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Petitions can be excellent tools to raise awareness about your campaign and show the person who has power to make the change that you want that there are lots and lots of folks who support your cause.

On its own, a petition rarely has the power to make change unless you can really secure enough signatures to convince (or scare) the person you are petitioning to make the change you are asking for. A school principal might only need a few dozen signatures from parents or more than half the student body to convince her that she needs to make a change. The CEO of a major corporation is probably going to want to see millions of signatures to convince her that not making this change could hurt her bottom line. There’s no magic number or guarantee that it’ll work.  But, try it! Use a petition as one part of your campaign.

Here are some tips to make sure your petition is as successful and effective as it can possible be:

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Read and analyze everything you can about the issue, and include some of this research to support your statement. Make sure your research is from a peer-reviewed and well-respected source – or conduct your own study.

Example: On SPARK’s petition, “Google, Give Us Doodles Like Us!,” The SPARKteam did extensive research counting every doodle ever published on Google’s page and coding it by race and gender, determined to prove that Google was potentially making racist and sexist choices. The SPARK girls included their data in the petition text: “Although women make up more than 50% of the world’s population, they’ve made up only 17% of Google Doodles from 2010 to 2013.” The campaign, led by this petition that demanded Google diversify their doodles, led to SPARK partnering with Google to create a women’s history mapping app. And following the campaign, Google made a public announcement committing to more diversity and total gender equity in their Doodles.
CREATE A SIMPLE, ‘WINNABLE’ ASK STATEMENT

Consider what you feel could actually and realistically change. Identify the specific person who has the power to make change and address the petition to that person (or people).

Example: 14-year old Laurie Wolff refused to dissect an animal in her 8th grade science class and her grade suffered. So she wrote a petition to her local Las Vegas school board and then testified at their meeting, asking that students be given the option to do virtual dissections. And she won! Auguston Orci, school board member told a reporter, “She came to the school board and stated her beliefs and the fact that other school districts in the country allowed this. She did her homework, and the board listened.”
CONSIDER THE “HEART” OF THE ISSUE

Why is it important to you? How will a win or a loss impact you – or people you care about – personally. Share a real story about your life or about someone close to you who is impacted by this issue.

Example:  McKenna Pope’s little brother loved to cook and bake and wanted a toy oven for Christmas. When she discovered that Hasbro’s Easy Bake Oven was marketed only to girls and designed in a stereotypically “girly” pink and purple aesthetic, she wrote a petition to the Hasbro CEO demanding a more “gender neutral” design and that they market to boys and girls, so that her brother would see that cooking was for girls – and boys. And she won!
WHY NOW

What is urgent about the issue you are writing about? Did something happen recently that is getting a lot of media attention? How could this raise the visibility of your petition and inspire folks to take action and sign it?

Example: After the rape of an unconscious girl by two football players in Steubenville, Ohio was dominating the news media and drawing attention to the issue of sexual violence and “sports culture,” SPARK decided to take action and launch “No More Steubenvilles: Educate Coaches About Sexual Assault” a petition to the National Federation of High Schools association asking that they offer free sexual violence prevention and sexual consent resources for the 1,000,000+ coaches and athletics staff in their network.
ADDRESS YOUR OPPOSITION

Not everyone is going to agree with you (or you likely would have already “won” this campaign or the issue wouldn’t exist in the first place). Since the petition is just one document and not a conversation, make sure you address what the opposition might be, and then state why their position is wrong, all within the text of your petition.

Example: In SPARK’s petition asking LEGO to stop condescending to girls and creating stereotypical toys “for girls” (such as their beauty salon, with tiny hair dryers and lipsticks!), we anticipated that they might say, “but *this* is what girls want. So we reminded them that they used to be different (and still successful!), “In 1981, LEGO’s ad, ‘What it is, is beautiful,’ invited girls to play with LEGO in a way that didn’t appeal to this lowest common denominator version of girlhood, but gave us credit for being creative, smart, and imaginative. This has always been LEGO’s strength. It’s why they have been parents’ go-to toy. They’ve never sold kids out—until now.”
INCLUDE DYNAMIC IMAGES OR VIDEO TO GET PEOPLE’S ATTENTION

Do you have a photo or a graphic that captures the meaning of the campaign? Can you make a video, in your voice that shows how much you care about the issue, makes it personal and puts a face and a voice to it? Or can you create a clever, funny or memorable video that illuminates something more about why this issue is so important?

Example: Remember the petition SPARK girls wrote to Google demanding more diversity in their doodles? Watch the video Celeste created that expresses exactly why this issue is so important.
SPREAD THE WORD

Who are your allies and potential partners? Are there local activists or organizations already working on this issue? Any reporters who might give it a boost? Celebrities connected to the cause? You are going to need a little help from your friends to make sure your petition is signed by as many folks as possible!

Example: In McKenna’s petition to Hasbro asking them to create a “gender neutral” Easy Bake Oven so her little brother would feel excited to play with it, she attracted the attention of several professional male celebrity chefs who spoke out about her campaign and helped put pressure on Hasbro to see that cooking is not “just for girls.”
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