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> Change.org is a $260 million company, according to a 2017 valuation provided by data analytics firm PitchBook. I honestly had no idea that change.org did any

> Change.org is a $260 million company, according to a 2017 valuation provided by data analytics firm PitchBook. I honestly had no idea that change.org did anything beyond online petitions or that they had 217 employees. Their website doesn’t say much about how they make money, other than a link to become a member. Are they really pulling in significant amounts of money from contributions, or do they have some other business that isn’t immediately obvious? What am I missing?

CameronNemo 5y ago
They have this shady practice where you can donate to causes (like GoFundMe) and they take a cut. Well I guess it is the petition organizers who are shady, they are not always involved in the cause or obligated to do anything. Change.org just let's them do it. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/10/21286385/change-org-george-floyd-chip-in-donation-feature-protest https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/10/21286385/change-org-georg... In a Medium post on Tuesday, more than 90 former Change.org employees called on the company to donate any related funds to Floyd’s family and organizers rather than using the funds to promote the campaign itself.
- SamBam 5y ago
  They don't take a cut, they take the whole thing. The money goes straight to the company, and in return they promise to display the petition more prominently within the website itself. (They also occasionally use it to fund advertising to the website itself, as in the case of George Floyd.)
vlunkr 5y ago
According to wikipedia: The majority of the company's revenue is advertising - individuals and organisations who start or sign petitions then chip in to promote those petitions to other site visitors.
opheliate 5y ago
Change.org lets users pay to "promote petitions", which gives them more advertising on Change.org. I believe this is how the recommended petitions you're shown after signing one are selected. See https://help.change.org/s/article/Promoted-Petitions-FAQs?language=en_US https://help.change.org/s/article/Promoted-Petitions-FAQs?la...
dillondoyle 5y ago
I work in politics. We used to buy data from them. You would build a petition, they would promote, and then you got the data from signers on a /per basis. Was pretty expensive I don't remember but I think on the range of $1 or something. BUT they don't do that anymore. So maybe their revenue is now just advertising or % of donation processing?

CameronNemo 5y ago

They have this shady practice where you can donate to causes (like GoFundMe) and they take a cut. Well I guess it is the petition organizers who are shady, they are not always involved in the cause or obligated to do anything. Change.org just let's them do it. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/10/21286385/change-org-george-floyd-chip-in-donation-feature-protest https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/10/21286385/change-org-georg... In a Medium post on Tuesday, more than 90 former Change.org employees called on the company to donate any related funds to Floyd’s family and organizers rather than using the funds to promote the campaign itself.

SamBam 5y ago
They don't take a cut, they take the whole thing. The money goes straight to the company, and in return they promise to display the petition more prominently within the website itself. (They also occasionally use it to fund advertising to the website itself, as in the case of George Floyd.)

vlunkr 5y ago

According to wikipedia: The majority of the company's revenue is advertising - individuals and organisations who start or sign petitions then chip in to promote those petitions to other site visitors.

opheliate 5y ago

Change.org lets users pay to "promote petitions", which gives them more advertising on Change.org. I believe this is how the recommended petitions you're shown after signing one are selected. See https://help.change.org/s/article/Promoted-Petitions-FAQs?language=en_US https://help.change.org/s/article/Promoted-Petitions-FAQs?la...

dillondoyle 5y ago

I work in politics. We used to buy data from them. You would build a petition, they would promote, and then you got the data from signers on a /per basis. Was pretty expensive I don't remember but I think on the range of $1 or something. BUT they don't do that anymore. So maybe their revenue is now just advertising or % of donation processing?