A guide to using petition updates to strengthen support for your cause

Starting in 2017, animal rights advocate Gary Sweeney brought his supporters along on the journey to pass legislation in Virginia requiring dog owners to keep their pets indoors during extreme temperatures. 

In dozens of updates over three years, Gary kept his petition supporters informed on the progress of his campaign to enact a bill protecting dogs from life threatening conditions. He also motivated them to see the movement all the way through until it finally achieved its goal. In his final update in April 2020, he announced to over 1 million supporters that the governor signed the bill into law.

Gary’s petition started out with 1,000 signatures one day after he launched it, and through his diligent advocacy and updates to galvanize his supporters, it gained massive momentum. The Change.org petition update tool is a powerful and proven way to get more signatures and increase engagement from supporters.

Learn more about petition updates and the best ways to use them to get the best results for your cause.

How the petition update tool works

Once you start a petition, you can use the update tool to share information, developments, and calls to action with your supporters. When you’re logged into your account, simply choose the “update supporters” option from the top of your petition page, write your update, and publish! 

The update will be public on your petition page and all of your current supporters will get an email notification about the update once it’s published. 

Best practices for using petition updates

Updates can show how your movement is progressing, evolving, and shifting to demonstrate the impact of your supporters and how they can continue to participate in its growth and success. Here are some effective ways you can use petition updates.

Share any relevant news or developments 

After you start your petition and use it as a tool to raise awareness for your cause, the movement around it will take shape. You’ll start getting signatures, and you might have interactions with decision makers, get media coverage, hit certain milestones, or run into obstacles. That’s all part of the process of building a movement. 

Those are also all opportunities to share that information with your petition signers. For example, Gary’s petition had updates for every growth spurt, setback, twist, and turn, like:

• When he met with decision-makers and people in a position of influence or power to advance his efforts, like when he met with a congressman and a delegate from Virginia’s House Agriculture Subcommittee, and gained support from The Human Society.
• Anytime the petition or movement as a whole earned news or media coverage, like the success story in The Washington Post; his interviews on ABC and NBC; and petition coverage by CBS, WDBJ7, and The Bristol Herald Courier
• Significant signature growth, like when the petition surpassed 20,000 supporters
• Meeting key milestones, like when the House bill was submitted and filed, when the Senate version of the bill passed in the Virginia Senate, and when both the House and the Senate bills moved on to the Governor’s desk.
• Anytime the campaign hit a snag, like when the original House bill was killed, and the Senate bill was killed and sent back to the House.

The good news boosts morale among supporters and attracts new supporters, and the not-so-good-news can also inspire more support and put pressure on decision makers. 

Organize actions and mobilize supporters to participate

Updates are a practical and convenient tool to plan actions and encourage supporters to participate. You can use updates to urge supporters to help with initiatives like: 

• Writing emails and making phone calls to legislators to advocate for your cause
• Voting for specific ballot measures and policies
• Attending events like protests, rallies, City Council meetings, and other community meetings
• Helping fundraise or making donations to support the goals of your campaign

Using Gary’s petition as an example again, he strategically used updates to organize and mobilize his supporters. In one update, he instructed his supporters to contact their state representative asking them to support the law to protect dogs, and provided a resource to find the appropriate contact information. He also used updates as a fundraising tool, asking supporters to make donations for filming videos to promote the campaign and other expenses.

Encourage supporters to share and promote the petition

Keeping supporters engaged and motivated is another key benefit of petition updates. You can rally supporters to help share your petition online and through word of mouth to gather more signatures. For example, Gary used an update to ask his supporters to share the petition on social media and tag people to get their attention and add their signature. 

Sharing updates builds community

Tapping into the impact of petition updates is a way to invite supporters to extend their involvement beyond a one-time signature. By sending them inspiring updates to grow the movement, deepen their advocacy by participating in actions, and celebrate important achievements, they can be a part of something bigger. 

Take the next step for a cause that matters to you and start a petition.