All 'Bout the Money? Scaling Democratic Innovations amid Scarce Financial Resources

This was an external webinar of the Resonance Space series, a peer-learning and reflection space hosted as part of the SCALEDEM project.

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The webinar addressed the following question: How do we scale meaningful citizen participation when financial resources are tightening?

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The webinar featured three seasoned democracy‑builders who each shared a concrete, resource‑savvy solution for advancing participatory democracy:

• Daniel Oppold (Service Center for Citizen Participation Baden-Württemberg) shared how institutional support structures can help small municipalities deliver high‑quality and high-impact deliberation with a tight budget.
• Sofía Castillo (ISWE Foundation / Global Citizens’ Assembly) revealed how their "community assembly" model enables local, easily replicable Citizens’ Assemblies worldwide, even in contexts with very limited means.
• Cheri-Leigh Erasmus (Accountability Lab) presented how the "Civic Strength Partners" approach supports civil society organizations protect their missions, consolidate strategically, and build lasting ecosystem resilience in the wake of overseas development aid cuts.

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