Getting Started | Getting Educated | Instant Activism | More Activism | Links | Info | Messaging

Instant Activism

Ready, set, click! This page lists the sites available that allow you to get involved and make a difference simply by clicking and typing. It doesn't get any easier than this! Below is a list of the site types.

Color Coding Legend

  • Click Activism - Point and click. Sites like this are often funded by advertisers. If you like their mission, we also recommend clicking on the advertising banners on the site, since the advertisers are paying the tab.
  • Email Action Alerts - With a link to a pre-written letter. Clicking the link will take you to a page where you may edit the letter before sending it to your representative through the site.
  • Email Action Alerts - With a sample letter. You will have to send your letter to the correct representative according to the list you developed in Getting Started.
  • Email Action Alerts - You compose the letter. These sites provide the alert, but you'll need to compose the correspondence yourself and send it to the correct representative according to the list you developed in Getting Started.
  • Action Items - Posted on Website. You will need to check the website to learn about actions you can take.

Groups Taking Action on Multiple Issues

  • MoveOn.org - Click "Sign Up for Action Updates" on the main page. MoveOn is working to bring ordinary people back into politics. Originally started during the Clinton impeachment procedings, this group is a powerhouse of online activism with a strong Democratic party membership.
  • People For the American Way - You can subscribe to recieve email newsletters containing Action Alerts or navigate to specific issues. People For the American Way is a group focused on public education, religious freedom, an independent judiciary, civil rights, equal rights, constitutional liberties and civic participation.
  • Progressive Portal - Progressive Portal provides opportunities for effective, easy grassroots activism on a range of progressive issues. Progressive Portal is independent -- not part of any particular organization, party or group - although specific campaigns are often conducted in conjunction with leading grassroots organizations.
  • Progressive Secretary.org - Click "Enroll" on the main page. Progressive Secretary.org sends you proposed letters, one by one. The proposal contains the subject, the text of the letter and who will receive it. You tell them to Send, or you simply don't reply. If you say Send, they send the letter for you and send you a report later for your records.
  • Public Interest Research Group - Sign up to be an "e-activist" or select your state PIRG. The state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are an alliance of state-based, citizen-funded organizations that advocate for the public interest. They work to uncover threats to public health and well-being and fight to end them.
  • TrueMajority - Click "Take Action" on the main page. TrueMajority's underlying philosophy is contained in the TrueMajority Principles, a positive blueprint for moving forward in the post 9/11 world. These principles reflect the American values of compassion, charity and justice - the same values we must adhere to in order to build a safer, more secure home and world.
  • WorkingForChange - Click "Activism" on the main page. WorkingForChange offers opinion, news and action opportunities for people with progressive values.
  • Vote.com - Allows you to vote on a topic listed on their site. Then they'll send an e-mail to significant decision-makers like your congressional representatives and the President telling them how you feel.

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

  • ACLU - Click the "Take Action" link on the main page. The American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) is the preeminent defender of the Bill of Rights. The ACLU Action Center provides guidance and resources to people who want to defend their rights.
  • The Center for Democracy & Technology - Click the "Get Involved" link on the main page. The mission of The Center for Democracy is to conceptualize, develop and implement public policies to preserve and enhance free expression, privacy, open access and other democratic values in the new and increasingly integrated communications medium.
  • civilrights.org - Click "Action Center" on the main page. civilrights.org is a collaboration of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. Its mission: to serve as the site of record for relevant and up-to-the minute civil rights news and information.
  • Common Cause - Click "Get Involved" on the main page. Common Cause is a non-partisan citizens' organization whose goal is to ensure open, honest, accountable and effective government at the federal, state and local levels.
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation - Click "Action Center" on the main page. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was created to defend our rights to think, speak and share our ideas, thoughts and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web.
  • The League of Women Voters - Click any of the Action Alerts on the main page or subscribe to Email Updates. The League of Women Voters believes that democratic government depends upon the informed and active participation of its citizens and requires that governmental bodies protect the citizen's right to know by giving adequate notice of proposed actions, holding open meetings and making public records accessible.

Environment

  • Action Network - Click "Take Action Now" on the main page. With over 800,000 members, Action Network is a gateway to online activism centers for over 170 leading environment, health and population advocacy organization.
  • Audubon - Click "Issues & Action Home" under "Issues & Action" on the main page. Audubon's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.
  • EarthJustice - Click "Take Action" on the main page. Earthjustice is the nonprofit law firm for the environment, representing - without charge - hundreds of public interest clients, large and small.
  • EcologyFund.com - Click "Action Alerts" on the main page. EcologyFund is owned and operated by The Hunger Site Network as a way to get new funds for critical habitat and wilderness preservation using the power of the internet. They also offer free email with advertising that funds EcologyFund projects.
  • Environmental Defense - Click "Action Center" on the main page. Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food and a flourishing ecosystem.
  • National Resources Defence Council - The National Resources Defence Counsel (NRDC) uses law, science, and the support of more than 1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
  • National Wildlife Federation - Click "Take Action" on the main page. The National Wildlife Federation is large member-supported conservation group, uniting individuals, organizations, businesses and government to protect wildlife, wild places and the environment.
  • PeTA - Click "Action Alerts" on the main page. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) a group focused on animal rights and abuse issues.
  • The Rainforest Site - Click "Action Alerts" on the main page. Brought to you by the same folks that created The Hunger Site, The Rainforest Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific ecological need -- the preservation of the world's rainforests.
  • The Sierra Club - Click "Take Action" on the main page. The Sierra Club's has 700,000 members that work together to protect communities and the planet. The Club is one of America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organizations.
  • The Union of Concerned Scientists - Click "Take Action" on the main page. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is an independent nonprofit alliance of 60,000 concerned citizens and scientists across the country. They augment rigorous scientific analysis with innovative thinking and committed citizen advocacy to build a cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.
  • World Wildlife Fund - The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is dedicated to protecting the world's wildlife and wildlands and is one the largest international conservation organizations in the world.

Governmental / Corporate Reform

  • Alliance for Better Campaigns - Click "Take Action" on the main page. The Alliance for Better Campaigns is a public interest group that seeks to improve elections by promoting campaigns in which the most useful information reaches the greatest number of citizens in the most engaging way.
  • CorpWatch - Click "Action" on the main page. CorpWatch counters corporate-led globalization through education, network-building and activism. CorpWatch works to foster democratic control over corporations by building a grassroots, diverse movement for human rights, human dignity, labor rights and environmental justice.
  • Public Citizen - Click "Take Action" on the main page. Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit, consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.

Health & Reproductive Rights

  • Feminist Majority Foundation - Click the "Take Action" link on the main page. The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health and non-violence.
  • National Organization for Women - Click the "Take Action" link on the main page. The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
  • NARAL Pro-Choice America - Click the "Take Action" link on the main page. For over thirty years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has been the political arm of the pro-choice movement and a strong advocate of reproductive freedom and choice.
  • Physicians for Social Responsibility - Click the "Take Action" link on the main page. With 24,000 members Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is a leading public policy organization representing the medical and public health professions and concerned citizens, working together for nuclear disarmament, a healthful environment and an end to the epidemic of gun violence.
  • Planned Parenthood Federation of America - Click "Get Involved" then "Action Center" from the main page navigation. Planned Parenthood believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world to manage his or her fertility, regardless of the individual's income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin or residence.

Humanitarian

  • Amnesty International USA - Click "Act!" on the main page navigation to access the Human Rights Action center. Founded in London in 1961, Amnesty International is a Nobel Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with over one million members worldwide. Amnesty International is dedicated to freeing prisoners of conscience; gaining fair trials for political prisoners; ending torture, political killings and "disappearances;" and abolishing the death penalty throughout the world.
  • Campaign For Labor Rights - Click "Alerts" and "Campaigns" on the main page. It is the mission of the Campaign for Labor Rights (CLR) to mobilize grassroots support throughout the United States to promote economic and social justice by campaigning to end labor rights violations around the world.
  • The Child Health Site - Click the button to donate food. One of the first Internet activism sites, The Child Health Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific need: saving children's lives and improving the quality of their health.
  • The Hunger Site - Click the button to donate food. One of the first Internet activism sites, The Hunger Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need: the eradication of world hunger.
  • Results - Click "Take Action Now" on the main page. The mission of Results is to create the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty, and to empower individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power.

Media/Journalism

  • Center for Digital Democracy - Click " Get Involved - Take Action" on the main page. The Center for Digital Democracy is committed to preserving the openness and diversity of the Internet in the broadband era, and to realizing the full potential of digital communications through the development and encouragement of noncommercial, public interest programming.
  • Free Press - Click "Take Action!" on the main page. Free Press is a national organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates. The ultimate aim of Free Press is to generate a range of policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.