Membership
Democratically owned and operated
Polity is a cooperative. Members help shape the platform and share learning across the network.
Why a Cooperative
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
Joining Polity means more than access to a platform. It means a real stake in something built to last.
Save
Money
Member pricing, preferred licensing, and early access to new features before they go wide.
Shape the Platform
Vote on what gets built, how data is handled, and where Polity goes next. Your experience directly influences the product.
Work with People Who Get It
Connect with practitioners across civil society, government, and philanthropy who are doing the same hard work you are.
Build Something That Lasts
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
Participants
Participants are individuals who show up to engagements, build a verified Polity profile, and opt in to anonymized data sharing that strengthens the whole. Members have a say in how Polity evolves.
Stewards
Stewards are the experts who help build and govern what Polity becomes, contributing to its development, refining shared methods, and stewarding the data and governance standards the community relies on.
Organizational Members
Institutions
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
Ajit Mehat
Ajit Mehat is the Chair and CEO of Polity. He is a senior public policy leader with over 34 years of federal and provincial service advancing social justice, equity, and access to justice. Founder of Ajit Mehat & Associates, he has led transformative reforms in employment equity, workplace safety, human rights, and cultural inclusion across Canada.
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.
Gordie Hogg
Gordie Hogg served as Member of Parliament for South Surrey–White Rock from 2017-2019. He previously represented Surrey–White Rock in the British Columbia Legislature from 1997-2017 and was Mayor of White Rock from 1984-1993. Gordie got his Ph.D in democratic studies and public policy in 2016, at age 70.
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.
Not Ready to Join?
You Can Still Participate.
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.