Create a petition

A petition is a great way to spur your supporters into action and encourage them to invite other people to join your cause.

Updated over a week ago

Table of Contents

Here are a few tips to create a successful petition:

  1. Consider issues or current events that are fresh and are being mentioned online and in the media. People are much more likely to take action on issues they have recently read or heard about.

  2. Real urgency for the petition will help encourage people to sign it.

  3. Choose a powerful and memorable headline for your petition and keep the petition text itself relatively short.

Watch a video

Create a petition

To create a petition, go to Website > [Select website] > New page

If you don't see petition pages as an option when adding a new page to your website you'll need to enable the petition feature in your nation to create petitions. Go to Settings > Defaults > Basics. Check the box next to "Enable petitions" and then click the Save settings button at the bottom of the page. 

1. Give a name to your petition. The slug will auto-populate based on the name, but you can change it if you like.

2. Select Petition as the page type.

📌 Note: We display the eight most used page types for your nation based on your settings and add-ons. To see all available pages simply click on 'Show all page types'.

3. Decide whether to include it in the top nav or support nav.

4. Click the Create Page button.

You’ll be taken to Petition > Petition settings > Content. 

Add content, video and media

Next, go to Petition settings > Content. Here you can edit the headline for the petition and enter the intro text and petition text. You’ll want to keep the petition itself as concise as possible. 

Here you can include an explanation of the circumstances surrounding the petition. Even if the issue is all over the media, assume visitors haven’t heard about it. If you have a powerful video or news clip that illustrates the need to sign the petition, consider embedding it in the intro blurb. Be very clear on what signing the petition means. A time-bound or time-sensitive petition often gains more traction than an “evergreen” issue framed without urgency. 

As with other content areas that will be displayed on your website, you can include an image by clicking the insert/edit image button. We recommend saving videos and other forms of media for the "Intro" area. Once you have completed this section, click the Save intro text  button to save what you’ve written.

Our Embed.ly integration will allow you to easily include video or other material from another site - simply place the URL on its own line within the content editor as plain text.

Define your goals

Then, go to Petition settings > Basics.

1. First, you'll decide what to call a signature. While we recommend "signature" or "endorsement," but you can get creative here. When someone signs the petition on your website, they will click a button that says “Add signature” where “signature” is replaced by the word you place in this text box.

2. Next, you can define a "Signature goal." If you place a numeric goal in this field, a progress bar will be placed on the page. We recommend setting a signature goal and choosing a number that is realistically attainable. Progress thermometers are known to increase participation.

📌 Note: You can also use goals to track petition signatures in your nation. Goals will track the total number of people who have signed any petition in your nation. Learn more about how to use goals.

3. If you have collected additional signatures on this petition offline or on another site, you can enter the number of additional signatures to add to the total in the next field. Please note that these offline signatures will not be counted in your petition signatures goals total, but will be counted in the progress thermometer on your petition page. 

4. In order to sign your petition, someone will need to provide her first name, last name, and email address at a minimum. If she is signed into your site using Facebook or Twitter, she can sign the petition without providing additional information.

You can choose to ask for additional items when people sign the petition: you can ask for a photo, phone, and address, and you can also make these items required. We recommend limiting the amount of information a person is required to provide in order to sign your petition. In fact, the fewer items a person could fill in to complete your petition, the more likely she is to complete the form.

5. You can decide whether to ask for volunteers on the petition page. A person who wants to volunteer will be directed to your website’s primary volunteer page for more information. If people do not volunteer when submitting a signature, you can decide what page they should land on next. If a page is not listed in this box, a person signing the petition will remain on the petition page after submitting her signature. Regardless of your choice here, the signer will be encouraged to share the petition via Facebook and Twitter.

6. We also highly recommend that you attach tags to people who sign your petition in the "Tag the signer with" field. Multiple tags should be separated by commas.

7. You can assign people who sign the petition to a point person. If a person submitting feedback already has a point person, that designation will not be changed by the selection made here.

8.  You can also automatically add all people who sign the petition to a path by clicking the box next to "Add to path."

9. Click the Save settings button. 

Choose whether to follow up with petition backers

Review and edit the list of people who have already signed your petition under Petition settings > Signatures.

You can also enter in new signatures here. This is a great way to input signatures gathered offline. In order to add a signature to the petition, you must at least enter the person’s first name, last name, and email address or phone number.

If you click Petition settings > Download CSV, a .csv file of your petition signatures will be generated and downloaded to your computer. The file can be opened in Microsoft Excel or any spreadsheet software. This document will not include the text of your petition. It will include NationBuilder ID, name, state, comment, and the day/time the signature was created.

If you need to add your backers to a list, go to Petition settings > Signatures. Above all of the signatures, you can click on the Actions menu to add all backers to a list. Once you select to add them all to a list, you can choose the list from the dropdown menu or create a new list in order to add all of your backers. If you click the name of a list with a check mark next to it, you can remove all backers from an existing list within the dropdown menu.

If you want to make edits to a specific backer, find the name within your list of signatures at the bottom of the page. 

Once you find the signature you want to edit, you can do the following:

  • Select the arrow to add the specific backer to a list from the dropdown menu or to add the backer to a newly created list. If your backer is currently on a list, you will see a check mark next to a list name. If you want to remove the backer from that list, click on the list and the check mark will be removed.

  • Hover over/click Edit to edit the backer information. When selected, all fields at the top of the page will auto-populate for you to review and make changes.

  • Select the name of the backer and you'll be redirected to the backer's profile in People > [Selected backer] > Dashboard.

  • Select the arrow to remove the signature.

Encourage social sharing

To customize messaging to your petition backers, go to Petition settings > Autoresponse.


By default, an email will automatically be sent to each signer. You can change this setting by unchecking the box next to “Automatically send signer an email.”

We strongly recommend using the autoresponse function to thank people for signing the petition and to encourage them to spread the word on on Facebook and Twitter. You may want to include your suggested tweet and Facebook post here to provide them with suggested text for their post.

You can change the broadcaster who sends the automatic messages. The primary broadcaster for your website is set here by default. You can then edit the subject line and body of the email.

If you have made any changes to the autoresponse, click the Save autoresponse email button to save your changes.

You'll definitely want to check out Petition settings > Text keywords. Here you can define the keyword a mobile phone user needs to text to one of your broadcasters in order to sign the petition.

In the broadcaster dropdown you can select any of your broadcasters who have a virtual phone number attached.

Next you define the keyword - which must be one word without spaces. You can then write an autoresponse of up to 160 characters that will be sent to a texter after they sign your petition.

Convey the importance of your petition with custom social sharing messages

It’s extremely important to encourage signers to share your petition via social media. You can customize these settings under Settings > Social media. By default people will be prompted to tweet the petition. It can be extremely helpful to edit the default tweet to include an urgent reason to sign the petition. As with other default tweets, a link to the page will be included at the end automatically.

You can also choose a thumbnail image for Facebook here and that can also be useful - ideally there is also at least one image on your petition page. Including a thumbnail here ensures that the petition image is picked up rather than other images associated with your website.

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