Change.org is a website which allows users to create and sign petitions in an attempt 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 583 million users as of May 2026. Petitions often focus on causes such as general justice, economic justice, criminal justice, human rights, education, environmental protection, animal rights, cyber bullying, health, religious freedom, and sustainable food.
The site also provides support and coaching for organizations and paid members to help further advance their causes. Along with being a petitions platform, the website also has two other pillars: Change.vote (for elections information) and Ideas for Change (local deliberations).
History Change.org was launched in 2007 by current chief executive Ben Rattray, with the support of founding chief technology officer Mark Dimas, Darren Haas, and Adam Cheyer.
In 2011, Change.org claimed it was the subject of a distributed denial of service attack by "Chinese hackers." The alleged attack was related to its petition to the Chinese government to release artist Ai Weiwei.
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.
By February 2012, the site had 100 employees with offices on four continents.
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.
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. 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, 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.
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.
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.
Notable petitions
Australia In 2018, an anonymous creator of a Facebook community against bike riders started a Change.org anti-cycling petition that shortly reached over 100,000 signatures. Allegedly, some of the names on the petition are fake.
In 2019, a petition was created to remove Senator Fraser Anning from the Australian Federal Parliament after his comments on the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. Anning blamed immigration laws, the victims and heightened fears of Muslims for the attack. As of March 24, 2019, the petition has 1,418,105 signatures, making it one of the most signed petitions on Change.org and the highest concerning Australian affairs.
On July 3, 2015, a 14-year-old girl began a petition to ensure that domestic violence prevention is covered in the Australian curriculum. The campaign was started to raise awareness for people who were unaware they were domestic violence victims. After the campaign, Minister Pru Goward announced that the school districts would introduce domestic violence education into schools. The campaign had 101,747 supporters.
In August 2024, an anonymous petition was posted calling for an investigation into the conduct of Rachael Gunn, Anna Meares, and the selection process, garnered thousands of signatures. This petition aimed to hold Gunn accountable for "unethical conduct" at the games, also accusing Raygun of "manipulating the selection process" while calling for a public apology from both Gunn and Meares. The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief executive Matt Carroll demanded the petition be withdrawn, saying it amounted to "bullying and harassment and is defamatory" and that the AOC was especially offended by the insult to Meares. It stated that the Australian selection was made by 9 independent international judges, and that Gunn was nominated legitimately by DanceSport Australia to the AOC for selection. Gunn is not any kind of officeholder with AUSBreaking nor DanceSport, and no athlete appealed against her selection. The petition was withdrawn by Change.org on 15 August 2024.
In August 2024, a petition targeting Rachael Gunn and Olympic Chef de Mission Anna Meares was launched, accusing Gunn of unethical conduct in her Olympic selection. The petition quickly amassed over 45,000 signatures but was removed by Change.org after being condemned by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) as "defamatory and misleading". The AOC described the petition as "disgraceful" and harmful, emphasizing that Gunn's selection process was transparent and followed the World DanceSport Federation's approved qualification system. However, Change.org upheld its community guidelines by removing the petition for violating its policies against harassment and spreading false information.
Brazil On March 15, 2021, Supreme Federal Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes's impeachment request received more than 4,770,000 signatures.
On October 13, 2017, 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.
United States 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."
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.
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. The character was brought back to the show a few episodes later. 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.
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.
The New York Daily News reported: Lifetime health benefits for sickened 9/11 first responders won overwhelming approval Friday from Congress after a long and contentious battle. The House and the Senate both voted to extend the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, giving coverage to those afflicted with Ground Zero-related health woes for the next 75 years. [...] In addition to extending the healthcare program for first responders and others suffering lingering 9/11 health issues, Congress renewed the Victims Compensation Fund for another five years to aid first responders too sick to work and their families.
After the 2016 United States presidential election, in which Donald Trump was declared President-elect of the United States, there were mass protests. As part of these protests, one California man started a petition on November 10, 2016, calling for electors in states that Trump won to become faithless electors and cast their vote for Hillary Clinton at state Electoral College meetings. The petition acquired over 4 million signatures by November 14, 2016, only four days after it started. By November 23, 2016, it had gotten 4.5 million signatures. The petition ultimately failed when, on December 19, 2016, Trump officially gained the presidency with 304 electors. The petition closed with 4.9 million signatures, the highest in the platform's history, until March 5, 2019, when it was surpassed by a petition opposing Article 13 of the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which held the #1 spot until 2020.
On November 3, 2017, Netflix fired Kevin Spacey, following sexual assault claims against the actor. It stalled the production of the sixth and final season of the television series in which Spacey starred on the network House of Cards. Following Spacey's dismissal, a petition created on November 2, 2017, calling for Spacey to be replaced by actor Kevin James began gaining many supporters. After its inception, the petition gained media notability, obtaining 50,000 supporters within eight days.
In the wake of the Logan Paul suicide video controversy, user "... - .- -.-- .- .-.. .. ...- ." ("stay alive" in Morse code) created a petition entitled "Delete Logan Paul's YouTube Channel", receiving more than 720,000 signatures. While numerous other petitions have been made for the same purpose, they have yet to obtain as much attention. No action was taken.
On July 14, 2019, an online petition titled "The Immediate Halt to the Construction of the TMT Telescope" was posted on Change.org in protest against the Thirty Meter Telescope. The petition gathered over 278,000 signatures.
On May 30, 2020, a petition titled "Justice for George Floyd" was created after unarmed African-American George Floyd was murdered by police, leading to mass protests. The petition earned over 19 million signatures, making it the most signed petition in the platform's history, surpassing the Article 13 opposition petition over a year earlier.
During the Depp v. Heard defamation trial, a petition was created to remove actress Amber Heard from her role as Mera in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It gained 1.5 million signatures within a month of its creation in November 2020 and has since surpassed 4.6 million signatures after the trial was live-streamed publicly in May 2022.
On August 14, 2026, a petition was signed to call on the release of Taylor Frankie Paul's season of The Bachelorette, with 20,000 signatures.
United Kingdom