Context

Over the past two decades, the FKI has worked to support individuals and communities in reducing their dependence on technology monopolies and in enabling autonomous, mission-driven initiatives. Today, the global landscape presents a qualitatively different challenge: major technology corporations are explicitly aligning with authoritarian political movements, accelerating what journalist Carole Cadwalladr calls the “Digital Coup.”

The FKI’s assessment is that institutional responses — regulatory fines, European digital sovereignty programmes — are necessary but insufficient. Penalties that represent 1% of a company’s annual revenue are absorbed as business costs. Investment programmes risk replicating centralised structures rather than building genuine alternatives. And the timeline of the next EU Multi-annual Financial Framework (2028–2034) may simply be too slow for the window of effective community mobilisation.

The FKI therefore focuses on building collective capacity from the bottom up: funding, connecting, and growing the commons-based digital infrastructure that already exists in fragments across cooperatives, civil society movements, and public administrations.

Mission

To advance free knowledge and open technology through the development of community-controlled digital infrastructure and the building of social capacity for commons governance — democratic governance of technology.

Vision

The FKI envisions a digital society characterised by democratic control over essential infrastructure, equitable access to knowledge and technology, respect for human rights and environmental limits, and interoperable technology ecosystems that serve communities rather than extract value from them.

Working with partners including Commons Network, Waag Futurelab, and Goteo/Platoniq Foundation, the FKI is building a bottom-up, gift-based funding network — the Democratic Tech Fund — in which Funding Circles in cities and regions pool seed funding for democratic tech initiatives, grow them through public crowdfunding campaigns, and attract matching support from public institutions and philanthropic funders.

Strategic Intentions

The FKI’s high-level aims for 2026–2030 are:

Research needs and solutions — map what democratic tech infrastructure is required and what already exists
Fund and support initiatives — select, fund, and help grow democratic technology projects
Raise awareness and connect communities — link practitioners, early adopters, and civic institutions to democratic tech alternatives

The FKI invites contributions from democratic tech initiatives and their teams, organisations willing to join a Funding Circle, individual donors, cities and public administrations offering match funding, and philanthropic funders.

Alongside the funding work, the FKI intents to build a federation of digitally mediated commons: not geeky but civil society and coop-sector facilitation, mobilisation and ‘formación’ – the formation of social capacity.

Areas of Work

Democratic Tech Fund A collective funding methodology and platform to help communities organise their tech as democratic tech initiatives, aggregating resources for initiatives across European cities and regions. It operates on participatory principles, enabling civil society organisations, citizens, and aligned institutions to jointly support technology infrastructure that serves democratic values.

Cooperative and Commons-Based Business Support Identifying and supporting cooperative and commons-based organisations working in free knowledge and democratic technology — facilitating connections, supporting federation building, and contributing to the growth and social impact of these initiatives.

Research, Development, and Pilot Projects Research and development in free knowledge and democratic technology practices, including pilot projects that enable communities, social movements, and local governments to experiment with alternative technology models — designed to function both autonomously and as part of broader federated networks.

Capacity Building and Peer Learning Facilitating mutual learning around free knowledge and democratic technology. This includes education programmes for civil society and the cooperative-commons economy sector, critical awareness work on the local impacts of technology concentration, and support for counter-infrastructure that provides alternatives to extractive technology models.

The FKI is an ANBI-registered foundation based in Amsterdam, established in 2007. Fiscal details for donors →