Petitions rarely work but always pay off
By: Ritu Viswanathan
Tags: Activism

On any given day, we’re more likely to witness a blue moon than a successful petition (only 1% of petitions succeed while there’s always a 3% chance of a blue moon).

Why then do so many organisations rely heavily on this form of advocacy to further their causes?

Because they realise that the true power of a petition lies outside of its result.

5 reasons why an unsuccessful petition is still a victory

1. Sparks awareness at scale

Most people like to be associated with a progressive society, but their busy routines leave them little time to analyse and contribute to political, social, and environmental growth. Even the few people that identify an issue prefer to keep back until their social circles validate their concern (in social psychology, this behavior is called pluralistic ignorance). In other words, an issue is either not their problem, or, it’s not an issue yet.

This is why petitions need to remain the bedrock of your advocacy efforts.

They draw attention to issues hiding in plain sight and validate the hunches that your audiences have about them, with social proof.

In 2019, when a chain of isolated environmental protests broke out in Indonesia, Change.org realized that there were bigger concerns bubbling beneath. By raising numerous, targeted, petitions, the organization successfully validated the concerns of over 1.3 million citizens, encouraged them to speak up, and ultimately created a permanent impact on the country’s environmental development.

Here’s an overview of the different petitions raised:

Thanks to the explosive growth of online communication, your petition is now only a tweet, text, or email away from millions of other socially responsible individuals across the world. Spread the word about your petition through captivating tweets, personalized emails, or relevant events, and the strength of your cause is sure to grow leaps and bounds.

This tweet by Emma Watson, launching the heforshe campaign on gender equality, sparked over 1.3 billion conversations on social media:

Eventually, many countries including the USA, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the UK joined the cause.

2. Solidifies commitment — turns hunches to signatures

While successfully voicing your cause to the masses, a petition also goes a step further and wins you a solid indicator of commitment: signatures.

Research affirms that a signature can have lasting effects on the social and political behavior of an individual.

This means, with every signature on your petition, you’ve potentially earned:

an ambassador for your cause (one way that people validate their judgement is by spreading it)

a loyal supporter for your future campaigns

better chances of raising funds (people are 7 times more likely to donate to your cause if they’ve seen your petition before)

Bonding beyond slacktivism:

Digital activists have an additional hurdle to cross: Slacktivism. Although e-signatures have helped the public express consent effortlessly, they seem to exert only a weak, transient, influence on the signatories.

Fortunately, there are a few ways you can nudge out slacktivism and ensure that your supporters remain committed to your cause:

Consider using the self select PIN option to collect signatures as it has proved to elicit better accountability

Hold the attention of your supporters with regular updates about the progress of the petition

Recognise your supporters’ contributions by listing them in your newsletters and other channels of communication

3. Curates insights for your future campaigns

Petitions collect vast troves of qualitative and quantitative data that can help you:

understand the concerns of the public and reflect on your agendas

collect data for your future campaigns

discover communities that you can approach for further advocacy

How data collected for a local petition in Greece helped weed out global environmental threats:

In 2008, as an attempt at modernisation, the Greek government leased a large portion of the Cretan landscape to foreign developers for building golf resorts.

Knowing fully well the environmental significance of the landscape and the lasting damage the project can cause, two professors, Dr.Oliver Rackham and Dr.Jennifer Moody, initiated the “Save the Cretan landscape” petition and eventually led it to victory.

What surprised even the petitioners though, was the series of events that unfolded soon after. The localized petition had grown into a global concern, solely based on the comments collected from the signatories.

Over 500 scientists, practitioners, and consultants, had supported their signatures with comments drawing parallels between the project and global patterns of environmental damage caused by modernization. This had then prompted researchers to dig out and act on numerous other threats to environmentally and culturally important places.

The success story of this petition was filmed as a documentary titled “A Thousand Lost Golf Balls” and turned a lot of heads at the Greek film festival.

In some cases, supporters may also divulge personal details like age, sex, occupation, and special interests. If you effectively collect and segment this information, you can tailor your messages to each kind of supporter, and draw them in for other activities of your campaigns.

Adopting this approach was key to the success of a seven-day climate strike organized by 350.org.

How 350.org used their petition as a data acquisition tool:

Right at the spot of their bustling climate strike, the organization gathered thorough information about the participants using an SMS-opt-in tool. Then, they strategically used this information to recruit a larger number of supporters for their future campaigns.

Here’s how the elegant data acquisition strategy unfolded at the strike:

Over 2000 supporters who had turned up for their first strike, were enabled to consent to further communication simply by texting a keyword to a number.

Automatic follow up questions about their schools and grades were sent to these supporters as soon as they signed up.

The supporters were then segmented into lists based on this information, and then a peer-to-peer texting tool was used to approach them with messages targeted to their interests.

By consistently keeping up with contacts using these tools, the organisers saw a positive response rate of 22% for their last campaign!

4. Turns up the pressure on decision-makers

If your petition demands a political or parliamentary change, the odds of success are even lower. But the good news is, the stakes are high for the decision makers. Even if your appeal doesn’t yield immediate success, a sizable number of signatures should be good enough to make the politician think “have I risked my reputation by not backing this idea?” or “how many voters would this decision have cost me?

Once the credibility backing your petition instills fear (a tried and tested persuader) in the opposition, the change you’re fighting for, is well within sight, already.

Let’s not forget that even the most popular campaigns like marriage equality had to sustain multiple petitions over many years until the government finally conceded ground.

5. Represents your organisation in a good light

Petitions make for a great first impression. They introduce you to new audiences at a time when you’re exhibiting and acting on your goodwill — and that says a lot!

So if a well-thought-out appeal is the first interaction a person has with your organisation, you’ve probably gained their trust forever. This means, a petition can recruit support not just for your current cause, but for your future campaigns too.

Moreover, a petition also reiterates your values and ideas to your existing donor-base, thereby strengthening your relationships with them.

Now you know why, even with their discouraging history, petitions continue to be irresistible to advocacy groups! They rarely succeed, but never fail to aid the cause.

So, the next question — is there any way at all to improve the chances of success for a petition?

Key steps to building persuasive petition

Even while there is no proven success formula for a petition, there are a few things you can do to maximise the reach of your appeal:

Refine your cause into a concise statement. “If you can’t summarize the ‘ask’ of your petition in one clear and concise sentence, it’s probably too broad,” insists Carly Quaglio, Associate Client Manager at Change.org. Consider this petition statement against advertisers funding newspapers that publish racist content:

“We’re making hate unprofitable by persuading advertisers to pull their support from publications that spread hate and division.”

In addition to making the good-will behind the message resonant, the petitioner asks for a specific, reasonable, step towards ending racial discriminiation.

2. Use images or videos to support your statement. For instance, this petition against live export of animals, uses an agonizing visual to signify the need for change:

3. Choose a decision-maker who is accountable and within reach. Governments and institutions often have intricate hierarchical ladders. So take short, calculated, steps based on your ask. Is a local leader equipped enough to resolve your issue? If yes, approach them first

4. Share your petitions on your website, social media handles, emails, and other channels of communication.

The phrase “black lives matter”, supporting a movement against racially motivated violence, is the third most popular hashtag in the history of Twitter with over 13.3 million tweets in 3 years!

To sum up, your petition, irrespective of its result, is not the end of your campaign, only the beginning of it. Continue to raise effective petitions, integrate them into your bigger advocacy strategies, and you’re well on your way to make a difference.

Change is the only constant, after all!