GetUp
GetUp! Logo
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| Formation | 2005 |
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| Headquarters | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
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GetUp! is an Australian progressive activist group. It was launched in August 2005. It relies on donations from individuals, organisations, unions and community groups for funding.
Founded by Jeremy Heimans and David Madden, with funding from George Soros, the GetUp.org.au website was launched on 1 August 2005 along with a television advertising campaign. GetUp's initial campaign aimed to help voters to "keep the Howard Government accountable" after it won a majority of seats in the Australian Senate on 9 August 2005, following the Australian federal election, 2004. GetUp! encouraged visitors to send an email to Coalition senators that read "I'm sending you this message because I want you to know that I'm watching. Now that you have absolute power in the Senate, it is only people like me who can hold you accountable. And we will."
In March 2011, Getup! endorsed the controversial decision of the Gillard Labor Government to break its 2010 Election promise not to introduce a carbon tax as a means of addressing Australia's contribution to carbon emissions.
Simon Sheikh was the National Director of GetUp! from September 2008 (at the age of 22) to July 2012.
Sam McLean was the National Director of GetUp! from July 2012 (at the age of 24) to July 2015.
Paul Oosting is the current GetUp! National Director.
GetUp is a non-profit organisation, registered as GetUp Ltd. In the vein of MoveOn.org, much of the organisation's funding comes in the form of small contributions made through its website. Under Australia's taxation regime, donations to GetUp are not considered tax-deductible as the organisation advocates for changes to government policy.
While GetUp's primary methodology to date has been to encourage its membership to email or call their elected representatives, the organisation has also employed a range of campaigning techniques, such as taking out advertisements in major daily newspapers, holding local events, running television commercials, and hiring a skywriter to write "Vote No" above Australia's Parliament House in Canberra. According to the Sydney Morning Herald the organisation generates a lot of standardised form letters that may be characterised as spam. GetUp! says it encourages users to write personal, hand-crafted letters.
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