The Democratic Tech Fund launches its crowdfunding platform

A year after the Council of Stewards first met, the DTF opens its platform and first Call for Projects

29 October 2026. Today the Democratic Tech Fund (DTF) launches its crowdfunding platform, together with its first Call for Projects. For the Free Knowledge Institute this is a milestone. Over the past year we have helped shape the DTF from an idea into a working federation. We did this together with our co-founders Fundación Platoniq, Commons Network and Waag Futurelab, and with a growing circle of member organisations.

Why the DTF matters to the FKI

For almost twenty years, the FKI has worked for free knowledge, free software and the commons. Today the communication infrastructure most people rely on is owned by a handful of Big Tech corporations, and it is increasingly tied to authoritarian politics. The alternatives exist: free software, the Fediverse, co-operative hosting, and many communities that already run their own tools. What has been missing is coordinated action, and the funding to sustain it. The DTF puts that funding at the centre, as a shared mission.

That is why the DTF is at the heart of the FKI’s multiannual strategy for the next five years [link to strategy]. In practice the FKI:

• took the lead in shaping the DTF, from the first concept through to the platform launching today;
• is the fiscal custodian of the DTF’s membership contributions, received through Open Collective;
• is a registered ANBI, a Dutch public benefit organisation, so donations from Dutch taxpayers may qualify for tax relief;
• plays a convening role in the DTF Council and a leading role in the driving team, through FKI board members Mike Hales and Wouter Tebbens.

A year of milestones

1. November 2025: the Council of Stewards is set up. It brings together the people and organisations that steer the DTF.
2. January 2026: concept review. The Council reviews the DTF concept and model.
3. February 2026: co-creation day at the Internet Archive in Amsterdam. This moved the DTF from concept development to prototyping the fund we want to see.
4. July 2026: DWeb Camp. We presented the DTF and co-organised three workshops.
5. October 2026: the platform launch. The latest sprint ends with the launch of the DTF crowdfunding platform.

The platform and the Call for Projects

The platform is built with Fundación Platoniq, the team behind Goteo.org, which has run Spain’s open-source civic crowdfunding platform since 2011. It differs from Goteo in three ways. It focuses on democratic tech, with the community at the centre at the technical level too. It is international, starting with Europe. And it is run by a federation of organisations.

The first Call for Projects has two shelves:

• Archicare: feminist and community-led projects that preserve collective memory and turn archives and lived experience into infrastructure for care, resistance and collective action.
• Decentralised infrastructures: community-owned, co-operative and federated alternatives to platform dependency.

We are looking for projects that already have a driving team and at least an initial community, and that are willing to build a sustainable model. Minimum budgets are expected to be roughly €5,000–20,000, and optimal budgets €10,000–50,000. Selection is rolling, and the first campaigns launch early 2027.

How to take part

1. Propose a project at crowd.democratictech.fund, live from 29 October.
2. Join as a member organisation, and help assess proposals, strengthen them and connect them: democratictech.fund/join.
3. Contribute time or money to a project in campaign, or support the DTF itself through Open Collective.

Meet us at the launch events

• 28–30 October: DecidimFest, Barcelona
• 29 October, 18:00: MozFest during Barcelona Open Tech Week, at the 4D event
• 4 November: DTF event in Berlin, organised by member organisation Platform Coops

We are proud of how far the DTF has come in one year, and grateful to everyone who has helped get it here. This is still the beginning. The DTF grows as more communities, organisations and contributors join, and we hope you will be one of them.

Read more at democratictech.fund and in the DTF stories.