What is CiviPetition?

CiviCampaign includes a function that lets you create a petition to publicly gather responses and information online.

Typically when we think of petitions, we think about individuals signing a petition for a particular cause that will then be presented to an elected official or for education about a specific issue. But petitions can also be used as an online surveys, to gather responses about questions and then allow the an organization to build support about their causes based on the analysis of the responses. Petition is also best used as an online survey when you don't know who will be responding, e.g. you may put your petition on your website, so anyone can submit responses.

Scenario: City Council petition

Townsville Organisation for Tenants (TOFT) wanted to demonstrate to the Townsville City Council the public's dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the Council's work to provide safe public housing for the community. In order to do this, they created a petition that would gather responses to questions at the same time as gathering signatures. The results were then presented to the City Council.

A TOFT staff member used CiviCampaign to create the petition then sent it via email to all of their existing contacts. She linked the petition to the organization's web site so that the community could respond online, and worked with the Communications Director on various communication strategies to drive individuals to the web site to fill out the petition.

The petition also allowed respondents to elect if they wanted to receive ongoing email updates from TOFT about the campaign's progress throughout the year.

After the duration of the petition drive, the staff member compiled the electronic signatures and responses, created reports to analyse the results and then the organisation communicated the results to City Council. The results of the petition were also used to frame TOFT's messages and communicate their story to build interest about the campaign.