Change.org invests around $100 million in AI petition platform rebuild

Investment and purpose

Change.org is investing around $100 million of its own money to rebuild its core petitions platform through AI. The organization says the project could make petitions more effective beyond collecting signatures and further support civic engagement.

Change.org was founded as a venture-backed organization. During a 2021 restructuring, investors including Reid Hoffman and Sam Altman donated their shares to a nonprofit structure. Founder Ben Rattray, who rejoined as CEO three years ago, said: "The most nonpartisan thing for someone to say in America is that their voice doesn't matter." He added that the organization is trying to transform trust in democracy from the ground up.

Petition scale and AI copilot

Change.org says it hosts more than 500,000 petitions each year, signed by hundreds of millions of people. Rattray also says the organization conducts internal auditing to ensure that amplification is politically balanced.

The AI rebuild began with the beta introduction of an AI copilot for petition creators. The tool helps users draft petitions, identify possible endorsers and find clearer paths to decision-makers.

Human outreach at scale

The second phase uses AI to aggregate custom data and expand human services. For local petitions with at least 100 signatures, employees contact elected officials on behalf of citizens, including calling them directly by phone to engage with the petitions.

Limits and trust

Rattray says AI has limitations despite the investment and increased token spending. Petitions that rely on AI-generated images and text are less effective than those made by humans, and he says the same applies to videos made by supporters.

Change.org also has policies against using AI agents to automatically sign petitions. The organization believes automated signing could undermine trust among both citizens and decision-makers.