How to Know If Your Time Is Worth Filing an Online Petition
It is easy to create a petition to complain about injustice, and it may seem cathartic to sign, but not all petitions have the ability to change. Here are the factors that experts say make the difference between petitions that matter and those that don’t.
Does the petition have a clear purpose?
A petition is probably best viewed as a letter from a group of people to a specific person asking what the entity is to do a specific thing. The idea is that the person or company that receives the petition will read it, notice the huge list of names below, and decide if they should take a different action than they planned.
So, for a petition to achieve anything, it must have a goal to achieve. Make sure the petition clearly states what specific action it requires, and make sure this goal makes sense in the context of the broader issue. For example, after a hunter killed Cecil the lion, some petitions suggested that airlines ban the transport of endangered animals . This is a specific policy change related to hunting tourism, as opposed to petitions calling for a hunter to revoke a dental license or other petitions that did not have a clear purpose at all.
Is petition suitable for a person who can achieve a goal?
Change.org encourages petitioners to identify a “decision maker” who will be the target of the petition. A person’s name refers to the presence of the person’s email address and name on the petition to better grab their attention. And in the process of looking for a decision-maker, the organizer is forced to find out who actually makes the relevant decisions. Sometimes the person you need to contact is not a well-known politician or CEO, but someone with a lesser-known job who still has the appropriate authority to make changes.
Does the recipient of the petition have cause for concern?
Since the purpose of a petition is to get the decision-maker to change his mind, it is helpful if he or she cares about who signed the petition. For example, the mayor of a city in Texas may not care what people in Ohio say about local laws. A commercial company will care more about the opinions of its customers and potential customers than about people who are completely outside their target audience.
If the problem is big enough, it may be helpful for the decision maker to know that people from all over the country care about it, but for many smaller issues, it is not how many people sign the petition that matters, but who they are.
There are many ways to change the world for the better.
Even if a petition does not achieve its stated purpose – or if it does not have a specific purpose – this does not always mean that the petition is a waste of time. Sometimes, collecting signatures, the organizer of the petition helps supporters of a particular cause to find each other. (This often means collecting contact information for signers, so make sure you don’t mind getting on the mailing list.)
A petition can also show that the topic is interesting enough to merit media coverage, and that the coverage, in turn, can be part of a campaign to pressure an individual or group. Thus, a vague petition may not immediately lead to action, but may be a sign that a larger movement is brewing.
But a petition is more than what happens after it is signed. Sometimes there is a petition that must be read by those who sign it, more like an article to share than a letter from an opposing organization; and sometimes signing and submitting a petition can be a person’s first step towards taking action on an issue of importance to him.
Whether you choose to sign a petition without a clear purpose is up to you, but if you want to make concrete, immediate changes, look for petitions that have a clear purpose and a realistic way to achieve it.