Valentines

Mondays are almost never this exciting. But yesterday was a phenomenal day for four huge campaigns on Change.org that you should know about:

• After hearing from more than 82,000 people, Chase Bank called off foreclosing on 78-year-old grandmother and civil rights activist Helen Bailey. "I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders," says Ms. Bailey. "I am so thankful for the support of my neighbors and the nation."
• Last week Apple customers visited stores on four continents to deliver 250,000 petition signatures demanding better working conditions at factories making iPads and iPhones. (The delivery made news on CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and NPR).  Yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced immediate factory inspections, showing that the pressure is working! But experts doubt how reliable the monitoring group’s findings will be and there are still no worker-protection plans for new product releases (when workers are forced to work so hard to meet deadlines that some die of exhaustion -- and others commit suicide). Click here to sign Mark's petition and keep up the pressure on Apple.
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  McDonald's finally responded to the 100,000 people (and groups like the Humane Society of the United States) who told the fast food giant to stop sourcing pork from factory farms using inhumane "gestation crates," (cages so small that pigs can’t move or turn around). McDonald's told all of its suppliers yesterday to start phasing out the cages -- an earthquake for the food industry.
  
  
  
• And some big news from last week! More than 141,000 banded together to save the life of Jesus Navarro, a father who was reportedly denied a life-saving kidney transplant, despite having insurance to pay for surgery, a volunteer donor, and a benefactor to help pay for his follow-up care. But an ABC News headline gives the good news: "Dying Dad, Jesus Navarro, to Get Kidney Transplant."

With hundreds of people winning campaigns on Change.org, the pace of change is growing unbelievably quickly.

Have something you want to change? Click here to start your own petition -- and we bet you’ll find that you’re more powerful than you ever imagined.

Excited to help you win,

- Patrick and the Change.org team

P.S. Yesterday’s Baltimore Sun highlighted Change.org, declaring, "Consumers are starting to flex their newfound muscle." "How the revolution became digitized" was the lead story on CBS Sunday Morning. And if you missed last Sunday’s New York Times column on the power of Change.org, read it here.