Membership

Draft : mike : revised 26mar2026

This is the Memorandum of Membership of the Democratic Tech Fund. It covers kinds of membership and governance within the community of DTF members.

Membership

Note: Elements of this to-do list have been extracted into in a draft list of mv working protocols2026 04 10.

By joining the DTF as member you get access to the spaces and resources that we build up together. As we grow, these spaces will grow with us. Think of various online cloud applications, to explore possible transitions towards digital autonomy. Spaces to learn, share and help others in our collective transitions. Spaces to identify collective needs in the community we may wish to support in the form of concrete projects. This all leads up to collective campaigns for growing community and funding for the transition towards collective digital autonomy.

Defining elements of our membership:

1. we build the DTF as an economy of contributions. That means that members make a contribution towards the shared mission and reap the collective benefits,

2. people and organisations can make different contributions – in Euro or in kind – and with different levels of commitment, each according to their needs and possibilities,

3. in order to maximise access to all people, we also maintain an open community membership option, that provides basic access, but comes without governance participation rights. We invite everyone to take shared responsibility as outlined in the Social Contract, and therefore to make a minimum contribution according to one’s possibilities,

4. the DTF is organised bottom up, with - in its simplest form - a general assembly where all members can participate in decisionmaking, a council of stewards which steers the collective according to the intentions expressed collectively, and funding circles where members join to seed the funding process of supported projects. This is complemented with working groups and circles of work as we grow. The precise details are defined in the Organisation section,

5. Below table defines the contribution levels and privileges obtained.

6. Financial donors who don't apply for Membership (this is an option) are given Member status.

For organisational membership, the suggested monthly contribution model is €10 × number of staff. This is a guideline — not a requirement. Contribute what is meaningful for your organisation. Funding Circle members are expected to make a more serious pledge to contribute.

Join as an Open Community Member

Variable financial contribution - including zero - via the OpenCollective site; via the DTF website https://democratictech.fund/join/.

Privileges

• Email updates on how we're doing - not more than once a month.

• Access to our open spaces in the federation (includes public collections in the Docs server), and an invitation to contribute in the open channels (Federation forum, commons.hour)

Obligations.

• Provide registration information, recorded in the Register.

• Acknowledge acceptance of DTF foundational documents including a code of conduct that holds in DTF digital spaces. Covers licensing of media-space content and use of the IDF organisational identity.

Join as a Contributor member

Join as an individual or as an organisation. Contribute in money, in a working group, and/or in-kind.

• In money - from OpenCollective site, from DTF website. Financial contribution agreement. Individuals, fixed level, routine contribution agreement. Organisations, agreed level, negotiated contribution agreement.

• As a member of a working group - from DTF website. Gift work contribution agreement.

• In-kind - from DTF website. In-kind contribution agreement. Share access to some platform or resource (a document repository, a data repo, a server rack, a code repo, etc) that is maintained by you, as back-end infrastructure for DTF. Either as gift or as a (discounted) rental/subscription.

All the above forms of contribution may simultaneously apply, as identified in a (composite) Contribution agreement. Except for financial contribution (automatic, via standard options above, from the OpenCollective site, or the DTF website) contribution agreements are negotiated, with DTF admin, under DTF working protocols.

Privileges: same as Open Community member, plus . . .

• Vote in the DTF General assembly (individual or organisation)

• For gift work contributions: wg participation as agreed.

• For in-kind infrastructure contributions: public listing alongside other in-kind contributors (infrastructure providers) of DTF (including display of a logo) and permission to publicly use the tag 'Contributor member: Democratic Tech Fund'.

Obligations: same as Open Community member, plus . . .

• Contribute under the operational protocols of DTF work spaces (wgs, infrastructure SSO, etc).

• For gift work contributions: contribute within the framework of a current dtf roadmap, a circle workplan, and the expressed priorities and intentions of dtf, as identified below under 'DTF'.

The Contribution Agreement plays a central role, and calls for early attention as an element of DTF operational practice. Some standard options for individual and organisational members ( in-kind contributions, work-hours contributions; financial contributions are already standardised as above) need to be defined at an early stage. A channel for communication when making a Contribution Agreement need to be clearly defined, provided with tooling, and effectively staffed, from the start.

Make a donation

Donate € from OpenCollective site; from DTF website, on a one-off or recurring basis.

Privileges: Member registration plus a thank-you response. . .

We appreciate your recognition of our mission and your welcome support via a one-off/recurring donation. We're registering you as a Member of the DTF federation, with these privileges: updates on how we're doing, and access to our open spaces in the federation. You'll receive a link for sign-on to our public spaces. Perhaps you might deepen your contribution as things evolve, becoming a Contributor member through our website [link]. Privileges of Contributor members include voting in the General Assembly. Gracious thanks. In resistance to Big Tech. In the commons.

Nominated as a Worker member

DTF Council or Standing assembly may nominate a Contributor member as a Worker member, according to dtf working protocols.

Privileges: same as Contributor member, plus . . .

• Access to back-end DTF infrastructure, including internal communication channels and tools.

• Participation in DTF work circles and Standing assembly.

• Payment for livelihood-work hours contributed. This is not an emplyment contract, but a voluntary contribution under livelihood-work protocols (in a contribution agreement).

• Guarantees of payment, as currently agreed by DTF (contribution agreement).

Obligations: same as Contributor member, plus . . .

• Contribute in the Standing assembly.

• Contribute work-hours under the operational protocols of DTF work circles.

• Contribute an agreed quota of work hours (contribution agreement).

Nominated/elected as a Council member

DTF General assembly of all Contributor and Worker members will periodically elect members to a Council of Stewards, on a basis to be specified in working protocols. Contributor members and Worker members are eligible for election (there may be a quota on Worker members, and perhaps a couple of ex-officio roles: eg Free Knowledge Institute as sponsor of DTF). Council members may further nominate a limited number of advisory members of Council, in accordance with working protocols.

Until the first full General assembly is held, DTF Council will comprise a number of members nominated by the Free Knowledge Institute. Initially these are: Free Knowledge Institute (NL), Commons Network (NL), Internet Archive/Dweb Camp (USA/EU), Fundación Platoniq/Goteo (ES), Waag FutureLab (NL)

Registry - All members

Details as required for admission to membership are held in the DTF membership Register. Data protection protocols are applied (to be specified). Details of ex-members are retained. Access to the registry is limited to Worker members, under DTF working protocols.

Sanctions

Members in any category may be under sanctions from the General Assembly, Council or Standing Assembly, according to DTF working protocols and code of conduct. Sanctions may extend to withdrawing membership privileges, exclusion from dtf spaces and identification as an ex-member in the membership Register. DTF will establish a grievance procedure related to sanctions and defined in the context of 'DTF' below.

Stewarding (governance)

'DTF' - Hierarchy of Responsibility

In all the above paragraphs, 'dtf' refers to the following, in this order of descending precedence in making decisions and enacting DTF principles and protocols:

• General assembly

• Council of Stewards

• Standing assembly

• Organisation circle

• Free Knowledge Institute (last resort).

The operation of this hieraerchy needs to be defined in working protocols.

Federation and Organisation, Gift Work and Livelihood Work

Membership is membership of a DTF Federation, and (gift) contribution is within the dtf Federation. Within the Federation, contributions by Worker members (livelihood work) and contributions by Council members (gift work) are contributions in a DTF work Organisation. The working relationship between gift work-hours in working groups and in the Council (Contributor members, Council members) and livelihood work-hours within the dtf Organisation (Worker members) needs to be defined in working protocols.

Legal Entity and Financial Practices - Free Knowledge Institute, DTF Fund

The Free Knowledge Institute is initiator and guardian of last resort of the practices and principles of the DTF (see the ranking of precedence above). Evolution of the DTF is a major element within the strategic plan 2025-2030 of the Free Knowledge Institute. FKI is fiscal host (via Open Collective) for financial contributions by Members and payments to Worker members.

FKI is also the fiscal host for financial exchanges (via Open Collective) between funders of local facilitated projects and developers in local projects: this constitutes a region of DTF Fund activity within the DTF work Organisation, which needs its own open book-keeping and local governance in accordance with financial regulations. FKI is a registered charity and financial administrator (in the Netherlands). Whether any other legally constituted organisation (association) is required, within the nested framework of Fund/Organisation/Federation needs to be considered.

Working protocols - Notes

This is draft. Might be separated in a final version of this doc, within in a mv 'handbook' collection. A draft on protocols is here: 2026 04 10 - mv protocols

Working protocols are referred to above. The stewarding of DTF and working relationships between its constituent kinds of contributions are operationally defined in terms of working protocols. These need to be in place, in minimum-viable form, from the start. Protocols will need to cover at least the following.

• Contribution agreements are negotiated, via an email exchange with DTF admin.

• Standard options are established for contribution by individual or organisational members (in-kind contributions, work-hours contributions; financial contributions are already standardised)

• A channel for communication when making a contribution agreement is established: clearly defined, provided with tooling, effectively staffed.

• Council or Standing assembly may nominate a Contributor member as a Worker member.

• Contribution of livelihood-work hours is not an employment contract, but a voluntary contribution by a member under a contribution agreement. Payments to Worker members are made transparently in response to claims for contributed work hours via the gift-fund at Open Collective, under the fiscal hosting of the Free Knowledge Institute.

• A General assembly of all Contributor and Worker members will periodically elect members to a Council of Stewards.

• Council members may further nominate a limited number of advisory members of Council.

• Gift contribution needs to be carefully defined at a number of levels (financial, in-kind, work-hours; individual contribution, organisational contribution). Protocols will define a de-facto contribution economy, of gift work and livelihood work (financial/in-kind/work-hours contribution).