Membership
Democratically owned and operated
Polity Cooperative is a collectively governed digital democracy platform for community and organizational decision-making.
Why a Cooperative
Unlike typical technology companies, Polity is structured as a member-governed cooperative, allowing the people building and using it to share ownership and align incentives around public benefit. In practice, this means co-designed assets can be stewarded with partners, not simply delivered to them.
Most technology platforms are owned and controlled by a small group of shareholders. Polity is built differently.
As a cooperative, the people and organizations using Polity help guide its direction, design its technology, and data stewardship.
This model supports long-term public benefit, shared ownership, and collaboration across institutions.
Data Cooperative
Polity includes an opt-in, permissioned data cooperative. Members can share anonymized engagement results under clear consent and collective governance; helping. This partners align, reduce duplication, and act on shared insights.
What Membership Gets You
As a Polity Coop member, you’re not just a user of the infrastructure. You’re a co-owner and co-creator of it —part of a member-governed cooperative where the people building and using the platform share ownership and align incentives around public benefit. Co-designed assets are stewarded with partners, not simply delivered to them. You’ll also join a growing community of top-tier practitioners and emerging leaders doing this work, dedicated to democracy strengthening.
You gain ownership: a membership share, governance rights, and a real voice in how Polity grows. You own your data, control how it’s used, and receive compensation for approved contributions.You can join a growing network of democracy practitioners, governance professionals, and civic innovators building this alongside you.
The Platform
Vote on what gets built, how data is handled, and where Polity goes next. Your experience directly influences the product.
The People
Connect with practitioners across civil society, government, and philanthropy who are doing the same hard work you are.
The Process
Every engagement you run on Polity adds to a growing set of shared tools and insights that make the next one better — for you and for the field.
Find Your Place in Polity
Polity is for people and organizations doing the hard work of democracy across policy, governance, community engagement, and systems change. If that’s you, there’s a place for you here.
Individual Members
General Members
The standard membership. You participate in Polity processes, vote on data governance matters, and access the platform for your own small-group work. A good fit if you want to be part of the ecosystem while contributing at your own pace.
Stewards
For members ready to take on deeper governance and strategic responsibilities. Stewards bring specialized expertise in governance, law, finance, technology, facilitation, or democracy practice, and are eligible to serve on Council, lead committees, and participate in strategic planning and budgeting. Stewards may also receive compensation for governance contributions.
Organizational Members
Organizational membership is coming soon.
If you’re interested in connecting your organization to Polity, we’ll be introducing a Partner pathway in the next phase. Organizational membership options we are exploring include Institutions and Technology partners.
Institutions
Organizations that run Polity inside their own operations and networks. They co-govern alongside other members and participate in setting the data-sharing standards that make cooperation trustworthy and useful.
Technology Partners
Civic tech platforms and developers who participate in cooperative governance explore the ability of different tools, platforms, or systems to work together and share information seamlessly, without custom workarounds or translation layers.
Become a Member
Join the cooperative and help shape the future of digital democracy.
Meet Some of Our Members
Polity Executive Council
Jayne Engle
Dr. Jayne Engle is a civic innovator, systems change practitioner, and futures strategist working to advance thriving, democratic futures. She co-leads 7GenerationCities and stewards Civic Futuring, supporting collective action for long-term systems transformation. Her work spans civic and democracy innovation, social infrastructure, philanthropy, and participatory futures, grounded in reconciliation, intergenerational justice, and wiser collective action.
Lisa Schirch
Lisa Schirch is a Professor of the Practice in Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute. With over 30 years in conflict resolution and peace infrastructure design, she has spearheaded participatory peace processes in Fiji and Afghanistan and shaped global peace policy and systems through the Toda Peace Institute.
Alex Tveit
Alex Tveit is the co-founder and CEO of the Sustainable Impact Foundation, where he advances decentralized innovation ecosystems for social change. Formerly a private equity leader with nearly two decades of experience, he now focuses on tech stewardship, digital equity and community-centric systems change. He holds degrees from the University of Victoria and York University.
Mary Quandt
Mary Quandt is a strategic experience design and transformation leader with over two decades of experience shaping culture, systems, and digital experiences for global organizations. Founder of MaryQuandt LLC, she advises clients like Pfizer, Amazon, and Solana, and Design for Democracy initiatives, drawing on senior roles at Johnson & Johnson, Siegel+Gale, and frog design.
Victoria Stanski
Victoria Stanski is the Managing Director of Common Good AI, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming how communities find common ground through digital tools that enable deliberation and collective problem-solving. Over the past 20 years, she has led peacebuilding and humanitarian programming with international non-profit organizations in conflict-affected countries in the Middle East, West Africa, and South Asia.
Mathew Markman
Mathew Markman is CEO of Ethelo Decisions and Co- Founder of Polity, where he engineers socio-technical systems that strengthen the everyday practice of democracy. He previously led monitoring, evaluation, and research supporting US and EU programs developing governance, community security and justice institutions in opposition areas northern of Syria. He is pursuing a PhD in Futures Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
John Richardson
John Richardson, is a social entrepreneur and systems designer. He is CTO and Founder of Ethelo Decisions and Co-Founder of Polity. With over two decades leading civic technology, sustainability, and cooperative innovation, his work bridges digital democracy, climate-positive materials, and shared ownership models to advance equitable, regenerative public infrastructure.
Membership isn’t the only way to be part of Polity.
There are several ways to engage, contribute, or support the work without taking on the full commitment of membership.
Guests
Guests are individuals invited into a specific engagement by a Polity member group. You get full privacy protections and can participate meaningfully — and if you decide you want a larger role, membership is always an option.
Clients
Clients are organizations and conveners who use Polity through a service relationship. You get the benefits of the platform without the responsibilities of cooperative governance.
Investors
Investors can contribute capital to support Polity’s growth. Non-member investors don’t hold governance rights by default.