Meet our Exchange Program
The best way to grow your opt-in email & SMS lists, for free, without joint actions or list swaps.
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The best way to grow your opt-in email & SMS lists, for free, without joint actions or list swaps.
You may know we offer the best way to grow your email list via paid acquisition, but we also provide an easy way to grow your opt-in lists for free by sharing your Civic Shout petitions with your email and SMS lists—this our Exchange Program.
Create petitions on Civic Shout then share them with your email and SMS lists
For every 4 signatures you generate, you’ll earn a credit good for 1 new opt-in supporter. And unlike joint actions, folks will not be automatically joining our list or anyone else’s when they sign your petition (they may see suggested petitions after signing yours).
As you earn opt-ins, we’ll promote your petitions to like-minded folks in our activist network of over 12 million until you’ve gained all new-to-list supporters owed
“We just send out 2-3 petition emails per month and gain about 4,000 new supporters without spending a dime. Buying these opt-ins could cost between $5,000-$10,000 otherwise. It’s amazing!”
Growing your email community for free is great. Building an opt-in SMS list from your existing email list (at the same time) is even better!
Our partner, UltraViolet, conducted an AB test between matching petitions on Civic Shout and their current petition platform. They knew the list-growth power of earning free opt-ins with us is unbeatable, but wanted to see some hard data firsthand.
They shared each petition with their email list generating about 5,000 signatures on each one. The results below speak for themselves.
New opt-ins generated
A value of $1,462 at $1.25 per opt-in.
New opt-ins generated
A value of $40 at $1.25 per opt-in.
We get it. Some groups don’t often send petitions, but they’re missing an amazing opportunity to engage their community, collect data, and offer actions that don’t create donation fatigue.
Any group can benefit from sending even two short petitions a month. And with the added oompf of earning opt-ins, there’s no reason not to.
We designed Civic Shout specifically to grow your email list rather than as a replacement for your current petition tools.
We suggest sending out 2-3 petition emails per month to earn as many opt-ins as possible (max 4,000 per month). Once you hit your limit, just send petitions from your existing platform until the month’s over.
And if you’re an Action Network, EveryAction, or NGP VAN user, you can choose to sync your Civic Shout data in realtime.
Your Civic Shout petitions prominently feature your brand colors and logo.
And unlike all other petition platforms, for every 4 signatures you generate by sharing your petitions with your email and SMS lists, you’ll earn a credit good for 1 new-to-list opt-in supporter from our 12-million member activist network.
After signing, about 50-60% of folks land on our suggested petitions carousel.
This is where they have the chance to flip through (and sign if they wish) a max of five petitions from vetted partners in our progressive network before being redirected to your donation page.
Fewer folks sign petitions and join other lists at this point than you may think. Roughly, about half as many as the conventional joint actions that you’re used to.
Up to 60% of your petition signers could end up on your donation page—either because they were sent directly to it without ever seeing the suggested petitions carousel or because they browsed all the way through it.
We surveyed activists on our own email list to see what they think about the suggested petitions carousel. Even we were surprised to see that nearly 100% of the responses showed a positive sentiment. Here’s a few...
“I’m kept informed of other sh*t going on I may not have been aware of otherwise. Keep on keeping on!”
“I appreciate the suggested petitions—keeps me up to date on important issues that I can have a say on.”
“As a homebound elder, this simplifies my online activism. I would even appreciate more petitions to consider.”
Not really. Unlike joint actions where all signers are added to multiple lists by default, with Civic Shout, they may have an opportunity to join lists AFTER they sign your petition, and even then, only about 30% choose to.
Many of your signers will end up on your donation page, but you may raise slightly less money than you’re used to. That’s because, unlike regular petitions, Civic Shout and our Exchange Program were specifically designed to grow your email and SMS lists for free.
The trade-off of acquiring up to 4,000 new-to-list supporters every month (a $5,000-$10,000 value), for free, greatly outweighs the small difference in funds raised from a few email sends.
When you’re owed opt-ins, your petitions will go into the carousels of other exchange partners until you’ve received all new-to-list owed.
Unlike Care2 or Facebook, we generate carousel traffic exclusively from our own email list and from the lists of partners in our traffic program.
Since these email-sourced activists have to jump through hoops (receive email, open, click, and sign a petition before landing on the carousel), they’re higher quality opt-ins than ones sourced from ads or elsewhere.
Unlike most petitions, we prominently display a disclaimer and checkbox that makes it obvious to activists that they have the option to join your list and that they can sign without subscribing.
This increases opt-in quality and helps filter out leads who are not likely to engage or those more at risk of flagging your emails as spam.
“We’re seeing ROI that’s much better than Facebook ads.”
“98% of our Civic Shout opt-ins are still subscribed after several weeks.”
Our system is strictly opt-in for activists—ensuring partners can only access contact info if signers of their Civic Shout petitions have chosen to join their lists. Period.
Track earned opt-ins and their fulfillment as new-to-list contacts flow into your dashboard in realtime.
To ensure only new names are added to your list, we offer the easiest-to-use suppression tools around.
Our SHA-256 hash file system is lightning fast and notably more secure than outdated MD5 systems.
To help protect your sender reputation, we use a 3rd party validation service to validate email and cell numbers. If they pass the test, they’re added to downloadable CSVs or synced with your Action Network, EveryAction, or NGP VAN account.
“When we needed a little help, we got it immediately.”
Of course, sharing your Civic Shout petitions with your email and SMS lists are the most efficient ways to earn thousands of credits in a month, but it’s not the only way.
Check out 8 clever ways you can earn opt-ins to learn more.
At the moment, Civic Shout is only generating opt-ins at the national level. We plan on rolling out state-based targeting before too long, however.
You can earn up to 4,000 opt-ins per calendar month.
No. In order to keep the quality of the opt-ins in the system high, we don’t allow partners in teh Exchange Program to earn credits by sending Facebook ad traffic to their Civic Shout petitions.
Our position on this may change at some point, but not likely, as Facebook lead quality continues to deteriorate month over month.
Civic Shout is designed to complement your existing advocacy tools and strategies, not replace them.
Although high-converting petition software is at our core, it’s in service of list growth. So you can keep using your existing tools for your acutely-focused advocacy needs.
Civic Shout is for large and small progressive groups and campaigns that want to grow their national email lists and are dedicated to making the world more just and inclusive.
Some of our current partners are working to protect the environment, expand voting rights and civil rights, fight for economic justice, stand up for the rights of women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community, and more.
The platform is open to 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations, labor unions, Democratic campaigns, PACs, and socially responsible businesses.
Roughly 20% of the people who sign your Civic Shout petitions will also provide their cell numbers and opt-in to your SMS list.
Yes! You can easily upload your logo and specify your primary and secondary brand colors. They will be included automatically in the design of every petition you create.
Members in our cross-promotion network agree to only share their petitions with their email and SMS lists, rather than promoting them on Facebook or elsewhere. Our system can also infer what sources traffic is coming from to ensure partners are following membership guidelines.
The best way to access supporter contact information is by using our secure integrations with Action Network, EveryAction, or NGP VAN. If you don’t use one of those services for your email program, you can easily download CSVs 24/7 through your petition’s dashboard instead.
Yes! Civic Shout was built with agencies and consulting firms in mind. By selecting Agency as your "Organization type" when requesting your Civic Shout invite, your account will be configured for agency usage. This way, you’ll be able to easily manage multiple client accounts with secure user roles for your staff.
Our advanced SHA-256 hashing tool handles all data processing in your browser via Javascript—ensuring data never leaves your machine during the hashing process. In fact, you can even use it when you’ve turned off your WiFi for total peace of mind. You can check it out here.