The Power of The Petition
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This document provides guidance on how to effectively create and promote petitions on the Care2 online community platform. It discusses the multiple goals that petitions can achieve, including raising awareness, increasing civic engagement, and finding new donors/members. Case studies are presented of successful past petitions. The document then offers tips for writing an effective petition call to action, including using clear verbs and explaining the theory of change. Finally, it outlines best practices for launching, promoting, and delivering petitions to their target through email, social media, and in-person events.
The Power of The Petition
- 1. @bethgranter UK Campaigner THE WORLD’S LARGEST ONLINE COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE, BRANDS, AND CHARITIES COMING TOGETHER FOR THE GREATER GOOD.
- 2. AGENDA Introduction to Care2 Why use petitions? Case studies: petitions that made an impact How to write an effective petition Petition promotion Petition delivery
- 3. Using advocacy, community and engagement to find new supporters and donor leads
- 4. Why a petition? Petition goals Petitions can help to achieve more than a single objective: • Pressure a target by showing public support for an issue • Increase chances of media coverage for an issue, • Raise public awareness of an issue AND a solution • Increase your brand awareness • Improve your brand identity • Engage new and existing supporters • Find out MPs’ voting intention / views on an issue • Drive voting behaviour by increasing civic engagement • Generate new warm contacts to convert into donors/members
- 5. Case studies: petitions that had an impact • USDAW / TUC - Philip Green-BHS pensions • FBU - Manchester firefighters • IWGB - Deliveroo • Fox hunting – against repealing the ban • East Sussex mental health cuts • Badger cub culling • Abortion rights
- 23. How to write an effective petition An effective petition will have a strong call to action – asking people to do something and explaining why they should do it. An effective call to action has: A verb. An expected outcome. A theory of change. A sense of urgency. Reader-centered language.
- 24. How to write an effective petition 1. A verb. What is the action you want the reader to take? Without a verb, the reader has no clear sense of agency or role in your Care2 campaign. ✓ Tell MPs to ensure equal pay for women ✗ Pay discrimination is wrong
- 25. How to write an effective petition 2. An expected outcome. Readers need to know the end goal for the action — not just what the problem is. ✓ Save polar bear homes from harmful drilling ✗ Polar bear habitat at risk
- 26. How to write an effective petition 3. A theory of change - a reasonable explanation as to why a reader’s action will lead to the desired outcome. ✓ The more people join our movement, the more pressure we can put on the Government to re-nationalise our railways. ✗ Help us get our railways back. Sign up now.
- 27. How to write an effective petition 4. A sense of urgency. ✓ The Council are meeting to discuss the cuts next week. Please sign my petition now to ask the Council to protect frontline services. ✗ Please sign my petition against cutting frontline services.
- 28. How to write an effective petition 5. Reader centered language. ✓ Could you survive on £8 a day? If you lost your job, like hundreds of others in the UK, you could quickly find yourself homeless and hungry. Demand an end to benefit caps. ✗ People are being left with only £8 a day in benefits. Demand an end to benefit caps.
- 29. Petition launch and promotion Once the petition is launched the following steps will help it gain signatures: • Email to existing supporters • Publish on your Facebook and Twitter • Directly ask influential advocates to sign and RT on Twitter • Email bloggers • Press release once a good number of signatures achieved, including delivery plan
- 33. Petition delivery • 1. Email to target with selected comments from signers and signature PDF file • 2. Email blast with each signature creating a separate email sent to target • 3. Private meeting with delivery target • 4. Public meeting/rally outside delivery target office Work with on-the-ground activists on a petition delivery plan:
- 41. Beth granter campaigner Email: bethg@care2team.com Twitter: @bethgranter THANK YOU