People Powered has both organizational and individual members. Organizational members are local, national, and regional organizations that directly implement, support, or advocate for participatory democracy. Individual members are practitioners, civil servants, researchers, and advocates who work on participatory democracy.
Membership benefits
Fundraising support
We help members identify and apply for funding opportunities to support projects that involve international collaboration. In addition, we prioritize members when applying for grants that involve local partners, thus directing grant funds to them. In our first three years we helped raise $3.5 million for member organizations.
Contract opportunities
We share opportunities for contract work and connect our members with technical-assistance requests. We prioritize members for all People Powered contracting, including paid agreements for mentorship, facilitation, speaking, content production and more. We typically allocate over $100,000 per year to members.
Peer networking
Members join a global network of individuals and organizations with similar missions, providing direct access to peers ready to exchange information and ideas, offer technical support and share resources. We coordinate peer learning workshops, research talks, international exchange visits, and regional hubs for members.
Publicity
We profile our members' work through our newsletters, website, social media platforms and international partners.
Decision-making power
Each year, members decide what work People Powered prioritizes. Members decide how to allocate a pooled fund for projects that benefit the global participatory democracy community, and then they help plan and implement the funded projects. Members also elect our board members, develop our strategic plans and decide the organizational policies that guide our work.
Who can be a member
We welcome applications from organizations and individuals that:
Have at least one year’s track record of implementing, researching, providing assistance for, or advocating for participatory democracy programs, and can provide documentation for this work.
Are aligned with our mission and values.
Commit to participate in or contribute to People Powered activities and programs as outlined in our strategic plan.
Respect cultural diversity, oppose all forms of discrimination, and are nonpartisan (not affiliated with or biased toward a political candidate or party).
Organizations may be NGOs, civil society organizations or social enterprises. Individuals may be practitioners, policymakers, researchers, advocates or other supporters of participatory democracy. Elected officials are not eligible for membership. People who work at People Powered member organizations are automatically included in the membership and do not need to apply individually.
Membership Contributions
People Powered is a nonprofit organization that is funded by grants, contracts, and donations. We pool donations in a shared global fund, and our members collectively decide how to allocate them in order to address common needs. Membership dues are not mandatory, but we ask members to make an annual sliding scale contribution if they are able to, to fund our collective work. Below are suggested annual contributions, but we welcome all members regardless of their ability to pay. We also welcome in-kind contributions of time or other resources.
Organizations: Any amount is welcome! Below are suggested annual amounts according to your organization’s yearly income, but please contribute whatever you are able to:
Budget under $500,000: $50
Budget of $500,000 - $1 million: $100
Budget of $1-2 million: $200
Budget over $2 million: $500
Individuals: Any amount is welcome! We suggest you donate $10 to $150 USD annually, based on your capacity.
Members can pay dues via our donation page.
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More about our members
