Most Americans—more than 80%—don’t think that their elected officials care what they have to say. Change.org has been rebuilding its own platform to try to change that.

The platform, founded in 2007, is best known for campaigns that have gone viral nationally, like a petition to get justice for George Floyd in 2020 that got nearly 20 million signatures. Of course, most petitions don’t have that kind of audience. But you don’t need millions of people to make change happen, and over the last two years, Change.org has rebuilt its tools to connect people with decision-makers in their own community.

“The core problem we’re trying to solve is that people just feel unheard,” says Steve Dziedzic, who was named the organization’s new president today. “They don’t think their voice matters anymore in our democracy.”

The site now has “an explicit local focus,” says Dziedzic, who has been leading the platform’s redesign, previously as chief product officer. “That’s a big shift for the organization.” There are practical reasons for this: People care most about local issues, and local petitions are also the most likely to succeed. Even if someone wants to work on a national problem like gun control, he says, it makes the most sense to start with a local law and then expand.

When someone comes to the platform now, it helps shape the message to have the best chance of persuading a local decision-maker to take action. An AI “petition writer” tool on the site starts by asking someone for their story.

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