Neutral. Transparent. effective.
About openPetition
Since 2010, openPetition has been helping people to bring about change. As a petition platform with over 13 million users, it is our job to expand digital participation opportunities and make our democracy more accessible to everyone.
Our goals are recognized as non-profit. In order to secure them in the future, openPetition has been organized into steward-ownership since 2022.
We finance ourselves exclusively through small donations from our users. We strictly reject any influence by companies or political organizations.
Mission & Goals
Facilitating political participation
openPetition helps people to draw attention to urgent problems and to get involved in politics. We advise petition starters from the start to the handing over of their petition. The goal: make political participation easier and contribute to an active civil society. For this educational work, we regularly take part in panel discussions, lectures and network meetings.
Making politics more transparent
We inform citizens about their opportunities to participate and help them to make the best use of them. We treat each petition transparently and post updates on the petition page. In addition, we ask all elected representatives of the region for a public statement when the so-called openPetition quorum is reached.
Strengthening the right to petition
openPetition is committed to strengthening the right to petition and expanding online participation. We also demand a right to be heard in politics as soon as a petition has reached a certain number of signatures. To this end, we are in contact with political decision-makers and administrations in Germany at federal and state level as well as in Europe.
Modernising parliamentary democracy
In addition to our petition platform, we are working on projects to modernize our democracy. With the open democracy tool we also bring online petitions to the municipalities. Our HomeParliament format makes debates on current political issues more accessible. And our latest project opn.vote aims to enable secure, transparent digital voting in the future.
Principles & Values
neutrality
The topics on openPetition span the entire political spectrum. They do not reflect our own point of view. In order to promote constructive debates, we ensure that our Terms of Use are observed: Racism, misanthropy and discrimination have no place with us.
Transparency
openPetition supports the "Initiative Transparent Civil Society". Based on their guidelines, we publish a annual and transparency report with information about our goals, source of funds, use of funds and personnel structure.
Data privacy
You should be in control of your data at all times. Therefore, we make our handling of personal data comprehensible and transparent. You can read which data we collect for which purposes and how we deal with it in our data protection declaration .
non-profit
openPetition arose from a voluntary initiative and is financed 100% by user donations. We do not make any profits, but use our donations exclusively for the operation of our platform and our democratic mission.
diversity
Democracy can only work well if everyone contributes equally. openPetition promotes diversity so that everyone can get involved on our platform within the framework of our democratic order - regardless of gender, level of education, age, nationality, political opinion, etc.
sustainability
As a non-profit organization, we are aware of our social responsibility to work and operate sustainably. We ensure that millions of signatures no longer have to be collected on paper. Our servers are located in Germany and are powered by green electricity.
Future
openPetition attaches great importance to the training and promotion of skilled workers. Our work aims to make democratic processes more accessible and to ensure a modern democracy. We are committed to ensuring that there are people who are passionate about continuing this mission.
Our team
There is a dedicated team behind openPetition . We keep the platform running, implement feedback and develop new features. At the same time, we give tips on your petition, help with questions and with dialogue with Parliament.
openPetition makes sure that everyone has the know-how to change things. We make citizen participation easy and your concerns visible in public and in politics.
We come from very different backgrounds, but one thing unites us: we all want to promote political commitment. That's why we work together every day to make our society a little more democratic.