Today we are excited to announce the launch of Changemakers on Change.org! For the past three months, more than 100,000 Change.org members have participated in nominating and voting for the leaders who they feel best personify a Changemaker, resulting in a remarkable network of people.

For those of you who haven’t been following along at home, the goal of the Changemakers network is to promote a selection of some of the most prominent voices in social change across all sectors – politics, activism, nonprofits, academics, business, and entertainment- and highlight the work those individuals are doing on the most important issues of the day.

As you’ll see when exploring the Changemakers site, we have a remarkable group of people involved. They range from actors like Mia Farrow and Fran Drescher, to environmental champions such as Robert Kennedy Jr. and Bill McKibben, to elected officials like Representatives John Lewis and George Miller and Senator John Kerry – and the list goes on.

This announcement is just the beginning, and your role now begins. We need your help in supporting the work of each Changemaker, engaging with them on the issues they’re focused on, and helping to spread the word. To start, you can keep up with their activity by going to each Changemaker’s individual profile and clicking the “follow” button. Or, you can start by reading each of their first posts on Change.org, and finding out what makes each Changemaker tick.

Although we plan to keep the Changemakers network relatively small, we are always open to your suggestions for who should be included, and will be inviting additional people to join the network over time – including a number of those already nominated. If you have someone in mind, feel free to nominate them as soon as we open up nominations again.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the voting process and for your continued dedication to so many important causes. As we enter 2010, I know that the rapidly growing Change.org community will continue to have a positive impact on the world and that together we will continue to create real change.