The NESTA Democracy Pioneers fund supports innovations that are experimenting with ways to re-energise and reshape civic participation and everyday democracy in the UK.
The Centre for Democracy was founded in January 2021 to develop the ecosystem of organisations working towards a better democracy in the UK
Ecosystem Pledge
The UK democracy sector comprises more than 700 organisations, but it’s extraordinarily fragmented. Most are unaware of research, funding, talent or access that they need, even though it is available, and this is disproportionately holding back the sector. We are inviting organisations to make the ecosystem pledge:
We are individuals and organisations working to improve democracy in the UK. We acknowledge that there are many other organisations working towards the same goal. We believe that, if we want things to change, we need to start talking to each other more.
- Edward Saperia, Newspeak House
- Joe Mitchell, Public Interest News Foundation
- James Moulding, Campaign Lab
- Michelle Man, New Philanthropy Capital
- Jonny Will Chambers, Koreo
- Rich Wilson, Involve UK
- Diane Sims, Notwestminster
- Sam Gilbert, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge
- Alex Zur-Clark, Democratic Society
- Polly Mackenzie, Demos
- Rich Rippin, Sortition Foundation
- James Robertson, Sortition Foundation
- Ciaran Cummins, Demos
- Anna Hamilos, Nesta
- Kat Zscharnagk, Nesta
- Oli Whittington, Nesta
- Carrie Deacon
- Diane Daniels, Simple Politics
- Hattie Andrews, The Politics Project
- Kyle Taylor, Fair Vote UK
- Ed Hammond, Centre for Governance and Scrutiny
- Liz Moore, Association for Citizenship Teaching
- Greg Sanderson, Smart School Councils
- Frances Scott, 50:50 Parliament
- Neal Lawson, Compass
- Roger Wilson, Unite To Reform
- Grant Peisley, Datblygiadau Egni Gwledig (DEG)
- Natalie Fenton, Media Reform Coalition
- Yuji Develle, Wonk Bridge
- Michael De La Rue
- Peter Anderson, VocalEyes Democracy CIC
- Josh Russell, Forward Democracy
- Barnaby Flynn, Flatpack Democracy, Global People Power, Global Democracy Initiative
- Evan Parker, Independent Constitutionalists UK, independent author
- Michael Mulvey, Independent Constitutionalists UK
- Joe Mac, Participative Democracy
- Jon Morter, The Progressive Alliance
- Keith Garrett, Rebooting Democracy, myvote.org.uk
- Hanna Israel, My Country Talks
- Gavin Barker, Centre for Welfare Reform
- Jennifer Nadel, Compassion in Politics
- Jez Hall, Shared Future CIC
- Molly Pipe, The Reshuffle
- Andy Parkhouse, Delib
- Titus Alexander, Democracy Matters, Practical Politics
- James Smith, Open Politics, Something New
- Shelagh Wright, Civic
- Myfanwy Nixon, MySociety
- Rebecca Deegan, I Have A Voice
- Katy Rubin, Legislative Theatre practitioner
- Sebastian Salek, Clear the Lobby
- Anna Randle, Collaborate CIC
- Colin Miller, Deeper Democracy Network
- Ian Roderick, The Schumacher Institute
- Thomas Borwick, College Green Group
- Alan Finlayson, Professor of Political & Social Theory, University of East Anglia
- Danielle Vaughan, Shout Out UK
- Nick Martlew, Digital Action
- Matt Chocqueel-Mangan, Vote for Policies
- Ben Little, Soundings Journal and University of East Anglia
- Liz Crosbie, Reboot GB
- Sam Jeffers, Who Targets Me
- Klina Jordan, Make Votes Matter
- Lizzy Lewis, Votes for Schools
- Tom Brake, Unlock Democracy
- Graham Smith, Centre for the Study of Democracy
- Ashley Hodges, Young Citizens
- Rose Lasko-Skinner, Demos
- Samayya Afzal, British Youth Council
- Frances Crook, Commission on Political Power
- Eva Pascoe, Cybersalon
- Andrew Gray, Crowd Wisdom Project
- Alan Story, Get PR Done
- Graham Smith, Republic
- William Relton, Councils4PR
To sign the pledge yourself, please email us at pledge@centrefordemocracy.org.uk
Keep us going
We are the only project maintaining the essential basic information for the sector: all the jobs and grants from across the UK, a directory of every initiative and funder, a calendar of events from the entire sector, and a widely read fortnightly newsletter. This work is essential to the UK democracy ecosystem. The Centre for Democracy is an independent project surviving month to month off a patchwork of small grants. Fortunately we’re a tiny organisation with very low costs. If every project in our network gave as little as £10 a month, we’d be able to keep this work going indefinitely. Without it, we may not last the year.
Programmes
Newsletter
The Democracy Bulletin is a comprehensive digest of key highlights and updates from across the democracy space published every two weeks, tracking organisational developments and current affairs relevant to the sector.
You can read past newsletters here: centre-for-democracy.medium.com
Meetup
Plug your projects, request assistance, bring attention to your new roles and upcoming events, and get caught up on what other organisations in the sector are working on and thinking about. All news from the meetup is edited together into our newsletter and shared amongst the wider network.
Meetups are held fortnightly on Thursdays, using an asynchronous online format. If it’s your first time, there’s an induction session at 2pm. You can see an example here: democracymeetup.org.uk/1-april-2021
Co-working Days
Spend a day in London working alongside dozens of other organisations working on UK democratic reform.
Co-working days are run about once a quarter. Subscribe to the mailing list to be notified when the date is announced.
Email Discussion List
The UK Democracy Forum is a lightly moderated email discussion list of over 200 organisations and individuals across the UK democracy space.
You can read the archives here: lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ukdemocracyforum
Sector Event Calendar
Every event across the UK democracy sector in one calendar.
The calendar tracks over 30 events every month on average. Useful for event and community organisers to prevent clashes and join up initiatives.
You can add your own events here.
Sector Map
The Centre for Democracy contributes to the upkeep and promotion of the UK Democracy Map, an open database of organisations and campaigns working to build a better democracy in the United Kingdom.
The map supports the development of a shared picture of the definition and size of the sector and helps people connect with others working on similar issues and objectives.
Jobs
An active database of every job listing across the UK democracy sector, generated through tracking every newsletter and social channel from over 700 democracy organisations.
Add a new listing, view the full archive of job roles, or just those with upcoming deadlines. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive the full list of upcoming jobs every two weeks.
Grants
We aggregate all the grants from more than thirty sector-relevant funding organisations. Every website and email from these funding organisations is regularly reviewed for opportunities so you don’t have to.
Add a new grant, or view a full list of upcoming grants or historical grants and funding opportunities.
Slack Channel
The Centre for Democracy team can be found in the #democracynetwork channel in the Democracy Club slack, come and say hello!
Team
Partners
The London College of Political Technology at Newspeak House studies, nurtures and inspires emerging communities of practice in the public sector and civil society in the UK.
Koreo’s work is founded on the belief that talent is the fundamental force of social change, that social impact should be at the heart of all work regardless of sector or role, and that collaborative action is the only way to address complex social issues.