Welcome to Campaigns by You

Campaigns by You puts the power to run campaigns in your hands. You’ll find all the tools you need to start a petition, share it with your friends and start growing your campaign.

There are lots of petitions being set up all the time - which means unfortunately it’s not possible to give each one as much time or attention as we might like. So if you spot something in a petition that’s wrong or seems like it shouldn’t be there, it’s almost certainly because no one’s pointed it out to the office team yet!

Campaigns by You is there for 38 Degrees members to make what they want of it - and it’s 38 Degrees members who do the most to help keep it running smoothly. So if you do spot something that doesn’t seem right, please do drop the office team a quick email at [email protected]

Below you’ll find some more information about how Campaigns by You works. If you have any more questions, please get in touch.

What can I start a petition about?

You can start a petition about anything you want - it can be big or small, local or national. There are a few common-sense guidelines to follow of course - any petitions that are offensive, discriminatory, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate (prejudiced, illegal, libellous etc.) will be taken down. 38 Degrees reserves the right to take down any petition at any time.

Can petitions be party political?

38 Degrees is a non-party political organisation - so while it's fine for people associated with political parties to start campaigns, that does mean we don't allow political parties to promote themselves through Campaigns by You.

Which petitions go on the homepage?

The homepage is where you’ll find petitions that are gathering a lot of steam, are particularly time-sensitive or relevant to current affairs, or just need a final push to get them over the finishing line.

Where can I get help with running my campaign?

You'll find detailed advice on how to run a campaign from start to finish in the Tips & Guides section. You can also email the office team to suggest improvements and flag up technical problems. More information about 38 Degrees is available here.

My petition doesn’t appear when I search for it on the site - how come?

Not every campaign will appear in the list of petitions on Campaigns by You. This is so the office team can highlight petitions that we think will particularly appeal to 38 Degrees members. Don’t worry though - petition pages are still live and open for people to sign even if they don’t appear in the list. And since almost all your signatures will come from people sharing your petition, whether or your petition appears in the list will not affect the success of your campaign.

Campaigns by You petitions are endorsed only by those who choose sign them. They do not indicate the views of all 38 Degrees members or the 38 Degrees staff team. If you don’t agree with a petition, simply don’t sign it. If you think a petition should be taken down for any reason, please flag it and it will be reviewed by the team.

How does the office team decide which petitions to email to 38 Degrees members?

Starting a petition does not automatically mean it will be emailed to 38 Degrees members. In general, the office team looks out for campaigns that are a) time sensitive, b) have a good chance of achieving their goals and c) are around issues we think other 38 Degrees members would care about

Whether or not a petition ends up being emailed around also depends a lot on how many other campaigns are going on at 38 Degrees - we have to make sure that 38 Degrees members aren’t bombarded with too many emails. There’s also only so many campaigns the small office team can take on at a time. But that’s exactly why we created Campaigns by You - to give everyone the opportunity to campaign on the issues they care about!

Why not use the government's e-petitions site?

There are plenty of good reasons to start a petition on Campaigns by You rather than on e-petitions.

The most important one is that government e-petitions are easily ignored by MPs. MPs have a track record of refusing to debate petitions they don't like, so the petition ends up going nowhere.

For example, during the NHS campaign, 38 Degrees members decided to get an already existing NHS e-petition over 100,000 signatures to try to trigger a parliamentary debate. So that's exactly what we did, with the petition eventually passing 170,000 signatures and becoming the biggest petition on the site. However, despite this, MPs simply decided not to hold a debate, and all those signatures were ignored.

The Campaigns by You site also makes it much easier for you to get your petition growing by sharing it with friends and family. You can also easily write to your petition supporters to get them involved in building the campaign - coming to events, collecting signatures, sharing the petition with friends etc.