What The Change.org Foundation does

The Change.org Foundation (legally The Change.org Charitable Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in California and headquartered at 548 Market Street, San Francisco. The foundation fully owns Change.org, described in source materials as the world's largest platform for civic participation, with a user base of over 100 million Americans spanning Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. The operating footprint encompasses 51-100 staff and an affiliate network spanning Argentina, Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Mexico.

The foundation operates a two-product platform portfolio. The first is the Change.org Petition Platform, enabling citizens to create, sign, and share petitions on issues of civic concern, with social sharing integrations to Facebook and Twitter for viral amplification. The second is Online Civic Dialogues, a newer product extension built on four methodological pillars: Representative Sampling (randomly selected, demographically diverse participants), Informed Participation (balanced briefings to combat misinformation), Facilitated Deliberation (structured online small group discussions), and Shared Solutions (outcomes synthesized into actionable reports for civic leaders). The dual product surface signals a strategic pivot from petition-driven activism toward structured deliberative engagement with institutional buyers.

The foundation operates as a donation-funded nonprofit with no commercial pricing model — services are free to citizens. Its go-to-market combines organic platform engagement (leveraging the 100M+ user base) with a partnership model targeting select US city governments as deployment partners for civic dialogue programs. No revenue figures, donor totals, Form 990 disclosures, or audited financials are present in the source material, and the management team is undisclosed.

Name

The Change.org Foundation

Legal name

The Change.org Charitable Foundation

Website

https://changefoundation.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The Change.org Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that fully owns Change.org, the world's largest civic petition platform, and operates Online Civic Dialogues, a structured deliberation product deployed through partnerships with select US cities to combat polarization.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Engagement Platform

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Other Social Advocacy Organizations (813319)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy (BPAGAFAJ)

Keywords

• Civic engagement platform
• Online petitions
• Citizen dialogue tools
• Democratic participation
• Grassroots advocacy

Headquarters

HQ city

Delhi

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the foundation operates on donations and charitable contributions. The foundation is supported by individual donors and partners who believe in building better democracies.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

The Change.org Foundation operates the Change.org Petition Platform, the world's largest platform for civic participation, where citizens create, sign, and share petitions on issues they care about. It is expanding this with Online Civic Dialogues, a structured civic dialogue program built on representative sampling, informed participation, facilitated deliberation, and shared solutions, delivered in partnership with select cities and leveraging a user base of over 100 million Americans.

Product overview

The Change.org Foundation operates a platform portfolio comprising Change.org, the world's largest petition platform for civic participation, and Online Civic Dialogues, an emerging platform for inclusive civic engagement. The petition platform enables citizens to create, sign, and share petitions, while Online Civic Dialogues extends this into structured civic dialogue using representative sampling, informed participation, facilitated deliberation, and shared solutions. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that partners with select cities and leverages a user base of over 100 million Americans to create inclusive, representative, and informed civic engagement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Change.org Petition Platform

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Select Cities (Partnership Model)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe foundation partners with select cities to implement civic dialogue programs. Leveraging a user base of over 100 million Americans, the partnerships create inclusive, representative civic engagement through structured dialogue methodologies including representative sampling, informed participation, facilitated deliberation, and shared solutions synthesis.
• Res Non Verba (Argentina)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in Argentina mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.
• Change.org Brasil (Brazil)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in Brazil mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.
• Change.org e.V. (Germany)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in Germany mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.
• Create Change Foundation (India)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in India mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.
• Perkumpulan Gerakan Digital Bangsa (Indonesia)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in Indonesia mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.
• Change.org Japan (Japan)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in Japan mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.
• Change.org Latinoamerica A.C. (Mexico)minorOthersAffiliated Change.org entity in Mexico mentioned in privacy policy as an associated organization.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Decidim: Decidim is an open-source participatory democracy platform used by cities and governments for citizen proposals, debates, and voting. It directly competes with the foundation's city-government civic dialogue offerings on a city-by-city basis.
• Pol.is: Pol.is is an open-source real-time deliberative polling platform that enables large-scale civic dialogue and opinion mapping. It is a direct peer to the Change.org Foundation's Online Civic Dialogues product, addressing the same problem of structured, representative citizen input for policymakers.
• Cortico: Cortico runs structured online civic dialogue programs that surface representative community voices to local media and civic leaders. Its methodology and mission closely mirror the foundation's Online Civic Dialogues approach.

Broad incumbents

• National Democratic Institute (NDI): NDI is a long-established nonprofit that works to strengthen democratic institutions and citizen participation globally. It is a broad incumbent in the civic participation space with a much larger international footprint than the foundation.
• NationBuilder: NationBuilder is an established civic engagement and political organizing platform used by campaigns and advocacy groups. It overlaps with the foundation in the civic participation software category, but is a broader commercial incumbent rather than a nonprofit deliberative specialist.
• Mozilla Foundation: Mozilla Foundation is a major nonprofit that runs civic tech and trustworthy AI initiatives, including work on healthy online discourse. It is a broad incumbent in mission-driven civic and internet health work comparable to the foundation.

Others

• New America: New America is a nonprofit policy and civic engagement think tank that runs programs on democracy, public participation, and technology. It is thematically aligned as a peer in advancing inclusive democratic participation.
• Knight Foundation: The Knight Foundation is a major US philanthropic funder of civic engagement, journalism, and democracy initiatives. It is a thematic peer as both a funder and operator in the same civic participation space as the foundation.

Emerging players

• Loomio: Loomio is a cooperative that provides online deliberation and group decision-making tools for communities and organizations. It is an emerging player in the structured civic dialogue space relevant to the foundation's work.
• vTaiwan / g0v (gov-zero) community: vTaiwan and the g0v civic tech community build open-source tools for participatory policymaking and civic deliberation in Taiwan. It is an emerging regional player in structured civic dialogue with comparable methodology.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ChangeOrgFound

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Change.org Foundation