Case Studies

150 people across three continents, restoring degraded land—and the decisions couldn't wait for the next meeting.

• A clear record of consequential decisions
• Structured input on decisions for distributed teams
• Multi-stage approval workflows across time zones
• Important decisions separated from everyday communication noise

130 people from 32 countries bought apartments together. Now they have to run a business, a community, and a building — democratically.

• Legally binding votes for a global cooperative
• Full agency in decisions for distributed members
• All governance discussions in one searchable place
• Engagement and participation tracking across members

A 60-year-old recruiting company threw out the org chart, gave every employee the same authority as the CEO, and scaled it to 450 people across three countries.

• Self-management decision practices scaled to 450 staff
• All decisions proposed, debated and documented in one place
• Equal voice for every employee regardless of seniority
• A transparent record of every team decision

When the whole internet depends on your library, you can't make decisions behind closed doors anymore.

• Community input across multiple stakeholder groups
• A transparent archive of every decision and why it was made
• Delegate voting so large orgs can't outvote smaller ones
• Reach beyond your developer community

Behind Zohran Mamdani's historic mayoral primary win was a decision-making system that coordinated 13,000 members with zero paid staff.

• Binding votes with thousands of members
• Member privacy through anonymous voting
• A clear record of every decision
• Full control of costs and data through self-hosting

Twenty-eight developers spun out of the Ethereum Foundation with no hierarchy, no executives, and a rule that every decision must have everyone's consent.

• Consent-based decisions with a distributed team
• Legally binding decisions enshrined in governance documents
• A voice for every team member across time zones
• An official record of how and why decisions were made

An experimental reparations-based fund redistributed over $20,000 to members using cooperative decision-making on Loomio.

• Cooperative fund redistribution
• Democratic proposal voting
• Transparent decision archive
• Member-driven governance

100 households in wine country — growing to 350 — ditched conventional strata management to govern themselves, and they're building the playbook as they go.

• Coordinated decisions across multiple neighbourhood clusters
• Transparent community archives of decisions and reasoning
• Equal say for remote and part-time residents
• Democratic self-governance in place of costly strata management

What happens when 80 developers collectively set everyone's salary — and a single objection can block any decision?

• Transparent salary-setting with your whole team
• A searchable history of every decision and its reasoning
• Non-contentious decisions moved forward asynchronously
• Equal say for every team member through consent-based process

As the team grew past 20, the old way of deciding things stopped working.

• Consent-based decisions with a distributed team
• Every decision documented for full transparency and trust
• Custom templates for recurring processes like salary reviews
• Asynchronous alignment on strategy and financial vision

240 participants from 70 countries, speaking dozens of languages, need to reach consensus — and they've never once had to fall back to a vote.

• A General Assembly across 70 countries and multiple languages
• Inclusion for members who can't attend live sessions due to time zones
• Asynchronous consensus-building before and after live meetings
• Discussions translated into multiple languages automatically

450 staff, three countries, no positional authority — how does a self-managing company actually make decisions at that scale?

• Scale self-management decision practices to 450 staff
• Coordinate decisions across 3 countries and multiple time zones
• Support daily distributed decision-making at scale
• Maintain a transparent record of every team decision

120 open-source developers, fully remote, competing for talent against Silicon Valley — and nothing happens without going through a general assembly.

• Inclusive General Assembly processes for 120+ members
• Time saved with focused discussion threads and structured proposals
• Transparent decisions across a fully remote cooperative
• An archive of strategic decisions and their context

A cooperative of architects who design sustainable buildings needed their own governance to be just as thoughtfully constructed.

• Quick approval on policies and costs outside of meetings
• Subgroups focused on relevant projects
• Collaborative drafting and ratification of governance documents remotely
• Proposals, decisions, and procedures stored in one organized place

500 people each invested $1,000 in a restaurant that gives 80% of its profits to community projects — now they all have to agree on where the money goes.

• Quarterly votes with 500 founders without paper ballots
• Poll data exported for regulatory compliance and auditing
• Community project funding presented, discussed, and voted on
• Filing reduced from 10,000 pages to under 100

A political party stretched across vast Western Australia needed to turn hundreds of voices into unified policy — clause by clause, region by region.

• Policy developed and ratified with input from far-flung regional groups
• Clause-by-clause review of policy drafts with time for research
• Shorter meeting times through consensus built beforehand
• A cyclical amendment process until full consensus is reached

A former refugee who once fled Chile is now pairing newly arriving families with local buddies — and a growing network of volunteers needs to stay coordinated in an increasingly hostile political climate.

• Coordinated buddy-family communication
• Direct council officer visibility into community needs
• Daily operational decisions without meetings
• Scalable model expanded to three boroughs

700 co-owners, 70 electric cars, 10 cities — and every member gets an equal vote on how the profits are spent.

• All cooperative members voting on profit allocation and board plans
• Volunteer coordination across cities with quick polls
• Every member in the loop without email mix-ups
• Subgroup discussions for region-specific decisions

At this Argentine software cooperative, a designer at step six earns exactly what a developer at step six earns — and every four months the whole team decides who moves up.

• A fair salary scale process across all positions
• Open, transparent communication as the co-op grows
• Collective decisions with equal partner input
• Discussions organized to lead to clear outcomes

Six people read a book about reinventing organizations — and then convinced a 60-year-old company to tear up its hierarchy.

• Almost all company decisions proposed, debated, and documented in one place
• Decision-making tools aligned with self-organization flowcharts
• Every employee with a voice regardless of seniority
• Consent-based decision-making at company-wide scale

Scientific papers take years to publish and months to peer-review — so a global team of researchers built a way to share them immediately.

• Asynchronous discussions with researchers around the world
• Votes and debates without coordinating calls
• Quick onboarding with accessible discussion history
• Discussions, polls, and voting centralized in a single tool

Fifty makers share one workshop — but marathon monthly meetings were killing the energy they came there to use.

• Proposals discussed and shaped before monthly meetings
• Members' time saved so they can focus on creative projects
• A repository for decisions that have been made
• Reduced meeting fatigue with distributed discussion and polling

850 teaching positions unfilled, a profession in crisis — and 28,000 union members who needed to debate strike action and reject government offers together.

• 28,000 members debating strike action and government offers together
• Geographically scattered membership included via email integration
• Member-led discussions shaping campaign direction
• Secret ballot decisions informed by open, structured debate

500 active volunteers scattered across France, constant turnover, and over 2,000 events to coordinate — the movement can't afford to lose its institutional memory.

• Campaigns coordinated across geographically scattered local groups
• Years of discussions stored so new volunteers can catch up fast
• Structured information for over 2,000 events
• A durable NGO with consistent messaging despite volunteer turnover

Sixty people scattered across the United States spent ten months turning passionate disagreements into a 40-page cooperative charter for protecting the earth.

• A 40-page charter collaboratively drafted over 10 months
• Subgroups for education, research, and advocacy teams
• Clear, easy communication replacing organizational chaos
• Distributed members aligned through ongoing discussion threads

A group of friends in Burlington want to open the city's first community-owned brewery — but first they have to make democratic decisions with investors who range from casual supporters to hands-on operators.

• A single hub for communications, engagement, and decision-making
• Anonymous voting to gauge investment willingness
• Democratic decision-making practiced on both high and low stakes issues
• Organizational momentum regained by distributing coordination work

How do you measure something as vast as a country's human rights performance — and get diverse experts worldwide to agree on the method?

• Consultation with diverse human rights experts across the world
• Group decision-making impossible via email or group calls
• A global team updated through a central hub
• Polls involving members in strategic decisions like country selection

A small lending society in Cornwall funds grassroots renewable energy projects — but reviewing each loan used to eat up entire meetings.

• Entire loan assessment process online, saving hours of meetings
• Applicants and council officers involved at each stage transparently
• Assessment records stored for easy retrieval and audit
• Timely funding decisions for community energy projects

Twenty people pool their money every month to invest in local co-ops — but going around the circle to allocate funds used to take an hour.

• Democratic fund allocation via dot voting
• Equal participation for geographically dispersed members
• Faster decisions than in-person rounds
• Accessible entry point for new investors

When Bath lost its charity support agency, a handful of volunteers built one from scratch — no building, no budget, no government backing.

• Organized communications so busy volunteers never miss key decisions
• The voice of the majority surfaced through less intimidating polls
• Structured threads replacing confusing reply-all email chains
• Summaries of every conversation cutting down reading time

A workers' co-op that teaches other co-ops how to be democratic had to figure out how to practice what it preached — with a team scattered across the UK.

• Continuous board governance without scheduling extra meetings
• Conversations moved to clear outcomes with proposals
• Thousands of pounds saved per year on meeting costs
• Faster response times and greater organizational agility

When a software company put salary transparency to an anonymous vote, the CEO had reservations — but the team was unanimous, and it exposed a pay gap they could finally fix.

• Decisions that used to take months now taking a week
• Opinions voiced safely, even in front of leadership
• Customers and stakeholders brought into the design process
• Remote and flexible-hours discussions moved to clear outcomes

A national workforce capability framework on family and sexual violence was shaped through careful online consultation that drew meaningful, detailed feedback from across the sector.

• Nationwide consultation on sensitive topics through a closed online group
• Meaningful, well-formed feedback from diverse sector participants
• Clear request-to-contribute process that drives engagement
• Adherence to strict government deadlines with organized discussion threads

A globally distributed space industry cooperative found that Loomio replaced scattered Slack and email threads with focused discussions that actually produce outcomes.

• Efficient operation of a virtual distributed organization
• Focused discussions that replace scattered Slack and email
• Collaborative funding decisions and document processing
• Governance learning from a cooperative-aligned tool

In the middle of a political crisis, a distributed network of Venezuelan citizens needed new tools to organize — fast, safely, and from wherever they were.

• Organized distributed citizen networks across regions
• New tools for activism and political participation
• Decision-making with polls, time polls, and checks
• Effective communication despite geographic distribution

A five-person web design cooperative stopped dreading their governance meetings by moving discussions and voting online.

• Meetings shortened from hours to 30 minutes
• Prepared, focused discussions before every meeting
• Structured research and data gathering for serious decisions
• Protected governance time for vulnerability and team culture

A strategic planning consultant who spent 21 years in foster care now uses online collaboration to ensure every stakeholder is heard.

• A voice for people who stay silent in meetings
• Flexible engagement on stakeholders' own schedules
• Richer dialogue with all materials attached to discussions
• Safe, inclusive space for diverse stakeholders to contribute

A climate action group in a small New Zealand town couldn't wait a month between meetings to act on new ideas — so they started prototyping between sessions.

• Rapid prototyping of ideas between monthly meetings
• Consensus decisions without waiting for in-person meetings
• Everyone gets a say even when they can't attend
• Speed from idea to action with online collaboration

A network of cooperative researchers across five countries can never all meet face to face — so they run a general meeting that never adjourns.

• Governance structure modeled online with nested subgroups
• A continuous general meeting with proposals and voting
• Voices normally not heard participating more effectively
• Text translated across languages for cross-country research projects

A 75-year-old tech university discovered that its smartest people do their best thinking outside of meetings.

• Great ideas surfaced from people who struggle in meetings
• Equal voice for introverts and quieter contributors
• Faster resolution under tight end-of-term deadlines
• Written discussions and decisions saving editorial time

A nine-member dog walking cooperative in New York uses translation and photo sharing to collaborate across English and Spanish.

• Continuous discussion between biweekly in-person meetings
• Bilingual interface and auto-translation bridging language barriers
• Visual communication through photo attachments
• Group decisions on branding, events, and operations

A Welsh parliamentary committee turned a one-off citizen meeting into an ongoing dialogue that made both sessions more productive.

• Extended citizen discussion time between committee sessions
• Two-way dialogue between service users and policymakers
• Bilingual Welsh and English content in one space
• Focused in-person meetings by reaching agreement online first

A commons-oriented translation collective coordinates publishers in four countries to print the same book locally — without any of the restrictions of the traditional publishing world.

• Unnecessary email cut out with easy search of past discussions and decisions
• A heterogeneous international publishing network coordinated in one place
• Licensing and budget decisions with a clear archived record
• A full collaboration and communications tool beyond decision-making

A national government agency replaced the traditional submissions process with open online dialogue, engaging senior IT leaders who would never have participated otherwise.

• Open, transparent policy consultation in the spirit of open source
• Two-way conversations that make consensus easy to identify
• Engagement from senior IT professionals unreachable through traditional submissions
• Online revision of policy documents with full transparency

A citizen activism group stopped losing decisions to email threads and started resolving them between meetings with clear deadlines and modifiable proposals.

• Decisions between fortnightly meetings that email could not resolve
• Clear deadlines so everyone knows when to weigh in
• Agenda items moved off meetings to save face-to-face time
• Proposals modified through discussion before final votes

A coworking space in Lille discovered that engaging with disagreement — not just counting votes — unlocks better decisions and deeper shared understanding.

• Policy changes in minutes, not months
• Creative solutions surfaced through disagreement
• Shared commons governance without centralized authority
• Thoughtful decisions with time to reflect

A global network of open-source researchers could collaborate on wikis and blogs all day — but when it came to collective decisions, they kept going in circles.

• Stop turning in circles and reach clear, legitimate decisions
• Delegate responsibility with a mandate from the whole community
• Combine talking together with structured decision-making
• Work non-hierarchically without being chaotic

A co-living hotel in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury uses collaborative decision-making to run a dynamic community of residents, guests, and neighbors.

• Inclusive community decisions without weekly meetings
• A living archive of every voice in every decision
• Surfaced tensions and aligned incentives
• Better offline collaboration sparked by online discussion

An international collective moved from Facebook and email to real decision-making — and members who had gone quiet suddenly started contributing again.

• Real decisions between international summits
• Re-engaged inactive members
• Clear audit trail for every decision
• Onboarding through historical discussion threads

Five constantly travelling social media consultants found a way to make real decisions together without ever being in the same room.

• Asynchronous decision-making across a nomadic, distributed team
• Objective distance and flexibility for more thoughtful choices
• Routine decisions like wages settled without meeting
• Richer in-person meetings through online pre-discussion

When Hungary's government proposed education cuts, student activists didn't just protest — they translated Loomio into Hungarian and organized a nationwide democratic movement that forced the government to back down.

• Nationwide democratic deliberation across universities
• Coordinated action between students, teachers, and academics
• Transparent decision-making that withstood media attacks
• Successful campaign that reversed government education cuts

A coalition of direct democracy groups launched hundreds of local decision-making groups covering every region of Greece, turning online discussion into pressure for real political change.

• Local citizen participation in political decisions across an entire country
• Simple platform accessible to non-technical citizens
• Transparent proposal and voting process with visible participation rates
• Democratic pressure on mayors and city councillors through collective decisions

Five busy trustees scattered across the city needed to approve loans fast — but couldn't get in the same room. They haven't needed to since.

• Loan approvals without scheduling in-person meetings
• Full participation from trustees anywhere, including overseas
• Complete record of all decisions made
• $45,000 in loans processed in their first year