Ideas for Change in America

What is Ideas for Change in America?

Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven project that aims to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and 111th Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies.

The project was created in the wake of the 2008 Presidential Election in response to President-elect Barack Obama's call for increased civic participation in America. It is not connected to the Obama campaign or the administration.

Who's behind it?

Ideas for Change in America is a project of Change.org, an online community and media network for social issues, in partnership with more than 50 leading organizations, including MySpace, techPresident, the Sunlight Foundation, Netroots Nation, Declare Yourself, Student PIRGs, Voto Latino, HeadCount, and Change Congress.

How does it work?

From November 24 – December 31, 2008, Change.org accepted more than 7,783 submissions for ideas and over 288,694 votes from people across America. The idea submission window closed on on December 31, 2008, and the top 3 rated ideas from each of nearly 30 issue categories qualified for the second and final voting round. Final round voting runs from January 5 - January 15.

On January 16, Change.org and the Case Foundation are co-hosting an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to announce the top 10 rated ideas and then launch a national campaign behind each idea and mobilize the collective energy of the millions of members of Change.org, MySpace, and partner organizations to ensure that each winning idea gets the full consideration of the Obama Administration and Members of Congress.

What should my idea be about?

The mission of Ideas for Change in America is to identify and advance concrete solutions to the major challenges confronting the country, and we welcome any ideas consistent with this vision. Ideas that conflict with the spirit of this mission, that look backward instead of forward, that express values without offering solutions, that offer solutions which won't receive serious consideration by either the Obama administration or the 111th Congress, that are intended to attack others, or are otherwise offensive are not eligible for the second round. We reserve the right to remove any ideas that violate these stated principles.

Does my idea have to be original?

No. While we encourage you to take an original approach, you may submit an idea originally conceived by someone else. However, we encourage you to cite original source of the idea if known, and you may not directly copy text from an idea posted by another user.

Copyright Policy

Content on the Ideas for Change in America site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to the Ideas for Change in America website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Change.org under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Creative Commons License Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

More About our Partners

We are currently compiling a press page with overviews of each of our dozens of nonprofit partners. See an example overview for one of our lead partners, Declare Yourself, below.

Declare Yourself is a nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign to empower every eligible American, 18-to-29 years old, to register, and vote in the 2008 presidential election—and beyond. Declare Yourself has pledged to continue to give young people a strong voice and exciting channels of civic participation in the years ahead. Declare Yourself's initiative drew on the power of direct youth outreach and innovative sponsorships with entities such as MySpace, MTV, Google, AOL, Yahoo! and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Over 2.2 million young people used Declare Yourself's various on-line registration initiatives. More than four million received text reminders on their cell phones to register and vote. Over 5.1 million people viewed Declare Yourself's line-up of viral video and TV PSAs; Declare Yourself's "Only You Can Silence Yourself" print and video campaign featuring Jessica Alba and Hayden Panettiere received more than 100 million media impressions through print outlets such as Rolling Stone, Time, Seventeen, Sports Illustrated and People. In 2003, Declare Yourself launched its initiative with The Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a nationwide multimedia exhibit and tour of Norman Lear's original copy of the Declaration.