A slew of tech and business moguls have decided to make a bet upon Change.org. LinekdIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Microsoft co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Y Combinator president Sam Altman, are among names that have decided to lead a a $30 million round in the company.
In case you are unfamiliar with it, Change.org is a platform where social justice petitions are made and signed by millions of people. There aren’t any government tie-up or anything, but if millions of people sign a petition, people are bound to take notice. Since it was founded in 2007, over 20 million have used it to raise awareness about various causes.
Speaking on the topic, Hoffman wrote:
Change.org, the global hub for collective action, is a crucial democratizing force in this era of growing civic participation. It helps enable a world where you don’t need to hire a lobbyist to have real impact on the issues and policies that matter to you.
And in case you are wondering how these businessman are investing and not donating the $30 million they are putting into Change, well it is a for profit venture. Earlier, it raised money by charging companies and non-profits for sponsoring petitions. So that brought in some money. Later, they moved into crowd-funding and since then, have generated millions of dollars.
Speaking about the company’s mission, CEO Ben Rattray said:
We are in the early stages of the development of a new, more participatory form of democracy, and in order to realize the potential that technology has to transform civic engagement, we need to build tools that give us wider reach and enable deeper involvement.
And if it raises and generates money in the process, all the better.
