, and further sharing it with their peers.
As far as their effectiveness goes, it depends on the type and platform of your petition. A hollow argument will be shunned quickly by the public, whereas a strong motive and correct propagation will gain a lot of traction.
But one thing’s for sure, online petitions are far more effective at reaching a larger audience and turning more eyes. If executed properly, internet petitions have a huge potential to voice out your opinions till it reaches the concerned authorities.
How to Promote An Online Petition And Get More People To Sign It?
Online petitions are a powerful tool in the hands of people who know how to reach millions of people. Knowing how to get in touch with people you’ve never seen before can make or break the momentum of your cause. So, how do you make your voice heard? Let’s go over some simple methods you can follow to reach out to a wider audience.
Ask Your Friends and Family To Join
The first step of your successful online petition includes getting the support of your friends and family. Since these are the people in your immediate contact, you can send them mail and ask them directly to join your cause.
Share Your Petition On Social Media
If advertised correctly on social media, online petitions can catch the fire they need to go viral very quickly. You just need to follow their guidelines, avoid spamming, and precisely schedule posts to maximize your reach and engagement.
Social media is an excellent platform where you can find like-minded people who are already propagating a similar cause. On websites like Facebook and Reddit, you can find relevant communities or groups and spread your ideas there. It is very likely that some people will connect with you via comments, feed, or even direct messages.
Twitter is another excellent platform to reach millions of people. However, you should also use relevant hashtags so that your tweet pops up in the search results of other people.
Keep Sharing Updates
You must have heard the phrase “out of sight, out of mind”. That’s exactly why it’s important to keep sharing updates related to your cause with the people who have already connected. It improves the chances of growing the awareness circle and getting more people to join your cause. And as always, you can personally ask your followers to share your online petition with their circle.
Post The Link In Relevant Articles And Blogs
Another way to gain mass reach is piggybacking your way to the top. You can visit relevant articles and blog posts that propagate the same, or a similar idea as yours. There, you can share the link to your online petition and wait for interested people to sign up with your cause.
Now that we know how to promote a petition, let’s move on to the list. Here are some of the best sites to start an online petition
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1. Change.org
Change.org is one of the most popular sites for starting an online petition. You can easily create and run a campaign in a couple of steps and your petition will be ready to get circulated to the world. Since it already has a ton of traffic, your petition is more likely to get noticed there.
Just visit the site, click on “Start a petition” and choose a suitable category for your cause. Then, you’ll have to give a title to your petition, add prominent people or organization(s) with the power to solve your problem and fill in a few other details. Once you’re done creating a petition, it’s time to maximize its reach by sharing it among your friends and social media handles.
Additionally, you can support other petitions already posted on the website and donate to certain causes as well. These actions can be carried out for free. However, If you are an activist willing to contribute, you can sign up for their membership plan and which starts with just $3 and you will also receive monthly impact reports.
Pros:
- Highly popular worldwide
- Remarkable success rate
- Millions of active users
Cons:
- Lengthy process to start a petitions
2. The Petition Site
The Petition Site is an online platform where you can easily create an online petition in just a few clicks. The team behind The Petition Site understands your need of the hour and therefore, has segmented the process of starting an online petition into three easy to follow and simple steps.
You just have to visit the site, add information regarding the petition and send it off to create the impact. The best part is that you have an option to customize your petition page to make it more appealing for the population of the targeted audiences.
The site attracts activists from around the world and they participate in the petitions quite frequently as per their liking. So meanwhile, you’re focused on raising an issue, The Petition Site ensures its optimal reach.
Pros:
- Very easy to setup
- Easy customization options
- “Activist University” assists you to become an effective petitioner
Cons:
- No option for donation
3. iPetitions
Next up on our list, we have iPetitions, a website that makes creating a petition as easy as posting your updates on Instagram. This free-to-use website has collected over 44 million signatures with hundreds of successful petitions.
The basic process of getting started with a petition is free, however, you can promote a cause that you care for by donating. And in the same way, you can also set up a donation funnel and collect generous donations through your petitions. However, the best part of this platform is it only takes a few minutes to publish a petition and you don’t need to fill out any lengthy forms.
iPetitions also offers an intuitive dashboard from where you can also keep track of the progress of your petition in real-time. You can also reach out and build a community of people with the same interest.
Apart from offering you tools to start a petition, this website also offers you a detailed real-time analysis of how well your petition is performing.
Pros:
- Add questionnaires revolving around your cause, design your petition form and start a blog.
- Live signature tracking to analyze your petition’s performance
Cons:
- Language Restriction
4. GoPetition
GoPetition offers you a variety of options to optimize your petition’s reach and visibility on Google.
Starting a new petition here is fairly easy. You just have to fill in the basic details, launch your campaign and promote it to gather some attention. Using GoPetition’s built-in features, you can include a customized questionnaire and express more about your petition in an interactive way.
Additionally, you can also join a messaging panel where you can discuss your petition or your cause with like-minded people.
You can further analyze your petition by using a location-wise map indicating where your signers belong to. And you can make sure that only the appropriate audience is joining with your cause by using GoPetition’s multiple filters. These location insights can also help you target the right audience if you are using any form of paid advertisement.
Pros:
- Features like spam prevention, IP address blocker, etc.
- Gets visits from across the globe
- You can follow the causes you are interested in and receive regular updates
- Notable media presence
Cons:
- No fundraising and donation options
5. Civist
If you have your own blog or any WordPress website, you can use Civist to set up an online petition on your own website.
All you need to do is install a WordPress plugin, register it with Civist and you are all set to launch your first campaign. It adds a ton of functionality to WordPress allowing you to collect donations and build a community.
Civist can keep a track of all your current petition campaigns and also manage payment gateways that allow people to easily send donations. The landing pages it creates are also customizable and you can easily configure which fields (like Name, Location, Email, etc.) you want to display in your petitions signup page.
It also has its own email confirmation service that filters out fake traffic and signatures on your petition. Additionally, it automatically adds verified email addresses into your mailing lists that you can even export in a CSV format.
Pros:
- Very easy to set-up and also offers custom shortcode integration
- Free to use
Cons:
- Limited to the WordPress users only
6. Causes
Unlike other websites on the internet that simply let you create a petition, Causes focuses on the inner workings of the lawmaking bodies and allows you to monitor the bills that are currently being worked on. This website allows the general public to keep a check on their government, and provide direct input by creating their own petitions.
Causes allows you to learn more about the bills discussed by the Congress and track its reception by the house. Furthermore, you can also see how the lawmakers are voting on it, and if you want, you can pass suggestions to your representative on how they should vote.
This tracking system puts the lawmakers under the radar and compels them to act upon your petitions and take them more seriously. You can also interact with people and build a strong network of like-minded people using Causes. As an activist, you can sign a petition, donate to the cause or share it on social media.
When you sign up on the website, you will receive a pop-up that asks for your area zip code. It allows Causes to find your area representative, and you can get in touch with them through the website’s portal.
Apart from letting you start an online petition seamlessly, Causes allows you to add multiple call-to-action (CTA) statements. It helps grab the readers’ attention and increases the number of supporters of your petition.
Pros:
- An action tracker to monitor government’s actions on the petition
- Track record of hosting successful petitions
- Regular updates of Congress’s recent actions
Cons:
- No option to donate
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the best website to start an online petition?
We would recommend Change.org as the best website to start an online petition as it has an incredible record and widespread reach. However, if you want to track the progress of your petition and see how the government is acting on it, Causes.com is a great choice too.
2. Are online petitions legally acceptable?
Online petitions are a great way to showcase social support for a cause. However, they are not as effective as offline petitions as most government bodies are not legally obliged to answer or recognize them.
3. Can you create an online petition for free?
Most of the websites let you create an online petition for free though you might have to pay a small fee to access some of the premium features on a few websites. These features mostly include better customization options like putting up a custom theme or URL.
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