Page Text: How to contact us
These Terms of Service cover your activities on Change.org, our platform that enables people to create the change they want to see. Our platform allows people to start and promote “campaigns,” which include petitions and related actions, like creating and sharing content via our platforms and third-party sites and services.
User accounts
You need an account for most activities on our platform. Keep your password somewhere safe, because you’re responsible for all activity associated with your profile. If you suspect someone else is using your account, let us know by contacting our Help Centre. You must be at least 16 years or older to use Change.org.
When you sign or create a petition via our platform, a Change.org account is created for you. All your campaign activities are then tied to this account.
When setting up your account, you must provide accurate and complete information, including a valid email address. You have complete responsibility for your account and everything that happens on your account, including for any harm or damage (to us or anyone else) caused by someone using your account without your permission. This means you need to be careful with your password. You may not transfer your account to someone else or use someone else’s account without their permission. Inform us immediately upon learning that someone else may be using your account without your permission, by contacting us through our Help Centre .
Our platforms are for people who are at least 16 years of age. If you are younger than 16 you may not set up an account by yourself, but we encourage you to invite a parent or guardian to create a campaign about areas of interest to you. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 16 without parental consent, unless permitted by law. If we learn that a child under the age of 16 has provided us with personal information, we will delete it in accordance with applicable law.
User content rules
You’re responsible for what you post on our platform. You should keep your campaigns and other content you upload in line with all Community Guidelines and the law, and respect the intellectual property rights of others. It’s not something we want to do, but we can terminate your account for repeated or major offences.
Follow our Community Guidelines: When posting content you must follow the Community Guidelines that are applicable to the product or feature you are using.
Abide by the law and respect rights of others: You cannot post any campaign or content that violates applicable local or national laws of your country, or international laws or regulations. You agree that any campaign or content you post will comply with applicable local and national laws, including data protection laws. Except as provided otherwise by applicable laws, you are solely responsible for any campaign, content, and actions you post or take via the platforms and their consequences. If you name a decision maker (a person or group with the power and authority to affect the issue of the petition) for your campaign, you entrust us to perform any and all data processing and protection activities for decision makers, as outlined in our Privacy Policy .
Enforcement by Change.org: If we are put on notice that your campaign or content violates the law or the rights of others (for example, if it is established that it is defamatory or violates privacy, intellectual property or publicity rights of others, or is funding an illegal activity), if we discover that your campaign or content violates our Community Guidelines , or if we believe your campaign or content is inappropriate or objectionable, we may remove it from our platforms, or we may make edits to bring your content into compliance. In the vast majority of cases, we will notify you and try to work with you to fix the issue before we take any of these actions (but we are not obligated to do so).
Change.org has discretion in enforcing these Terms. We may terminate or suspend your permission to use our platforms and services or disable your account at any time, with or without notice, for any material or repeated violation of these Terms, your failure to pay any fees when due, upon the request of law enforcement or government agencies, for extended periods of inactivity, for unexpected technical issues or problems, or for engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities. Upon any such termination we may delete your account, passwords, and content and we may prevent you from further access to the platforms and use of our services. Your content may still be available on the platforms even if your account is terminated or suspended. You agree that we will have no liability to you or any third party for termination of your account, removal of your content, or blocking of your access to our platforms and services.
Posting user content
You retain ownership of content you post to our platforms, but you should make sure you’re allowed to share it. We’re allowed to make versions of your content publicly available to anyone through any media, and others can do the same. Be sure to make backups of your work, too.
The content you submit on the platforms is not confidential: Any content you submit or post on the platforms is likely to be publicly available, including all petitions you create, your comments to any petitions you signed and the questions you submit to candidates (on our websites, in apps and in social media pages). If you are concerned about other Change.org community members or people you don’t know seeing a particular message or other content of yours, please do not post it. If you do not wish to have your name publicly displayed in connection with a particular petition, you may select the option not to display your signature publicly. Please check out our Privacy Policy for more details on information we collect and share when you use the platforms.
The content you post (including photos) remains yours, and you also allow us to reuse and share it: By submitting and posting content, you do not lose any ownership rights you may have over your content. However, you authorise us to share this content with anyone, distribute it on any platform and in any media, and to make modifications or edits to it as we see fit (e.g. for clarity or optimization purposes). For example, we may shorten a petition title for it to appear on our homepage, test alternative images to help your petition be seen by more people, reformat a petition for a video highlighting petition victories, or share the content with interested media. You also authorise us to allow others to do the same with your content. In legal language, by submitting or posting content on or through the platforms , you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, and distribute your content in any and all media or distribution methods (existing now or later developed). This includes making your content available to other companies, organisations, or individuals who partner with Change.org for the syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication of content on other media. You represent and warrant that you have all the rights, power, and authority necessary to authorise us to use any content that you submit. You also agree to all such uses of your content with no compensation paid to you.
Sharing campaigns and other actions: Except in very limited circumstances where we’ll expressly ask you not to, we encourage you to link to, post to social media and third party services, such as Facebook or Twitter, share via email, or otherwise copy and share individual petitions and campaigns of interest to you, but only for informational, non-commercial purposes. If you share another user’s petitions, questions, or other content, you may not make any modifications, and you may not remove any attributions. When you post content to any third party service through the features and functionalities of our platforms (such as our apps or API), you will be subject to the terms of that third party service. If you want to remove any petition or content from a third party service, you should contact that third party service and request removal directly from them.
No user content storage: We are not a content-archiving service. We do not promise to store or make available on our platforms any content that you or other users may post for any length of time. You are solely responsible for keeping backups of everything you post on the platforms.
Open platform
Campaigns on our platforms represent the many opinions of millions of people. We don’t take responsibility for their views, nor are we responsible for the legality or accuracy of the content. You’ll find links to other sites on our platforms — once you leave us, we’re not responsible for all the wild, wacky, and wonderful things that can happen out there.
We are not responsible for the content or actions of our users: Campaigns or content posted by users come from people, organisations, and other various sources. We make no promises about the reliability of any source or the accuracy, usefulness, safety, or intellectual property rights of any user campaign or content, nor do we endorse any campaigns or petitions or support any views, opinions, recommendations, or advice that may be posted by users. You acknowledge that certain users may have commercial interests in their campaigns. You therefore use the Change.org services and rely on any content you find at your own risk.
If you find any campaign or other user content that violates our Community Guidelines , please use the “Report a policy violation” function on each petition page or file a Help Centre Request .
Links out: When you use our platforms, you will find links to other websites that we don’t own or control. We are not responsible for the content or any other aspect of these third party sites, including their collection of information about you. You should also read their terms and conditions and privacy policies.
Our rights
We own the Change.org platforms including the website, present or future apps and services, and things like our logos, API, code, and content created by our employees — don’t mess with those!
All right, title, and interest in and to the Change.org platform and services including our website, our existing or future applications, our APIs, databases, and the content our employees or partners submit or provide through our services (but excluding content provided by users) are and will remain the exclusive property of Change.org and its licensors. Our platform and services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of both the United States and foreign countries. Nothing gives you a right to use the Change.org name or any of the Change.org trademarks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features. Any feedback, comments, or suggestions you may provide regarding Change.org or the services is entirely voluntary and we will be free to use such feedback, comments, or suggestions as we see fit and without any obligation to you.
You may not do any of the following while accessing or using the platforms and services:
access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the platform, Change.org’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of Change.org’s service providers.
disable, interfere with, or try to circumvent any of the features of the platforms related to security or probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any of our systems.
copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, reverse assemble, or otherwise attempt to discover any source code of the Change.org platforms or services.
access or search or attempt to access or search our platforms by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through our currently available search functionalities that are provided via our website, mobile apps, or API (and only pursuant to those API terms and conditions). Crawling the Change.org site is permissible if done in accordance with the provisions of the robots.txt file; however, scraping the services, platforms, and databases is expressly prohibited unless authorised in a written agreement between you and Change.org.
in any way use the Change.org services to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information (such as sending email communications falsely appearing as Change.org); or interfere with, or disrupt, (or attempt to do so), the access of any user, host, or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, mail-bombing the platforms or services, or in any other manner interfering with or creating an undue burden on the services.
Purchases and donations
We work with different companies to process payments, so we can stay focused on improving our platforms and empowering people to create change. We offer several ways you can financially contribute to help the petitions and issues you care about. When you make a payment, you agree to use a valid payment method.
We may provide you the ability to purchase promotional items related to petitions and campaigns, contribute monthly to help cover the costs of the Change.org platform, or purchase other products or services.
PROMOTED PETITIONS
The ability to purchase promotional items and services includes, but is not limited to, our Promoted Petitions service. When you pay to promote a petition using our Promoted Petition tool, you are purchasing advertisements for that petition, which will allow the petition to be discovered by potential supporters who may go on to sign. In exchange for your purchase, Change.org will advertise your chosen petition to other potential supporters within our website, and/or via email, and/or other distribution channels. Change.org reserves the right as to which of those locations the purchased advertising will be delivered.
We use a standard digital advertising model called CPM which stands for “cost per thousand impressions.” The dollar amount you chip in determines the number of times we will display the petition advertisement to other potential supporters on your behalf. Each time the petition ad is displayed to a potential supporter, that “impression” or “view” counts toward the fulfilment of our promotional obligations to you. The CPM rate, or the cost per 1,000 ad impressions, varies based on country, currency, and other factors.
Change.org reserves the right to track and calculate the number of delivered ad impressions using multiple data sources. Because we are unable to directly track delivered impressions via some platforms (e.g., Apple iOS devices), the number of impressions of a petition ad that we are agreeing to provide in exchange for your contribution is based, in part, on a projection from recent past experience. In other words, it is an estimate—although it is an estimate that we believe to be accurate based on the best information available to us. We reasonably believe that the specified number of impressions (or a close approximation) will be provided, but because of imperfect information, we cannot guarantee any precise number.
The money you spend on Promoted Petitions does not get disbursed directly to the petition starter(s) or any other organisations associated with the underlying campaign or cause. Promoted Petition purchases directly benefit the petition (and indirectly benefit the underlying cause) by giving the petition greater public exposure, increasing the likelihood that the petition will gather more signatures and momentum. If the actual cost to Change.org of providing the promised ad impressions is less than the amount that you pay to purchase those impressions, Change.org reserves the right as to how to utilise the balance.
By default, the Promoted Petition tool is activated on most petitions. If the Promoted Petition tool is disabled, the petition will not be eligible to be recommended by Change.org to other Change.org users via our email, on our website, or any other channels we may use for advertising distribution. As the petition starter, you can request the Promoted Petition feature to be disabled on your petition. To do so, you can contact our Help Desk .
In circumstances where the petition is marked a victory before the promotion has been fulfilled, we will continue to advertise the content, without the ability to collect signatures, for the remaining number of purchased impressions.
CHANGE.ORG RECURRING CONTRIBUTIONS
We may provide you with the ability to support Change.org by making a recurring contribution. If you choose to do so, a monthly contribution to Change.org will be deducted from your preferred payment method. Your monthly contributions help cover the costs of the Change.org platform, including, but not limited to, technology fees, engineering, operations, and expert campaign support services. Recurring contributions help, in part, to keep the Change.org platform free for everyone, open, and independent. Change.org reserves the right to decide how recurring contributions are allocated within the company.
You can make changes to your recurring contribution settings at any time. You can change the amount of your scheduled monthly contributions or cancel future contributions by logging in and visiting your Account Settings page.
PAYMENT PROCESSING
We work with Stripe, Braintree, dLocal, and other payment processing companies to process all financial transactions (see below for terms and privacy policies). If you make a payment for services, Change.org reserves the right to keep a record of your transaction amount only; none of your personal payment information is stored or saved within our systems. Instead, we rely on the payment processing platforms to store, on our behalf, certain information about you. For more information about which information we store, see our Privacy Policy .
Change.org uses Stripe for payment processing services. By using Stripe payment processing services, you agree to be legally bound by Stripe’s Services Agreement and Privacy Policy .
Change.org uses Braintree, a division of PayPal, Inc. (Braintree), for payment processing services. By using the Braintree payment processing services, you agree to be legally bound by the Braintree Payment Services Agreement and the applicable Bank Agreement .
Change.org uses dLocal for payment processing services. By using dLocal payment processing services, you agree to be legally bound by dLocal’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy .
REFUNDS & REMOVAL
If you are unsatisfied with your Promoted Petition purchase for any reason, you may request a refund. To be eligible, refund requests must be received by Change.org Help Desk within 90 days of purchase. To request a refund, please contact our Help Desk .
Change.org reserves the right to disable the Promoted Petitions service and/or remove any petition for violations of our Community Guidelines , our Terms of Service, and/or other discretionary reasons as we deem appropriate, regardless of the petition’s Promoted Petition history. We reserve the right to not issue refunds in cases of fraud, abuse, or violations of our Terms of Service.
TAXES & FEES
You agree that, for all purchase, donation, or contribution transactions, (a) you will not use an invalid or unauthorised payment method; (b) you will be charged using the payment method you designate. You understand and acknowledge that payments made to Change.org (PBC) are not tax-deductible as charitable donations. Charitable donations to qualified tax-exempt organisations, such as the Change.org Foundation, made through our platforms may be tax-deductible. You agree to review, be legally bound by, and comply with any relevant terms and conditions of the receiving organisation when making a donation. If you make a purchase, donation, or contribution through our platform, you agree to pay the applicable fee or amount in accordance with any pricing and payment terms presented to you for that purchase, donation, or contribution. All amounts do not include taxes, and you are responsible for paying any applicable taxes. You are also responsible for paying applicable standard credit card processing fees.
Unlike many companies, Change.org does not exist to make a profit — we exist to make an impact. As of September 2021, Change.org (PBC) is now a wholly owned corporate subsidiary of the Change.org Foundation (a nonprofit entity). The transition to a non-profit ownership and governance structure secures the long-term stewardship of Change.org (PBC) as a digital public utility committed to the public interest. In the spirit of transparency, as part of this transition, we’ve committed to fulfilling legacy obligations that include making scheduled payments to employees and former stockholders.
Copyright infringement
If you think someone is infringing your copyright on our platforms, let us know.
If you believe that one of our users has violated your copyright, you should notify our copyright agent in writing. In order for us to take action, you must do the following in your notice:
identify your copyrighted work that you believe is being infringed
identify the item on our service that you think is infringing your work and include sufficient information about where the material is located (for example, a URL or link to a relevant page) so that we can easily find it
provide us with a way to contact you, such as your address, telephone number, or e-mail
provide a statement that you believe in good faith that the item you have identified as infringing is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law to be used on the platform
provide a statement that the information you provide in your notice is accurate, and that (under penalty of perjury), you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on behalf of the copyright owner whose work is being infringed
Here is the contact information for our copyright agent:
Copyright Enforcement