About Ideas for Change in America
What is Ideas for Change in America?
Ideas for Change in America is a crowd-sourcing competition that empowers citizens to identify and build
momentum around the most innovative ideas for addressing challenges our country faces.
This is the second annual ideas competition powered by Change.org. We launched the first competition immediately
following the 2008 presidential election, during which time people across the country submitted more than 7,500
ideas and 650,000 votes.
How it Works
Beginning January 20, 2010, individuals and organizations everywhere can go to www.change.org/ideas to (1) submit
ideas for change they want to see implemented, (2) discuss these ideas with others, and (3) vote for their favorite
ideas from around the country and promote them across the web.
During the first round of voting, ideas will be organized into 20 different issue-based categories. First round
voting ends at 5pm ET on February 18th, at which point the three top ranked ideas in each category will advance to
the second (and final) round of voting, starting February 22, 2010. In this final round, all 60 qualifying ideas
(top three in each of 20 categories) will be in open competition. The final round of voting concludes at 5pm ET on
March 4th, and the 10 most popular ideas at the conclusion of voting will be named winners – the “Top 10 Ideas for
Change in America.”
The Top 10 Ideas for Change in America
To formally announce the winners, Change.org will host an event in Washington, DC, where each of these top 10 ideas will be presented to representatives of the media, the nonprofit community, and to relevant officials in the Obama Administration. After the announcement, Change.org will mobilize the full resources of our staff, our 1 million community members, and our extended network of bloggers to support a series of grassroots campaigns to turn each idea into reality.
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 are hateful or discriminatory, that look backward instead of forward, that express values without offering serious solutions, that are intended to attack others, or are otherwise offensive are not eligible to advance to the final round of the competition. 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 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Who's behind it?
Ideas for Change in America is an initiative of Change.org, in partnership with more than 50 leading
nonprofit partner organizations.
Change.org is an online hub for social change. We run leading online communities for 20 major causes ranging from
homelessness to women's rights to poverty, and through a team of 50 expert writers and 4,000 nonprofit partners,
we serve as a platform for launching and promoting movements for social change on the web.
