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At The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), we believe journalism that moves citizens to action is an essential pillar of democracy. Since 1977, CIR has relentlessly pursued and revealed injustices that otherwise would remain hidden from the public eye. Today, we're upholding this legacy and looking forward, working at the forefront of journalistic innovation to produce important stories that make a difference and engage you, our audience, across the aisle, coast to coast and worldwide.

The University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement (IPCE) is committed to transforming democracy by creating a more fully engaged community with more effective leaders. We create opportunities for scholars, concerned citizens, students, community leaders, elected officials, and the public to actively participate in social discourse, research and educational programs on policy issues and social trends.

The problem is that we use these powers in historically/culturally path dependent ways so the tensions become more acute. The rationalism of the nation-state as a system-hierarchy is good when talking to other states (treaty writing as per Kyoto or the Treaty of Rome), or when universal rules are needed (eg tax collection) but bad at the particular (eg helping troubled families). Passion-populism is critical for mobilisation but can also be corrosive as it fails to offer any real solutions (see UKIP et al). Creative-civic power is good at adapting resources, institutions, and policies to particular needs or ambitions but it is bad at universal welfare and justice. It can also be just as failure prone as passion politics and hierarchy (it's hard and complex to confront particular, local and personal challenges).

GlobalNet21 is the leading forum in the UK for discussing the major issues in the 21st Century. We share a common concern for the sustainability of both our planet and the people on it. With almost 20,000 network members in the UK and abroad, we are making the debate, and democracy, more accessible by enlarging the Public Square and using social networks.

The following are excerpts from the PBS documentary on the What's Next California Deliberative Poll® on governance reform.

Public Agenda is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps diverse leaders and citizens navigate divisive, complex issues and work together to find solutions. Through nonpartisan research and public engagement, we provide the insights, tools and support people need to build common ground and arrive at solutions that work for them. In doing so, we are proving that it is possible to make progress on critical issues regardless of our differences. In all of our work, we seek to help build a democracy in which problem solving triumphs over gridlock and inertia, and where public policy reflects the thoughtful input and values of the nation's citizens. - See more at: http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/who-we-are#sthash.4BmYaI8w.dpuf

Our mission is to scale up collaboration and decision-making. We envision an era in which large communities can deliberate and brainstorm with one another on important issues with the aid of intelligently designed algorithms and digital communication platforms.

The Citizens Foundation believes in non-partisan futurist solutions to current problems facing democracy. We have recently seen technology undermine our faith in debate in the public arena; the Foundation believes that innovations in technology can be used to restore faith in democratic debate and institutions instead.

Healing Living Systems drives climate stability through agroecology. Agroecology includes shared fulfillment, social justice, and food democracy.

"APPA can be applied in a variety of contexts and with a wide range of participants. Its primary value lies in its emphasis as a process of lasting engagement and dialogue among stakeholders. APPA combines the framework of Appreciative Inquiry and the tools of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA). Its objective is to find and emphasise the positive, successes and strengths as a means to empower communities, groups and organisations to plan and manage development and conservation. [It] uses the cycle of the 4D�s: Discovery, the act of appreciation: the best of what is and what gives life to the community, group or organisation; Dream, envisioning and impact: what might be, creating a positive image of a preferred future; Design, co-constructing the desired future: what should the ideal be, a process of dialogue, consensus and further inquiry; Delivery, sustaining: how to empower, learn, adjust and sustain." (Source: PPM&E Resource Portal)

From 2014 to 2015, more than 70,000 residents across the United States and Canada directly decided how their cities and districts should spend nearly $50 million in public funds through a process known as participatory budgeting (PB). PB is among the fastest growing forms of public engagement in local governance, having expanded to 46 communities in the U.S. and Canada in just 6 years.

Inspired by the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor, the Roosevelt Institute reimagines America as it should be: a place where hard work is rewarded, everyone participates, and everyone enjoys a fair share of our collective prosperity. We believe that when the rules work against this vision, it's our responsibility to recreate them. We bring together thousands of thinkers and doers-from a new generation of leaders in every state to Nobel laureate economists-working to redefine the rules that guide our social and economic realities. We rethink and reshape everything from local policy to federal legislation, orienting toward a new economic and political system: one built by many for the good of all.

Local Progress is a national network that supports, connects, and unites progressive local elected officials and allied organizations from across the nation. We are driven by a commitment to a strong middle and working class, equal justice under law, sustainable and livable communities, and government that serves the public interest effectively.

Ours is a movement that understands the urgency of slowness, that believes small is the new big, that asserts that we are inextricably connected to each other, the food we eat and the ecology we move through, and that moves through us.

The Sunlight Foundation is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike. We are committed to improving access to government information by making it available online, indeed redefining "public" information as meaning "online," and by creating new tools and websites to enable individuals and communities to better access that information and put it to use.

At the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), we believe everyone has the power to make a difference in how their community and country thrive. We are a dynamic, non-partisan nonprofit working at the forefront of our nation's civic life. We continuously explore what shapes today's citizenry, define the evolving role of the individual in our democracy, and uncover ways to motivate greater participation.

Here's why: the internet offers virtual spaces where citizens, in absolute equality, can reclaim an active role in the political process. In essence, these virtual rooms today have the same function as the public squares in ancient times, where citizens gathered to exchange ideas and jointly agree to common solutions. So ironically, it is only through sophisticated information and communication technology that we will succesfully revive the fundamental principles of democracy and citizenship, and confront the global issues of our time.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Most examples involve city governments that have opened up decisions around municipal budgets, such as overall priorities and choice of new investments, to citizen assemblies. In other cases, states, counties, schools, universities, housing authorities, and coalitions of community groups have used participatory budgeting to open up spending decisions to democratic participation.

OpenCongress is a free and open-source project of the Participatory Politics Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to increase civic engagement. The non-profit Sunlight Foundation is the Founding and Primary Supporter of OpenCongress.

About Public Citizen has been standing up to corporate power and holding government accountable since 1971. Visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/ Mission We represent you in the halls of power. Your support funds multiple public interest research and advocacy efforts: safe and effective health care, auto safety, good government, safe and sustainable energy, consumer safety, and fair, equitable trade and globalization. Why focus on a single issue? We do it all! Company Overview Since 1971, Public Citizen has been a national, nonprofit public interest organization representing consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. Website: www.Citizen.org Blog: www.CitizenVox.org Twitter: @Public_Citizen