Change.org is a website that aims to promote social change by the use of online petitions. The site is operated by Change.org, Inc., a for profit and certified B Corporation[1] incorporated in Delaware, whose businesses include the sale and provision of list-building services.[2] Its stated mission is to "empower anyone, anywhere to start, join, and win campaigns for social change." .[3]
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Change.org was launched on February 7, 2007[4] by current CEO Ben Rattray, Mark Dimas and Adam Cheyer.[5] As of November 2011 the site has 80 employees.[6]
In 2008, the organization partnered with MySpace to create an index of crowdsourced ideas for implementation by the incoming presidency of Barack Obama,[7] drawing comparisons to similar approaches by change.gov.
In 2010, Change.org helped to inaugurate Blog Action Day.
In 2011, Change.org claimed it was the subject of a distributed denial of service attack by "Chinese hackers",[8] and that the alleged attack was apparently related to its petition to the Chinese government to release artist Ai Weiwei.[9]
On December 29, 2010 Change.org recorded its largest number of signatures on a petition to date, titled "South Africa: Declare 'Corrective Rape' a Hate-Crime." It has received 141,317 signatures as of January 23, 2010, with a goal of 150,000 set by the non-profit organization Luleki Sizwe. Change.org claims over 100 successful campaigns so far.[10]
The website makes revenue in part by providing list building services (access to its users' email addresses) to partner organizations.[11]