How to use Fossil Free campaigns site

To start a petition, go to campaigns.gofossilfree.org click on the button and follow the on-screen instructions.

Scroll to the bottom left of the page to select your language.

Once you'll filled in all the fields and created your petition, you can view it online immediately. 

It will go to an admin for moderation before its listed publicly on the Go Fossil Free site and someone in your country may be in touch with you to help you refine your petition and design your campaign.

When you're logged in, you will be able to manage, edit and do lots more with your petition. Click Manage.

The first set of tools lets your easily share your petition on Facebook, Twitter and by email with friends.

From the menu on the right you can also:

•  edit your petition  - be careful to get your wording and demands right before you start collecting signatures since only minor amends are advisable after people have started signing it.
  
• set a short URL - you can customise a shorter, memorable link for sharing on social media.
  
• add campaign admins - it's a good idea to have more than one person in your group with access to the petition tools so you can share the load.
• embed petition - if you have your own website, make sure to ask your national campaign coordinator for the code to embed your petition in your site.
  

Once people have signed your petition, you will be able to stay in contact with them and send them updates about the campaign - for eg. about upcoming meetings, petition hand-in events and other actions you're planning locally.

You'll find some ready-made email templates if you scroll down.

Simply write your email, remember to include useful links and have someone else in your group check it over before hitting send.  Your email will go to your national site moderator.  If it's time sensitive, do contact them to let them know there's an email ready to go out. (Contacts)

NB: this is one of the most important tools for keeping your campaign growing.  Email your petition supporters regularly with updates and ways they can get involved.    

There's also a tool that allows you to add Updates to your petition's public page.  You can add pics, links, videos and short text.  Scroll to the bottom of your petition page and login to view the update input field.

To make collecting signatures in person easy - you can download a printable version of your petition to bring to events - don't forget lots of clipboards and pens.

When your event is over you can enter the petition signatures you've collected using the simple input tool so that they're all in one place.   If you have a big spreadsheet with too many signatures to enter by hand, we can also upload them for you (as long as the fields are the same as on the petition form). Email your 350.org contact nationally for help with this.

To make an impact you need to deliver your petition to your target, the more creatively and publicly the better!

When you're ready for your first hand-in, go to Deliver Petition.  You have the option to either print all the signatures off as a PDF or download a .csv spreadsheet of your signatures.  This might be helpful if you want to go through to identify particular signatories (eg. academics, high profile signatories etc) or just to sort the signatures into a particular order. 

You can also organise a hand-in event.  Click the button and follow the instructions to set up the date and details.   Once you've saved the event you'll have the option to auto-invite all petition signatures to the hand-in using the email function (see step 4)

You can add any events associated with your campaign to the petition site too - and it will enable you to invite all your petition supporters along. 

Events to add could include your regular campaign planning meetings, public actions, or a rally outside the all-important meeting where your target decides to divest or not.

Simply fill in the even description form and follow the instructions to send an invite to supporters. Again, these invites will be moderated, so contact your national campaigner if there's a rush.

It might be useful for your campaign to find out how people who are signing your petition are connected to the institution you're targetting to divest. For example, are your supporters a customer of the bank or a member of the pension fund that you're targetting ?

We can help you to set up a custom field that people can answer when they sign your petition. This can be either a checkbox or text field.   Contact your national campaigner to help you set this up.

You can add links to your Facebook page or blog to your Fossil Free petition page.  Simply add the links when you first create the petition or go into Edit Petition.

We can also help you set up a custom Twitter share message. For example, when people click the button to tweet about your petition it can mention your target Twitter handle and your own local group.

What happens to people's data when they sign the petition?

The campaign tool is subject to 350.org's privacy policy on how we handle data.  There is a data protection statement under each petition which people will read before signing. 

As the petition creator, you will have the ability to email all petition signers through this site, and to download the names, phone numbers and addresses of all your petition signers for petition delivery purposes.  You will not be able to download their email addresses (eg. to add them to a different mailing list).

All petition signers will be subscribed to 350.org's Fossil Free email list for the country they live in. They will receive a welcome email and be able to unsubscribe at any time. 

350.org will never sell or share people's personal data with a third party. Where 350.org works in partnership with a national organisation running a divestment campaign, the petition will display a different data protection statement, and we can add an opt-in/opt-out tickbox to allow people to join our partners email lists if they wish.