creating a world where
anyone, anywhere can
participate in decisions
that affect them

Loomio is an online tool
for collaborative decision making,
built by a team of activists, open source technologists
and social entrepreneurs in New Zealand.
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Loomio emerged from the need for a
scalable way to make inclusive group decisions
during the Occupy movement in 2011.
We experienced the transformative potential of
participatory decision making, as well as its severe
limitations: if people have to be in the same place at the
same time to participate, it can never scale.
“Digital communications tools may expand reach but rarely scale engagement.
Ever tried to use email, Skype, group text or Facebook to make a decision?”
Jason Tashea, Greenpeace Mobilisation Lab

“Loomio unlocks the internet’s potential to bring people to consensus,
rather than polarized debate.” Douglas Rushkoff
We set out to build a solution:
using the Internet to give
people an easy way to make
decisions together,
wherever they are.
It’s called Loomio – like a loom
weaving diverse perspectives
together.
— SOLUTION —

In Spain, 27,000 citizens
have joined Loomio to
connect a nationwide
grassroots network to a
rapidly growing political
party.
Wikimedia Foundation’s head
office moved their discussions
off a messy email list and into
Loomio, enabling
collaborative decisions with
180 staff.
Harvard Law students and faculty
are using Loomio to build a
student movement around the
treatment of sexual misconduct
on campus in response to Title IX.
The City of Provo, Utah, is using
Loomio to foster increased
community participation in city
government.
“Loomio is user friendly and well designed to improve debate and arrive at better consensus.”
Miguel Catania, Lead Digital Strategy Advisor, Podemos
— IMPACT —
In the last two years, Loomio has been adopted by
thousands of change-making organizations,
communities and social movements

City governments use Loomio to involve citizens in policy-making.
Social movements use Loomio for grassroots organizing across distance.
Companies and NGOs use Loomio to engage staff in workplace decisions.
Community groups use Loomio to organize events and manage
projects collaboratively.
Schools use Loomio to involve students in decision making with
teachers and parents.
“Using Loomio in the Wikimedia office means we no longer have to go round in circles
trying to make decisions by email.” Chip Deubner, Wikimedia Foundation
— IMPACT —
Loomio is open source, because we view it as public infrastructure for
community democracy.
Wherever people have a need to include diverse
perspectives in their decisions, they’re using Loomio

Loomio goes beyond discussion forums and endless email
chains, and beyond majority-rules polling, with a consensus-
building process that empowers groups to build shared
understanding and arrive at clear outcomes.
— HOW IT WORKS —
Discuss Decide Act
It’s a powerfully simple concept: an online space
enabling groups to come together, talk about any
issue and agree on a course of action.
Loomio is the only online tool combining
dialogue and decision making into one user-friendly app

First, talk things through
Start a discussion on any topic. Bring in the right people.
Share diverse perspectives and develop ideas together.
— HOW IT WORKS —

Next, build agreement
Anyone can propose a course of action and engage the group
in a decision. You can see how everyone feels, and why.
— HOW IT WORKS —

Then, decide together
Develop your thinking together, addressing any concerns
that arise. Arrive at a decision that works for everyone.
— HOW IT WORKS —

By April 2015, people have made
26,403 collaborative decisions using
Loomio.
80,638 members have created 18,012
groups.
54% of groups in the last six months
were created by people already using
Loomio.
94% of new Loomio members were
invited by existing Loomio members.
20% of the total member-base is active
within a given month.
“After only a few minutes of testing we have confirmed that Loomio even
works on a microbus speeding through the desert. Great stuff!”
Sherief Gaber, Mosireen citizen journalism collective, Cairo
Monthly active users
On average 200 people
join Loomio each day
80,000 people • 93 countries • 26,000 decisions
— GROWTH —
Loomio members span 93 countries
and the software has been translated
into 32 languages.

Rich Bartlett
Co-founder and lead software designer,
citizen activist, open source hardware
hacker
“Loomio seems to have a good mix of political savvy, technical
knowhow, and design sense.” Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
Ben Knight
Co-founder and Executive Director,
community organizer, collective
intelligence researcher
Rob Guthrie
Co-founder and lead software
architect, software guru, hacking
code for 20 years
Alanna Krause
Co-founder and consulting lead,
management activist, director of
Enspiral Foundation
MJ Kaplan
US growth lead, strategist,
teacher (Brown University),
facilitator, dot connector
Vivien Maidaborn
Co-founder and Chair of Loomio Board,
Executive Director of UNICEF New Zealand
We’ve brought together a passionate team
with the right skills to take Loomio forward
— TEAM —

Joi Ito
Director of MIT Media Lab, Co-founder Creative Commons,
Board of Mozilla Foundation
Katherine Borsecnik
Former Senior Vice President, AOL, Vice Chair of Root Capital
Sascha Meinrath
Founder of X-Lab & Open Technology Institute
Douglas Rushkoff
Bestselling Author, CNN commentator, media theorist
Matthew & Brian Monahan
Cofounders of Inflection, Namaste Foundation
We’re backed by an Advisory Council with some of the
brightest minds in tech and democracy internationally
— ADVISORS —
“21st century participatory democracy requires a new set of tools for digital
enfranchisement; Loomio provides the essential platform for empowering communities
around the globe” Sascha Meinrath, founder of X-Lab & Open Technology Institute

We take scalable impact seriously.
We’ve built a mission-driven organization
with a social purpose at its core.
— OUR PURPOSE —
Loomio exists to make it easy for
anyone, anywhere, to participate in
decisions that affect them.
We measure our impact in the numbers of people and
groups involved in decisions and the first-hand stories from
inspiring people around the world using Loomio to make
change in their communities and organizations.

We’re driving for financial sustainability
to scale our social impact
— SUSTAINABILITY —
“Loomio has a particular strength at bringing out a wide range of ideas from the community
at the very beginning of the process.” Jaime Dyhrberg, Wellington City Council
Income by calendar year
We’re dedicated to scaling Loomio in a mission-aligned way, to maintain
independence and the freedom to push boundaries.
We’re consciously avoiding non-aligned venture capital and extractive
business models based on selling user data or pushing advertising.
Our income comes from three streams:
Donations from users and
supporters, and grants from
impact foundations
Software subscriptions
from commercial customers
Collaboration training provided to
large organizational customers
Forecast

Scalable infrastructure
● Modular, ready for API interoperability
with other platforms & internal
plugins
● High-performing, built on open web
technologies (AngularJS & HTML5)
Loomio is already having real impact,
and we’re just getting started
We’ve validated our solution with a beta prototype that’s
already delivering impact to thousands of organizations and
communities. Over the last ten months, we’ve developed a
whole new product with the capacity for scale: Loomio 1.0. The
full product release is set for late 2015.
“Loomio is set to be the Facebook of the citizen web.”
Jon Alexander, BBC Radio 4
— FUTURE —
New interface
● Mobile-first, designed for seamless
use on any device: mobile, tablet,
laptop, desktop
● Accessible to disabled web users
● Email integration to remove barriers
to participation

— PRESS —
Tech President: Can social software change the world?
Loomio just might
GigaOm: Meet Loomio, the small- scale decision making
platform with the biggest ambitions
Wired: Out in the open: Occupy Wall Street reincarnated
as open source software
RT America: Protesters – there's a fantastic new app for you
– Loomio
Fast Company: Loomio – An App That Helps Groups Make
Actual Group Decisions
BoingBoing: Democratic decision making tool inspired
by Occupy
VICE: The Future of Protest According to VICE
Shareable: The Occupy-inspired app for consensus decision
making
Greenpeace Mobilisation Lab: Can an app help
movements grow by scaling higher level grassroots
engagement?
Globe and Mail: Digital innovation propels political success
story in Spain
New Yorker: In Spain: Politics via Reddit

— CONTACT —
MJ Kaplan, US
Operations Lead
mj@loomio.org
@mjkaplan
+14012588892
Ben Knight, Co-founder
and Executive Director
ben@loomio.org
@benjaminmichaelknight
+642102325433
USA office
Suite #100, 10 Davol Street
Providence, RI 02903
USA
New Zealand office
Level 2, 89 Courtenay Place
Wellington, 6011
NEW ZEALAND