One thing we hear from some of our partners from time-to-time is that they don’t typically do petitions, or just don’t do them very often.

We get it. After all, I think we all know that petitions aren’t the most effective advocacy tactic out there, and that coming up with new petition ideas can sometimes be time-consuming and difficult.

That said, campaigns and groups that don’t launch at least two petitions per month are missing out on some big opportunities.

Here are 6 reasons why every nonprofit and Democratic campaign should launch at least two petitions each month:

  • Keep your email community engaged: Petitions are fantastic for keeping your email community active and engaged. If done well, they generate higher click rates and action rates than any other emails you might send, which helps keep your email community fired up and engaged so you can ask them to do more meaningful things like taking action offline or donating.
  • Maintain strong email deliverability: An added benefit of high click rates on petition emails is the positive signal it sends to Gmail, Outlook and other email service providers. Demonstrating to ESPs that people want to engage with your emails is one of the best ways to protect your deliverability and maintain high inbox placement rates.
  • Learn about your email community: Sending petitions on various topics helps you determine which members of your email community care about specific issues, creating opportunities to better segment future sends with higher-bar asks.
  • Avoid fundraising fatigue: Petitions are a great way to mix things up and give your supporters an easy way to stay involved. If all you send is fundraising asks, people tend to burn out and either unsubscribe or ignore your emails entirely.
  • We’ll write the petition for you: Don’t have time to come up with a petition topic and produce a draft? We’ve got you covered. Every Tuesday, we send out a list of timely petition topics that we’re happy to draft for you free of charge. We’ll even include a copyright-free image you can use. Don’t like any of the topics we suggested? No problem. Just send me a note at josh@civicshout.com with another topic you have in mind, and I’ll send back a draft ASAP, typically within one business day.
  • Publishing your petition on Civic Shout couldn’t be easier: Simply upload a photo, copy/paste your headline and description, select an issue tag or two and specify the post-action redirect URL, and your petition will be online and ready to be promoted in a matter of minutes.