5 reasons to become a People Powered member!

People Powered provides our members with the international support necessary to grow successful and equitable participatory democracy programs.

We help address common challenges, build power and resources, and advocate for shared priorities. Together, we’re growing a global movement to expand people’s democratic power.

Will you join us in our mission to give power to people’s voices?

Bonus: To give you a taste of how we support members, we will randomly select three new members who sign up this month and produce a profile of your work, for our global blog and communications. Apply now to have your work amplified.

Apply to be a member!

Who can be a member?

People Powered has organizational and individual members. Organizational members are local, national, or regional organizations that directly implement, assist with or advocate for participatory democracy programs. Individual members are practitioners, policymakers, researchers or advocates who work on participatory democracy. Read more about membership.

Why become a People Powered member

Peer networking

Members join a global community of participatory democracy practice, providing direct access to peers ready to exchange information and ideas, offer technical support, and share resources.

We also host member convenings, with our first one in 2023 in Mexico City, bringing together 103 members from 30 countries. We’re holding the next convening in Warsaw this May. (There’s still time for you to join us!)

“We've formed a team that I dream of working with again. What binds us together is our shared interest and work on trust and its impact on democracy. That's the guiding thread in our working relationship” — Aluna Serrano, Extituto de Política Abierta (Colombia)

2. Fundraising support

We help members identify and apply for funding opportunities to support projects that involve international collaboration. We helped raise $3.5 million for member organizations in our first three years.

Read how we supported joint fundraising for members in Eastern Europe, which resulted in a grant to run youth participatory budgeting.

3. Decision-making power

Members decide what work People Powered prioritizes. So far, members have decided how to allocate $530,000 from a pooled fund for projects that benefit the global participatory democracy community, and then they have helped 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.

See what members voted for in 2023

4. Publicity

We profile our members' work through multiple channels: newsletters, websites, social media platforms, and international partners. See our in-depth case studies of our members’ work in Mexico and Ukraine as examples. We also help our members secure international speaking and media opportunities.

5. 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. In our first three years we directly allocated $255,000 to members to implement joint programs.