Internal democracy for movements and campaigns
Loomio helps activist organisations, political parties, and campaign networks make collective decisions between meetings — at any scale, without letting the loudest voices win.
Being able to make decisions quickly and collaboratively has been really important. Loomio allows us to function as a true democratic organization. — Darren Goldner, NYC Democratic Socialists of America (13,000 members)
Your movement is accountable to its members. Your decision-making should be too.
Movements live and die by internal trust. When decisions happen in private conversations, on behalf of members who weren't consulted, or by whoever happened to be loudest in the last meeting — you lose people. Loomio gives your members a legitimate, documented process they can point to and trust.
What gets in the way of genuine member democracy?
| The challenge | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Chapters that can't coordinate between meetings | Endorsements, positions, and urgent votes wait weeks for a quorum — and the moment passes |
| Domination by a vocal few | In-person debate rewards the loudest and most persistent; quieter members disengage or leave |
| No record of what was decided or why | Organisational memory lives in a few people's heads; new members can't find rationale for existing positions |
| Poll tools that aren't binding | Google Forms and Slack polls look democratic but produce no real accountability or auditable trail |
| Volunteer turnover | Every departing coordinator takes context with them — unless it was written down |
Loomio gives your organisation a proper home for membership votes, policy deliberation, and chapter coordination
| What you need | On Loomio |
|---|---|
| Binding membership votes | Set a proposal, a voting period, and a threshold. Members vote from anywhere — no quorum logistics, no geographic exclusion. The outcome is locked and auditable. |
| Deliberation before the vote | Async discussion threads let members read context, ask questions, and sharpen arguments before committing a position. Better decisions, less meeting time. |
| Anonymous voting | Where sensitivity matters — leadership elections, disciplinary matters, controversial endorsements — Loomio supports anonymous ballots. |
| Chapter and working group spaces | National body, state chapters, issue working groups — each with their own space, their own proposals, feeding up to the whole. |
| A written record your members can trust | Every position, every ratification, every policy amendment is searchable and permanent. That's accountability. |
Used by movements around the world
The NYC DSA used Loomio to coordinate 13,000 members through endorsement votes, campaign decisions, and branch governance. The Greens in Western Australia write policy clause-by-clause across vast distances. Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, Die Linke, Climate Emergency UK, and DiEM25 use Loomio to run the internal democracy that holds their movements together.
Loomio's nonprofit pricing makes it accessible to volunteer-run organisations. And for groups that need full data sovereignty — your membership data stays under your control, with self-hosting options available.
