How to activate your community for grassroots action
How to activate your community for grassroots action
What grassroots action is, why it's one of the most effective ways for citizens to hold decision makers accountable.In this guide, learn how to use your supporters as a resource to help grow your campaign by tapping into their skills and passion. Find out the most effective direct actions to take based on insights from over 50 petition starters and dozens of decision makers we surveyed.
What is grassroots action and why is it important?
Grassroots action is the process of bringing everyday citizens together at the community level to advocate for policy and accountability. Rather than depending on top-down leadership, grassroots efforts run on shared responsibility and energy, where every citizen plays a part.
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Examples of successful engagement from grassroots movements
Rallying supporters to act together is essential to achieving your goals, and it has been the driving force behind successful movements throughout American history. The following are just a couple examples of the impact of engagement in grassroots campaigns.
Brady Minneman, a senior at Bothell High School, started a petition to save his school's School Resource Officer (SRO) after the school board voted to remove the position despite overwhelming community support.
On May 18, 2026, hundreds of Bothell High School students walked out of class and marched from campus to city hall, protesting the Northshore School Board's 4-1 vote to eliminate the school's longstanding SRO program. Students and parents argued the decision ignored community surveys showing strong support for the officer and for student safety. The action made local news and drew the attention of several national outlets.
To date, no decision has been made on whether the officer will be reinstated, but the momentum from Brady and his classmates' action has already made its mark and demonstration of the power of young people when they speak out and hold their elected officials accountable. 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike
The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike over contract negotiation conflicts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is another grassroots triumph within the entertainment industry.
SAG-AFTRA's leadership galvanized approximately 160,000 members to participate in the strike, demanding fair compensation, residuals from streaming platforms, and protections against the unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) in reproducing actors' likenesses.
Members organized and engaged in widespread picketing at major studios and production sites across key locations like Los Angeles and New York City. The union and its members used traditional and social media channels to communicate their goals, report developments, and rally support.
Their efforts led to securing wage increases, streaming residuals, and AI protections for SAG-AFTRA members.
Steps for successfully engaging supporters
Once you’ve built a strong foundation for your campaign, then you can start taking action. The initial groundwork you need to do before getting to work on specific actions include:
Defining your issue
Setting your goals
Identifying your decision maker
Creating your petition or other campaign materials
Follow these steps to plan and inspire collective action from your supporters to win the change you’re seeking.
Communicate a strong, inspiring message
Convey the urgency or importance of your issue in your petition and in any other outreach to your audience. Include examples and personal stories of how the issue is directly impacting your community. To resonate with potential supporters, you need to explain how the issue concerns their lives, because if people don’t feel affected by the issue, they may not sign onto it.
Your message to your supporters should highlight how their participation can help get the result everyone wants. Explain that working together to raise awareness about the issue and putting pressure on the decision makers to address it will make progress. There’s power in numbers. This will inspire and motivate them to take action.
Use petition updates to organize and encourage actions
The petition updates tool on Change.org is a free resource you can use to post messages on your petition that will automatically email to everyone who’s signed it. This is an effective and convenient way to share how supporters can participate and provide them with instructions and resources.
By using the petition updates tool, one successful petition starter prompted his supporters to contact their state representatives and donate to making campaign videos, resulting in getting an important law passed.
Facilitate direct actions for supporters to take
Ready, set, action. Here are some proven actions you and your fellow advocates can take to reach your goals, plus tips to set your supporters up for success.
→ Contact the decision maker directly
Direct outreach to the leaders or officials with the authority to respond to your petition is crucial for getting results.
In a Change.org survey, petition starters said that in addition to signing, when supporters personally contacted the decision maker, it made a noticeable difference in getting a response.
In a different survey, decision makers said the best ways constituents can contact them are by:
Emailing (32.69%)
Setting up an in-person meeting (23.08%)
Calling their office (19.23%)
Speaking at a town hall style meeting (13.46%)
Tagging them on social media (11.54%).
Both petition starters and decision makers point to the number of signatures a petition has and the amount of local community support it has as the top drivers of getting decision makers’ attention. So when asking your supporters to contact decision makers, be sure to provide this information and instruct them to share it.
→ Tip: You can find out how many of your supporters are local in your Change.org petition dashboard.
To help your supporters contact decision makers, provide them with the key points and call to action they should include in their message including:
A link to find the representative of their district
How to email their representative
An email template to their representative
How to call their representative
A script they could use when calling their representative
Sample Instagram and Snapchat posts, including a custom image, they could share
→ Share the petition on social media
Asking supporters to share the petition across social media platforms expands its reach and keeps the pressure on decision makers. This was another top tactic identified by petition starters surveyed to gain momentum and get the attention of decision makers.
Be sure to provide your supporters with all the resources they need to successfully promote the campaign on social media, including:
A custom petition link, which you can create on Change.org
Custom images or videos you can create using tools like Canva
Hashtags specific to your campaign
Sample captions or key points to include
→ Leave helpful comments on the petition
Another valuable Change.org feature is the ability for signers to leave public comments. These are also one of the best ways both petition starters and decision makers cited to encourage a response. Supporters who leave written or video comments add depth and relevance to the campaign, making it harder for decision makers to ignore.
Decision makers reported that the most influential types of supporter testimonials are ones that include:
Real, personal impact: Authentic stories from people directly affected by the issue — especially if the person lives in their district or community.
Supporting facts and information: Many decision makers emphasized they want testimonials backed by solid facts, relevant laws, or credible data
Respectful and thoughtful messages: Decision makers value testimonials that are respectful, well-reasoned, and avoid partisanship, exaggeration, or conspiracy theories. Testimonials that feel genuine (not templated or AI-generated) also stand out.
Fresh perspectives: Some decision makers noted that stories revealing aspects of the issue they hadn’t previously considered can help shift their thinking — even more than general statements of concern.
Example of successfully engaging petition signers
This petition calling for urgent wildfire debris cleanup shows successful efforts in action. The fight is ongoing, but the petition has nearly 10,000 signatures and has encouraged many supporters to take action.
This petition demands that Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles County officials take immediate action to address toxic wildfire debris polluting the coastline following the Palisades Fire. The organizer supported their case and provided signers with helpful information by sharing:
Scientific details about the types of pollutants (heavy metals, dioxins, asbestos) and their health/ecological risks.
Explanations of environmental processes, like how storm drains and tides carry debris back into the ocean.
Specific, actionable demands for containment, cleanup, and transparent testing.
Framing of the issue's urgency with references to upcoming storms and ongoing contamination risks.
The campaigner used petition updates to organize the following collective actions:
Calling elected officials to demand immediate action
A Zoom meeting for supporters to attend to hear campaign progress, developments, and next steps
An in-person and virtual “March to the Sea” to raise visibility for their demands. Supporters were also encouraged to spread the word on social media, volunteer to help with the event, and, for those unable to attend in person, take remote actions like contacting local representatives, writing letters to Congress, and sharing the petition online.
Mobilize your supporters, move decision makers
Petitions work best when they’re a tool for action, not just a collection of signatures. Use your petition to organize your supporters, keep them informed, and give them clear steps to influence decision makers directly.
When you combine a strong petition with collective action — like contacting officials, sharing your campaign, and showing up for events — you increase your chances of winning real change. Ordinary citizens can make a difference.
Create your petition today and start turning support into action.
