This is about the small number of new-politics sites I know of that have succeeded as for-profit companies. They seem to be generating enough revenue to maintain themselves or even grow, This doesn’t count money from donors and/or investors. (See also the New-Politics Sites page.)

Change.org is the elephant in the room.  There’s even a Wikipedia page about it, which describes its business model.  I have an account there, but I try not to use it.  What does it mean when a million people support a petition?  Does it matter?  After all, even if a million people signed it, maybe 5 million people saw it and objected to it but there was no opposite petition to sign.  I’m glad they make enough to sustain themselves.

I even launched a petition once, supported a bit by a site endRacism.us, and spent $50 to promote it. It took off, but just a little bit. A few of the people whom the promotion reached also chipped in a few dollars. It hit a plateau around 950. I then wrote to them and asked if they’d help promote it. They declined. Many of my friends said they don’t trust Change.org so don’t sign petitions there. Another way of thinking about this is that they think any petition there has too few chances of making a difference, so it’s not worth risking their privacy. At the end of the day, I figure a signature cost somewhere between a nickel and dime.

Change.org is a B-corporation. Its articles of incorporation say it’s for the benefit of society.

Causes.com/Countable started out as Countable.us, is currently sustaining itself.  They also have a Wikipedia page. Countable began as a site letting one vote on issues. Then they added the ability to send comments to one’s members of Congress and verify the user is a constituent. Then they switched to voting on bills. Now they seem to have both, but it’s not particularly easy to find an issue. Thus, it enables one-way communication, from voters to elected officials. It does not create any accountability. The Wikipedia page says they make money by offering similar tools to large organizations.

I clicked on a recent question (Nov, 2020), Should the US bring back execution by firing squad?  After I voted on it, it says the votes are 84% opposed to it, but it doesn’t tell me how many people that is, so it’s essentially worthless when it comes to informing voters about what citizens want.

Note that the site Causes.com use to belong to another company, Brigade.com, which closed and merged everything (I think) they had of value into Countable.

ISideWith.com began in 2012, asking voters a few questions and then suggesting which presidential candidate’s positions are closest to yours. I believe it was a bit improved in 2016. In 2020 it allowed people to log in and also seemed to handle a number of Congressional races.

I don’t know how, or if, they make money, but apparently they’ve had around 50 million users! Many of these may have been from their pre-account days. I don’t know how many users have accounts. But the numbers are high enough that I’d have to call them a success.

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