{"id":342104,"date":"2017-05-27T09:34:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T01:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1496607"},"modified":"2017-05-27T09:34:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T01:34:16","slug":"reid-hoffman-bill-gates-sam-altman-invest-30-million-in-change-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/reid-hoffman-bill-gates-sam-altman-invest-30-million-in-change-org\/","title":{"rendered":"Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Sam Altman invest $30 million in Change.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman announced today<\/a> that he\u2019s making a big bet on Change.org, the site for social justice petitions. Hoffman is leading a $30 million round, with other investors including big names like\u00a0Bill Gates and Y Combinator president Sam Altman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange.org<\/a>, the global hub for collective action, is a crucial democratizing force in this era of growing civic participation,\u201d wrote Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn<\/a>. \u201cIt helps enable a world where you don\u2019t need to hire a lobbyist to have real impact on the issues and policies that matter to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization was founded in 2007 by CEO Ben Rattray. Since then, almost\u00a0200 million people around the world have used the site to raise awareness for a\u00a0range of\u00a0causes including\u00a0human rights, the environment, education and health issues.<\/p>\n

Rattray wrote in a post<\/a> about the global mission. \u201cWe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The proverbial tongue-in-cheek in Silicon Valley is that people want to build\u00a0things that \u201cchange the world.\u201d This one actually does.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re not a non-profit, they\u2019re a business. They make money by charging companies\u00a0and nonprofits to sponsor petitions which\u00a0they say they brought in $20 million in revenue per year. Unfortunately, that wasn\u2019t enough to keep them from laying off 30% of their staff in September.<\/a>\u00a0They have since introduced crowdfunding, which has generated \u201cmillions of dollars of revenue.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that Hoffman bet on the Change.org team.\u00a0In 2014, he\u00a0was part of a large group of high-profile investors\u00a0including Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve raised over $42 million dating<\/a> back to 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman announced today that he’s making a big bet on Change.org, the site for social justice petitions. Hoffman is leading a $30 million round, with other investors including big names like\u00a0Bill Gates and Y Combinator president Sam Altman.
\n“Change.org, the global hub for collective action, is a crucial democratizing force in this era of growing civic… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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