EN 
ES The Consul Democracy Foundation (CDF) is looking for two new board members to join our international team. We are especially seeking individuals with technical or organizational/legal expertise to complement the board’s existing strengths and help guide the Foundation and, in turn, the broader Consul Democracy project, through an exciting phase of organizational development and community growth.
Our Objectives for the Next Phase
Thanks to recent funding success, Consul Democracy is entering a new chapter. This brings a need for more specific expertise on growth and professionalizing. We are focusing on four interrelated objectives:
- Organizational growth: Strengthening our internal structures, governance, and operational capacity
- Financial sustainability: Building a more diverse and independent funding base, consisting of both grants and a business-model for the use of the software.
- User base expansion: Bringing more cities, governments, and institutions into the Consul
ecosystem. - Tech community building: Supporting a growing developer and contributor base to
enable faster innovation and long-term maintenance of the platform.
This next phase will require a strong, diverse, and engaged board to support strategic decisions, steward our legal and ethical obligations, and help us navigate complexity as we grow.
General Board Responsibilities
The Consul Democracy Foundation has a dedicated and knowledgeable Supervisory Board that monitors the organization’s goals, approves important decisions, and works with the managing director and team to determine the organization’s strategic direction.
The organization is moving from a model where, legally, Currently the Supervisory Board is the employer of the Managing Director, towards a new governance structure in which the managing director is independently authorized, and the board has a more remote role.
The Supervisory Board’s primary task is to oversee the management and the operations of Consul Democracy. This includes tasks such as:
- approving documents submitted by the management, such as the budgets, annual accounts, and annual reports;
- acting as the employer for the Consul Democracy management until the new governance structure;
- critically monitoring the management’s performance, with the primary focus on ensuring what is essential for achieving the objectives and the continuity of the organization.
Who We’re Looking For
We welcome applications from individuals who are excited about our mission and bring expertise in one of the following areas.
All board members are expected to:
- Provide strategic guidance to the foundation’s mission and development
- Contribute to the growth and structure of the organization, particularly in the current phase of consolidation
- Support fundraising efforts, partnerships, and public engagement activities where possible
- Offer oversight for legal, financial, and ethical responsibilities
- Join approximately four board meetings per year (held online
Position 1: Technical profile
We are looking for someone with experience in:
- Open-source software governance and community development
- Civic tech or platform development
- Digital Democracy, Open Data, or AI governance
Position 2: Organization/Legal profile
We are looking for someone with expertise in:
- Organizational development
- Non-profit governance (preferably Dutch or European foundations)• Software licensing & open-source regulations
- Public or administrative law
About the Foundation
The Consul Democracy Foundation was founded in the Netherlands in 2019. It is an international organisation that coordinates the development and global adoption of the Consul Democracy software, a leading open-source platform for digital citizen participation. The Consul Democracy Foundation is a grassroots organization and has grown from a small self-organizing entity to a professionally run foundation today. The Foundation has received support from municipalities, private foundations and individual supporters to support the growth towards a stronger more sustainable and professional organisation.
With over 200 active cities and institutions worldwide (and more than 300 counting previous implementations), the Consul Democracy platform empowers citizens and governments through secure, inclusive, and transparent digital tools for participation and co-decisionmaking, including modules for collecting proposals, holding debates and consultations, implementing participatory budgets and organizing collaborative policymaking. The platform is used by, for example, Madrid, Munich, Montevideo, São Paulo, Canary Islands and Glasgow, among many others.
The foundation is registered as a Stichting in the Netherlands, but we operate as a distributed organization with team members and partners across Europe, Latin America, and beyond.
Why Join Us?
Consul Democracy’s mission is to support participatory forms of democratic decision-making by maintaining and developing its open-source platform. This has becomeever more important in the current political climate. A growing number of partners, funders and networks recognizes the importance of our missions, which enables us to enter a phase of growth.
Board members play a significant role in supporting the Foundation’s mission and operations, as well as the broader Consul
Democracy project. Board positions are voluntary (unpaid) roles, and offer the opportunity to:
- Shape the future of a globally recognized civic technology project
- Influence how open-source tools can strengthen democracy at scale
- Expand networks in civic tech and the international digital democracy space
- Gain insight into digital governance, public innovation, and civic tech ecosystems
- Collaborate with a passionate, international, and mission-driven community
How to Apply
If you are interested, please send a short motivation letter and your CV (max. 2 pages) by 30 September 2025 to info@consulfoundation.org. If you have questions or would like to speak informally about the role, feel free to contact us in advance:
Constance van Egmond (Board member): stansvanegmond@xs4all.nl
Simon Strohmenger (Director): simon@consuldemocracy.org
We warmly welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds, geographies, and identities. Fluency in English is required.