Shared Power over Money
Cobudget exists to change how power and money move through groups, organizations, and society. It is rooted in the belief that the people affected by decisions deserve an active voice in shaping them, and that transparency and participation are essential to making this possible.
Cobudget may be a tool, but it has never been about technology—it’s about supporting a practice. Around the world, collaborative funding practices are already thriving: in networked organizations and professional networks empowering their members to decide on and track the use of shared funds; in granting bodies working to make submission and granting processes transparent; and in co-working and co-living communities crowdsourcing ideas and pooling money to bring them to life.
We believe deeply in the power of this practice, and we are committed to maintaining Cobudget as open infrastructure—so this field of practice, and the impact it enables, can continue to grow.
Cobudget's story
Cobudget’s origins go back to 2014, when two different self-organized communities began (independently from each other) experimenting with collaborative funding: the Enspiral Network from Aotearoa New Zealand, and The Borderland community from Scandinavia. Thanks to the initiative, drive and technical skills of a handful of members of both those communities, their fledgling collaborative funding practices were quickly turned from spreadsheets into software prototypes, leading to the creation of two different tools: Cobudget and Dreams.
Years of practicing ‘cobudgeting’ and multiple prototypes later, several Enspiral members started a new venture - Greaterthan - to explore what still felt like the hugely untapped potential of Cobudget. In 2017, they took on the development of the open source tool, with the goal to grow this essential infrastructure and set of practices for collaborative leadership and governance. At the same time, the community-run Dreams platform kept evolving and growing, quickly becoming a hallmark of the annual Borderland Festival, enabling the participatory allocation of resources towards art installations and projects brought to the event.
From 2021-2026, Hugi Ásgeirsson (Dreams) and Francesca Pick (Cobudget) led an effort for both projects to be joined through a new Cobudget Association, to increase their impact. Though this allowed significant product upgrades, it was decided that in the long run, it was better for Dreams to continue as an independent product.
Today, Cobudget continues to run thanks to the work of a team of dedicated volunteers, who believe in the importance of accessible, open source infrastructure for the common good.
Team
Francesca Pick
Tomomi Sasaki
Jacob Karlsson
Hugi Ásgeirsson
David Weingartner
Gerardo Roza
Supporting organizations
who have actively contributed to the Cobudget project
Special thanks
to everyone who has been part of the Cobudget and Dreams journey, and enabled this tool and practice to get to where it is today.
Alanna Irving
Anthony Cabraal
Brian Monahan
Charlie Ablett
Daniel Brooks
Denya Blas
Derek Razo
Elena Denaro
Eugene Lynch
Fredrik Rubensson
Gal Bracha
Gardner Bickford
Gustav Larsson
Hans Speijer
Jakob Skote
James Kiesel
Jesse Bastide
Jessy-Kate Schlinger
Jim Sagevid
Joshua Vial
Juliana Lopker
Kasper Helweg
Kate Beecroft
Kris Ravneberg
Maria Balaet
Matthew Monahan
Max Gnipping
Michael Arnoldus
Michał Gacka
Michel Bachmann
Mikey Williams
Naomi Smith
Olivia Khan
Peter Schønnemann Andreasen
Piotr Rozwałka
Sasa Lukic
Wanda Christ
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Bring people, ideas and money together, encouraging participation at every stage.