Create Your Petition

Creating a high-quality petition gives you the best chance of achieving the change you want. By including a memorable headline, a compelling image, carefully selecting your decision maker and using strong storytelling, you can create a petition that will grow support for your cause and win.

What is a petition?

A petition is a written document requesting some type of change or request made to an authority figure. Getting multiple signatures from different individuals shows the degree of support for your cause.

The basic process of creating a petition includes:

• Writing a message and request about the change you’d like to see and why

• Choosing the petition decision maker

• Asking others to sign your petition

• Delivering the petition to the recipient

Choose your topic

The first step in creating a petition is to choose a topic that is meaningful to you. If you don't already have a specific action in mind, get started by thinking about your broad interests, such as animal welfare. Then, think about how to narrow down your issue into a specific action item. 

Craft a plan for not only what you'd like to see happen, but also how to achieve that goal and how to measure its success. The more detail the better — you want to grab the reader's attention and convince them to sign your petition. 

By choosing a compelling topic with clear steps, you'll set yourself up for a successful petition campaign that earns plenty of signatures.

Your headline is your first opportunity to engage readers with your petition and make it clear what change you want.

Name specific places, organizations, or people

Potential supporters want to know if this petition is relevant to them or their community. Naming the the community or groups impacted will capture attention. Be thoughtful about using CAPS or extra punctuation (!!!) which can be interpreted as a sensationalized headline, and may be unappealing to potential supporters.

Start with an action verb

Readers want to know specifically what change you want to make so they can decide whether to sign your petition. Your headline is the place to focus on the solution. Common action words for petitions are “keep, stop, save, ban, grant, oppose, add, start.”

Use a hook

Get people’s attention by making your headline emotional and urgent. Make it clear who is affected and why you care. If there are key dates or time pressure on your petition, include that information too.

A decision maker is a person in an authority position who has the ability to help implement the change you seek. This could include a politician, an influencer, or a business person. Once you have a specific goal for your petition, you can figure out who this person (or persons) should be. For instance, elected officials can help with legal issues, while a business leader could help make changes in the private sector.

Gather information about your selected decision maker to include in the petition. By including an email address for the right decision makers, you can let them know about your petition and give readers confidence that your petition can win.

Pick people, not a group or organization

Unlike an organization, you can hold people directly accountable. Make your decision maker the person or people within an organization who are responsible for your solution or who you need to convince. For example “Lord Mayor Jane Smith” rather than “Sydney City Council.”

Choose someone directly responsible

It’s better to target the people who can give you what you want rather than more senior, public figures. Someone directly responsible can make a decision and implement your solution faster. They are also more sensitive to public pressure because they aren’t used to it.

Include their email

Change.org will automatically notify your decision maker when a petition is set up and when it gets signatures. So it’s important to include the right email address. To find it you can:

• Use internet searches and check inside PDF documents like conference presentations or board papers.

• Use the company email convention and try variations. For example to contact Tallah Smith you might try t.smith@company.com, tallah@company.com, smith@company.com, tallah.smith@company.com. The email that doesn’t bounce is right!

• Call and ask!

A good movie grabs and holds our attention because it includes all the elements of successful storytelling. Petitions are no different!

The below petition is a good example of good storytelling because:

The issue and people affected are introduced up front
A personal story can help drive empathy and drive those not familiar with the people involved, or the issue, to sign your petition. It’s important to capture attention in the first few paragraphs!

It is emotional
Emotive language can help potential signers engage with the emotional toll of the issue and help them step into your shoes to understand the reality of the situation.

There is a sense of hope
Make it clear what you hope to achieve and how you can do so with the help of signers.

The stakes are high
Detail what will happen if the outcome isn’t achieved - detail the obstacles that stand in the way and the personal stakes and emotion tied to this outcome. Make it clear what happens if you win and what happens if you lose.

It's watching my beautiful 2 year old play that shatters me most now. I was diagnosed with an aggressive melanoma cancer fourteen years ago. It devastated us. 

What's been keeping me alive – and giving us hope that I'll beat this awful disease is new wonder drug MK-3475, but because the government is still yet to put it on the PBS we're going broke and could have my cancer treatment cut short.

Doctors around the world say MK-3475 could save my life and many others. Just trialling the drug has reduced my tumour size by 70%. It's costing us $10,500 every 3 weeks and we can't afford to self-fund the hugely expensive treatment much longer. 

I can't believe that the cancer drug that could save my life is slipping out of reach because of these mindless government delays.

They need to put it on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme immediately. It's what doctors, cancer sufferers and experts are all saying. And we've got a chance to convince the government to act in the next few weeks before they meet in March. 

This decision could mean life or death for me. It could mean seeing my little boy grow up or not. But this is about more than just my family. 1,400 people are dying from melanoma every year in Australia – it's one of the biggest, silent killers. Yet we're dragging behind the US and Japan in approving this new treatment.

Please, Mr Abbott – don't let cancer sufferers like me die waiting for this drug, add MK-3475 to the PBS immediately. Step in and do something to help us. We're begging you.

Thank you for reading, and please sign my petition to add your support. 

Shane, Danielle and 2 year-old Jett Raishe

Choose an image or add a video

Along with your headline, your image or video will be the first thing that readers see. Your image or video is also the image that will be seen when people share your petition on social media. Here are a few tips on what to do and what to avoid.

Show emotion
A great photo captures the emotion of your petition and tells a story in an instant. Close up photos of photos of people or animals showing positive or negative emotions work well. Here’s an example of two images used for the same petition: Stop the creation of a local puppy mill

The first image led to more signatures than the second image because it is simple, a close up, and conveys emotion.

Keep composition simple with strong color contrast

Busy images with a lot of detail can be overwhelming and easy to skip. Stick to images that are simple, straightforward and showcase contrasting colors. Here’s an example of two images used for the same petition: Save Pick Your Own Farms

The first image led to more signatures than the second image because it is simple, specific to the title, and has high color contrast.

Avoid images with text

It may seem counter-intuitive, but images with logos, text, and graphics consistently underperform compared to images without them. Often times petition creators who do not have image will create one. The vast majority of the time, a stock image will generate more signatures then an image with text. This is one of the most common mistakes we see!

Avoid busy images

Avoid creating collages with multiple images. Instead add multiple individual images to the petition. Busy images distract the reader rather than focusing them on the important details. Here’s an example for the petition: Introduce deaf awareness training for all teachers

Use images of public figures or local landmarks

If your petition is specific to a company or addressing a company or public figure, use them in your image. They are likely to be easily recognizable and provide additional context alongside a clear petition title

Look for photos online

The best photo is one that you own. But if you don’t have a photo, you can search sites like Flickr or Google Images. Use the advanced search options to find large size images that the creator has licensed for reuse. Be sure to look for photos tagged with a creative commons license. This means it's free to use and doesn't infringe any copyright laws. Most stock photo websites include details on whether an image is licensed for reuse. Try to upload photos that are 1600 x 900 pixels or larger so they look good on all screen sizes.

Conclusion

Petitions are one of the most powerful and effective tools of democratized activism. While it can be intimidating or daunting to think about writing a petition, the steps are clear and easy. Get started today. We’re here to help you on your path to inspire the change you want to see in the world.