Grassroots Giving

Grassroots Grantmaking

Field Note: Citizens Assemblies Meet Participatory Grantmaking

March 2025

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Proximate

October 2024

March 2025

|

Proximate

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Last month, a group of 50 randomly-selected Austrians finalized a decision on how to spend $27 million of Marlene Engelhorn's fortune, in a unique participatory grantmaking process inspired by citizens’ assemblies.
Back in April, we spoke with one of the project's leaders, days before it all kicked off. As Alexandra Jing-Yi Wang told us: "There will be people from the left, right and middle of the political spectrum – people who think the current system is amazing, and people who think the system is broken. This is what democracy looks like – it’s about different people having different opinions on different things.”
Interested in citizens assemblies? Check out Proximate’s newsletter Beyond Elections, which launched last month – our first edition was a deep dive into citizens' assemblies. Part of our mission at Proximate is to get participatory philanthropy and participatory democracy folks talking to each other – so check it out and subscribe!

- BW

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Proximate is an independent media platform covering movements for participatory problem-solving. We look at the news through the lens of money: how it’s given away, how it’s invested, and how it’s distributed by government.
We are a fiscally sponsored project of Movement Strategy Center.

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