Democracy Club is an independent, volunteer-run website that acts as a hub where non-technical volunteers can help deliver civic society projects. It aims to give busy people an opportunity to participate meaningfully in important collaborative activities, but with minimal ongoing commitment. It provides volunteer support to various partners, including mySociety projects like TheyWorkForYou, and independent websites like The Straight Choice or YourNextMP.
Democracy Club’s volunteer army is made up of thousands of volunteers from across the UK, organised at a local constituency level. They are sent occasional tasks by email, each of which they can choose to accept or ignore. Individually, the tasks are designed to be simple, but collectively add up to outcomes that can only be achieved through large-scale collaboration.
For example, volunteers have:
* Assembled a unique database of local issues around the country, from pot holes to hospital closures;
* Compiled the most accurate list of parliamentary candidates ever for the 2010 general election
* Uploaded hundreds of election leaflets to The Straight Choice
* Chased their local candidates to answer the TheyWorkForYou 2010 General Election survey
* Improved media coverage for the project in local newspapers and radio
Democracy Club was built by volunteers Seb Bacon and Tim Green.