Presented at TUC conference 2017

1. @bethgranter
UK Campaigner
THE WORLD’S LARGEST ONLINE
COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE, BRANDS,
AND CHARITIES COMING TOGETHER
FOR THE GREATER GOOD.

2. AGENDA
Introduction to Care2
Why use petitions?
Case studies: petitions that made an impact
How to write an effective petition
Petition promotion
Petition delivery

3. Using advocacy, community and
engagement to find new
supporters and donor leads

4. Why a petition? Petition goals
Petitions can help to achieve more than a single objective:
• Pressure a target by showing public support for an issue
• Increase chances of media coverage for an issue,
• Raise public awareness of an issue AND a solution
• Increase your brand awareness
• Improve your brand identity
• Engage new and existing supporters
• Find out MPs’ voting intention / views on an issue
• Drive voting behaviour by increasing civic engagement
• Generate new warm contacts to convert into donors/members

5. Case studies:
petitions that had an impact
• USDAW / TUC - Philip Green-BHS pensions
• FBU - Manchester firefighters
• IWGB - Deliveroo
• Fox hunting – against repealing the ban
• East Sussex mental health cuts
• Badger cub culling
• Abortion rights

23. How to write an effective petition
An effective petition will have a strong call to action –
asking people to do something and explaining why they should do it.
An effective call to action has:
A verb.
An expected outcome.
A theory of change.
A sense of urgency.
Reader-centered language.

24. How to write an effective petition
1. A verb.
What is the action you want the reader to take? Without a verb, the
reader has no clear sense of agency or role in your Care2 campaign.
✓ Tell MPs to ensure equal pay for women
✗ Pay discrimination is wrong

25. How to write an effective petition
2. An expected outcome.
Readers need to know the end goal for the action — not just what the
problem is.
✓ Save polar bear homes from harmful drilling
✗ Polar bear habitat at risk

26. How to write an effective petition
3. A theory of change - a reasonable explanation as to why a reader’s
action will lead to the desired outcome.
✓ The more people join our movement, the more pressure we can put
on the Government to re-nationalise our railways.
✗ Help us get our railways back. Sign up now.

27. How to write an effective petition
4. A sense of urgency.
✓ The Council are meeting to discuss the cuts next week. Please
sign my petition now to ask the Council to protect frontline services.
✗ Please sign my petition against cutting frontline services.

28. How to write an effective petition
5. Reader centered language.
✓ Could you survive on £8 a day? If you lost your job, like hundreds
of others in the UK, you could quickly find yourself homeless and
hungry. Demand an end to benefit caps.
✗ People are being left with only £8 a day in benefits. Demand an
end to benefit caps.

29. Petition launch and promotion
Once the petition is launched the following
steps will help it gain signatures:
• Email to existing supporters
• Publish on your Facebook and Twitter
• Directly ask influential advocates to sign
and RT on Twitter
• Email bloggers
• Press release once a good number of
signatures achieved, including delivery
plan

31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmJxU8OpHeM

33. Petition delivery
• 1. Email to target with selected
comments from signers and signature
PDF file
• 2. Email blast with each signature
creating a separate email sent to target
• 3. Private meeting with delivery target
• 4. Public meeting/rally outside delivery
target office
Work with on-the-ground activists on a petition delivery plan:

41. Beth granter
campaigner
Email: bethg@care2team.com
Twitter: @bethgranter
THANK YOU