Support & Funding
The Democracy R&D network is happy to disclose all our contributors, listed here...
General Contributions
$10,000 US and above
newDemocracy Foundation
Australia - Member Organization
nDF is an Australian research foundation exploring ways to do democracy better by adding a complementary role for randomly-selected everyday people being given a chance to deliberate and find common ground. The idea being tested is that this will help leaders lead and take decisions where the conflicting incentives of the electoral system serve as an impairment on making trusted long term decisions.
Ned Crosby
USA - Individual Member
Ned Crosby invented the Citizens Jury process in 1971 and conducted the first CJ in the US in 1974. He is the founder and former Executive Director of the Jefferson Center, a co-developer of the Citizen Initiative Review, a co-founder of Healthy Democracy, and the designer of several models of alternative democratic systems.
Pat Benn
USA - Individual Member
Pat Benn was one of the four founders of the Citizens Initiative Review in Oregon and has worked on many aspects of the Citizens Jury and democracy in the workplace and participatory stakeholder management in schools and school districts.
$500-$2,500 US
Bertelsmann Stiftung
Germany - Member Organization
The Bertelsmann Stiftung (Foundation) is a leading German think tank which develops solutions to contemporary societal challenges. Through its democracy program the Foundation seeks to foster citizens’ participation. It explores how the EU can be more participatory. It analyses existing participation forms, explores how new ones can be established and pilots participatory innovations.
Center for Deliberative Democracy
USA - Member Organization
Developed Deliberative Polling® as an attempt to use public opinion research in a new and constructive way. The resulting changes in opinion represent the conclusions the public would reach, if people had opportunity to become more informed and more engaged by the issues.
Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes
USA - Member Organization
A leader in convening citizen-focused technology forums throughout the US, the CSPO is an intellectual network aimed at enhancing the contribution of science & technology to society’s pursuit of equality, freedom, and quality of life. The CSPO creates knowledge and methods, cultivates discourse and fosters policies to help decision makers grapple with the immense power of emerging science & technology.
Danish Board of Technology Foundation
Denmark - Member Organization
Works to ensure that society’s development is shaped by informed and forward-looking cooperation between citizens, experts, stakeholders, and decision-makers. They have designed and implemented a range of different engagement and co-creation methods at the local, national, European and global level, including the Consensus Conference and World Wide Views.
Demsoc
Europe - Member Organization
Demsoc works to create opportunities for people to become involved in the decisions that affect their lives and for them to have the skills to do this effectively. It supports governments, parliaments and any organization that wants to involve citizens in decision making to be transparent, open and welcoming of participation. Demsoc actively support spaces, places and processes to make this happen.
Involve
United Kingdom - Member Organization
Founded in 2003 to “to create a new focus for thinking and action on the links between new forms of public participation and existing democratic institutions”. They have been promoting and practising participatory and deliberative democracy ever since. Involve work toward building new democratic innovations, institutions and norms that put people at the heart of decision-making.
MASS LBP
Canada - Member Organization
Since 2007, MASS has led some of Canada’s most ambitious efforts to engage citizens in tackling tough policy choices while pioneering Civic Lotteries and Citizens’ Reference Panels on behalf of forward-thinking governments. Approximately 1 in 67 Canadian households have received invitations to serve in a deliberative process such as the ongoing Toronto Planning Review Panel.
Mehr Demokratie
Germany - Member Organization
Composed of 14 regional associations, Mehr Demokratie is the driving force for citizens’ initiated referenda in Germany. It was founded in 1988 and stands up for a better electoral law and an intelligently interwoven parliamentarism, direct democracy and civic participation. It advocates that every vote counts equally and everybody has the right to participate in the democratic process.
Missions Publiques
France - Member Organization
A mission driven consultancy aiming at improving the decision making process by designing and implementing new forms of dialogues between citizens, governments and experts. They work at all levels from local to global and focus on having the highest qualitative processes and the strongest impact for over 20 years.
Nexus Institute
Germany - Member Organization
Combines practice and research with concepts, facilitation and evaluations. Nexus believes that active citizenship and the participation of different actors change the development of society. Their topics are mobility, digitization, regional development, demographic change and sustainability.
Particitiz
Belgium - Member Organization
Since its creation in 2015, Particitiz has conceptualized and implemented deliberative processes in various political institutions, at the municipal, regional, national and European levels. Their approach is based on sortition, collective intelligence and long term processes.
The RSA
United Kingdom - Member Organization
Supported by 29,000 Fellows, The RSA shares powerful ideas, carries out cutting-edge research and builds networks, helping to create fulfilling lives and flourishing societies. In recent years, large parts of this work has focused on deliberative processes and the RSA is currently developing a campaign for deliberative democracy to promote political reform in the UK.
Under $500 US
Member Organizations
Citizen Juries c.i.c. - United Kingdom
Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance - Australia
Citizens’ Convention on UK Democracy - United Kingdom
Delibera Brasil - Brazil
Empowering Participation - Australia
Fórum dos Cidadãos - Portugal
G-1000 - Belgium
Génération Nomination - Switzerland
Irish Citizens Assembly Project - Ireland
Japan Forum for Mini-Public Research - Japan
Korean Association for Conflict Studies - Korea
Korean Center for Social Conflict Resolution - Korea
Office of Future Related Issues - Austria
PALO Project on Long Term Decision Making - Finland
Shared Future CIC, c.i.c. - United Kingdom
Sortition Foundation - United Kingdom
ECI Campaign - Europe
of by for - United States
Individual Memebers
Yago Bermejo Abati - Spain
Terrill Bouricius - United States
Laura Black - United States
Patrick Chalmers - France
Claudia Chwalisz - France
Stephen Elstub - United Kingdom
Oliver Escobar - Scotland
John Gastil - United States
Tin Gazivoda - Europe
Marcin Gerwin - Poland
Doreen Grove - Scotland
Arantxa Mendiharat - Spain
Niamh Webster - Scotland
Carolyn Hendriks - Australia
Jane Mansbridge - United States
Graham Smith - United Kingdom
Mark Warren - Canada
Wendy Willis - United States
Project-Specific Contributions
The Open Society Foundation
Initiative for Europe
The Open Society Foundation Initiative for Europe (OSIFE), within the Open Society Foundation, supports organizations that promote active participation in democracy and uphold open society values—particularly in places where civil and political rights are at risk. OSIFE made a donation of US $48,935 to support the Democracy R&D’s annual meeting in 2020 in Manchester, UK.
