The Updraft:

Democracy needs new ideas. Let’s build them together. 

The Updraft is a global network for the people defending and reinventing democracy, who know the moment calls for more creativity, more experimentation, and deeper connections across borders and movements.

What is The Updraft?

An experiment in doing democracy differently.

Democracy is under pressure almost everywhere, and the institutions built to defend it are mostly still playing defense. It shows up in the funding cycles, the panel discussions, and the reports that circulate among the same policy and advocacy circles. The whole posture treats democracy as an emergency to manage rather than something people might actually want to build. Meanwhile, exciting democracy work is happening all over the world. In Nepal, protesters used a Discord server to collectively select an interim prime minister after toppling a government. In Colombia, a collective of human rights lawyers won a landmark ruling at the Inter-American Court protecting defenders from state surveillance and persecution. In Kenya, youth organizers forced a president into a live social media session with millions of listeners, bypassing the State House entirely.

The Updraft is a democracy incubator where people doing work like this can find each other, get excited about what everyone’s building, and figure out what’s next.

If you're already building something, we want to know about it. And if you have an idea you believe in but need the connections, feedback, and resources to make it real, we want to hear that too. Maybe you're an organizer trying to turn a single protest into something bigger. Maybe you're building an app that lets a community make decisions together when the government is failing. Maybe you're a musician or a filmmaker who wants your work to move people to act. Or maybe you're using humor to get people to lower their guard and actually listen.

Tell us what you're trying to do. We'll help you find the people, the feedback, and the money to do it, and when something works, we'll back it to grow.

What We Believe

  1. The innovation is already happening… everywhere

    The democracy field has spent decades running expertise outward from Washington and Brussels, on the premise that liberal democracy as practiced in the US and Europe is the model to be replicated. That premise has taken a serious beating lately, and it was flawed from the start. The bravest and most inventive work is coming from young people, from artists and organizers, from people who learned to be creative because they had no other choice. The people who have been fighting longest in the hardest conditions have developed a body of knowledge that the field needs to take seriously. The Updraft is organized around getting that knowledge into the room.

  2. Democracy work can be creative, joyful and fun

    Organizing against authoritarian pressure is hard, dangerous, and it burns people out. The parts of movement work that sustain people over time, curiosity, camaraderie, the feeling that you're part of something larger, tend to get squeezed out by the parts that feel like homework. The Updraft is energizing and uplifting. Peer learning, real experimentation, and creative approaches. The program invests in storytelling and expression alongside strategy because we know the power of culture, creative practice and community. We want people to leave a session with something they can use and someone they want to call.

  3. Connection is vital

    We talk a lot about international solidarity. What we don't do enough is build the actual conditions for it: the relationships, the shared knowledge, the resources that let people in one place genuinely help people in another. Those connections don't happen on their own. That's what The Updraft is for. 

What We Focus On

  • Technology is being used right now to surveil dissidents, shut down internet access during elections, track journalists, and profile communities. The question is who controls it and to what end. The tools for building more open, secure, people-controlled technology have never been more accessible, and people are using them. This track works through what it looks like when technology is designed to expand freedom rather than restrict it, and brings together the practitioners who are actually building and using those tools in contexts where the stakes are high.

  • How do you build participation that feels like a community rather than an obligation? How do you use narrative, art, humor, and cultural production as genuine organizing tools? How do you make a campaign that surprises people and brings them in? The practitioners we want here have done this, imperfectly, in real contexts. That's who we learn from.

  • Courts are being packed. Emergency powers are being normalized. International human rights mechanisms are under-resourced and under attack. And yet legal and policy channels still matter, sometimes because they produce real outcomes, sometimes because the fight itself documents what's happening and builds record. Lawyers are using the architecture of the law that's still standing, even when the institution around it is crumbling. This track brings together lawyers, advocates, and policy practitioners working in restrictive contexts to share that strategy and develop it further.

What We Do

The Collective

Open peer exchange and learning. Events meant to connect, inform, and inspire. 

The Incubator

Funding for ideas and collaborations that emerge from the network

The Lab

A fellowship for practitioners who want to go deeper- with mentorship and curriculum built around real world case studies and an opportunity to use funding to collaborate and build. 

The Studio

Where ideas get developed, tested, and shaped. Part workshop, part creative residency, part pitch preparation.

The Summit

An annual gathering (party, huddle, celebration) where the whole network comes together. 

The Observatory

Research and documentation of what's actually working in democracy innovation, produced with and for practitioners.

Come Build This With us!

We're growing on a few fronts right now: hiring a Program Manager and several consultancies, opening nominations for our council, and welcoming new members into the network. Whatever fits, we'd love to have you involved.

See our jobs and opportunities page for more.