_Uncertainty, Crisis, and the Need for Local Resilience _ As we enter 2025, the organizing systems of western civilization are at a breaking point. The intertwined crises of economic instability, ecological collapse, and the rise of authoritarian governments worldwide are reshaping our social and political landscape. The institutions that once promised security—nation-states, financial markets, and global governance structures—are failing under the weight of their own contradictions. Across the planet, centralized systems of trust that underpin our organizing capacities are unraveling. Governments that once positioned themselves as protectors of public welfare are unable—or unwilling—to meet the needs of their people. Nationalism and fascism are on the rise, feeding on disillusionment and economic precarity. The climate crisis accelerates exponentially, disrupting food systems, displacing communities amidst extreme weather events, and making clear that existing economic models are not just unsustainable but are a form of civilizational terminal trajectory. And yet, this moment isn’t just one of collapse—it’s also one of immense possibility. In the face of these systemic failures, local resilience and decentralized coordination are emerging as the lifelines of our time. Across communities, people are rediscovering the power of self-organization. Mutual aid networks, local currencies, bioregional governance experiments, and regenerative economies are stepping in to fill the gaps left by the imploding systems we once relied on. This is the critical moment for civic revitalization—not just as an emergency response, but as a long-term strategy for building a more resilient, participatory, and vital civilization.  Photo by [Fred Moon](https://unsplash.com/@fwed?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/blue-and-white-light-illustration-3NvRkNaiHtc?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) You will find within: - **The Trends We’re Excited About in 2025** - **The Evolution of the OpenCivics Network** - **Implementing 2024 Learnings** - **2025 Strategic Priorities** - **Our Civic Renaissance Ahead** --- ## The Trends We’re Excited About in 2025 _Emerging Innovations for a Regenerative Future _ Despite the chaos of the moment, promising movements and technologies are coalescing that give us hope. The members of OpenCivics are positioning themselves at the intersection of these trends, helping to shape their development toward direct local action and global solidarity. - **Open Innovation Ecosystems to Support the Bioregional Movement** The growing bioregional movement is shifting focus away from artificial political boundaries toward governance structures based on ecological systems. OpenCivics members are working to develop collaborative tools, funding models, and governance systems that support global networks of bioregional initiatives, commons-based blueprints and playbooks shared across bioregions, and curricula for implementing eco-credits and other bioregional currencies. - **Peer Learning and Knowledge Commoning** Knowledge is a commons, not a commodity. In 2025, we are doubling down on peer-to-peer learning networks, ensuring that the wealth of civic innovation is accessible to all. This includes decentralized education, training, and certification programs, inter-organizational knowledge-sharing protocols that ensure open access to templates and best practices, and a federated network of civic researchers, outsider academics, and practitioners contributing to a shared knowledge base. - **Open Protocol Library: An Inter-Organizational Knowledge Commons** To counter the fragmentation of the civic innovation space and of our collective knowledge, OpenCivics members from a range of web3 communities have affirmed their commitment to establishing and contributing towards an Open Protocol Library as a shared, open-source repository of best practices for decentralized governance, community organizing, collaboration, and commons stewardship. This emerging, decentralized, and participatory inter-organizational initiative aims to create real utility for communities by providing actionable frameworks and mechanisms for mutual aid and coordination, community-led governance, resource-sharing and commons-based economic models, and collective sense-making and decision-making practices. - **Local Mutual Aid and Disaster Preparedness** With extreme weather events becoming more frequent and centralized disaster response mechanisms proving inadequate, local disaster preparedness and mutual aid networks are now critical. In 2025, members have expressed an intention to develop academy curricula for emergency response networks, blueprints and playbooks for community resilience hubs and local infrastructure, and open-source tools for coordination in times of crisis. - **AI-Enabled DAO Tooling** Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have long promised a new paradigm for collective decision-making, but adoption has been slow due to governance complexity. In 2025, AI-assisted governance tooling is emerging to address these challenges, allowing communities to manage resources, propose initiatives, and reach consensus more effectively. Members are leaning into exploring how these tools can be used to support local self-governance, participatory budgeting, and cooperative ownership models. # **The Evolution of the OpenCivics Network** _Toward Greater Self-Governance and Collective Funding Across Organizing Structures _ ### The Self-Organization Of the OpenCivics Consortium This year, the OpenCivics Consortium will undergo its most significant evolution yet, transitioning from a network steered by a central stewardship team towards a decentralized, self-governing structure through further progressive protocolization. Key developments include new mechanisms for collaborative funding, moving away from centrally operated quadratic funding rounds toward community-controlled capital allocation. Governance participation will expand through delegate engagement models that ensure broad-based, participatory decision-making. A formalized governance program will provide structured pathways for members to co-create policies and protocols, steward initiatives, and access shared resources. Aggregating network activities will support emergent coordination, strengthening collaboration among members, partners, and advisors. By the end of 2025, our aim is for the Consortium to be positioned as a participatory network capable of sustaining itself through mutual support, shared governance, and open collaboration. ### The Expansion of the OpenCivics Labs OpenCivics Labs has already begun working with aligned partners who have reached out to work with us as a result of our unique position in the ecosystem. We see our contribution to the broader ecosystem through the lens of impact network capacity building. This year, we aspire to expand our work to bring our services to aligned partners who want to create impact networks around their theory of change, either starting from scratch or transitioning a traditional organizing structure into a decentralized network or DAO. OpenCivics Labs also serves critically needed ecosystem functions by helping to convene existing impact networks to collaborate better together via improved coordination infrastructure and collaborative sense-making. We aim to invite and onboard new Labs members, drawing from OpenCivics Consortium members as we develop initiatives and partnerships that could benefit from new contributors. OpenCivics Labs DAO LLC is effectively a cooperatively owned agency for systems change agents who want to pool together their capacities and benefit from shared legal and financial infrastructures. ### The Establishment of the OpenCivics Foundation This year we will be exploring the best path to a legal and operational structure for the OpenCivics Foundation. In the interim, OpenCivics Labs DAO LLC is leveraging the fiscal hosting of the Buckminster Fuller Institute for non-profit activities, related to the project of the "OpenCivics Network". This year, we aspire to utilize philanthropic donations to this project to fund the research and deployment of our own 501c3 foundation that can provide support to the OpenCivics Network and Consortium, as well as the broader field of open civic innovation. # Implementing 2024 Learnings _Integrating insights from our 2024 Retrospective _ Reflections from 2024 have provided invaluable insights, chief among them being the realization that holding structures are critical for sustaining momentum. This year, we saw promising initiatives stall due to a lack of clear stewardship and accountability mechanisms. In 2025, we will implement structured initiatives and alliances with designated stewards, lightweight accountability systems, and clearer milestones to ensure that projects move forward with both flexibility and continuity. We’re also embracing strategic adaptation as a core principle. 2024 demonstrated that a sweeping and ambitious strategy at the beginning of the year was vastly insufficient for ongoing strategic alignments. This year, we’ll incorporate more dynamic, iterative planning cycles via quarterly strategic reports, ensuring that strategic shifts are informed by tight feedback loops and real-world conditions. This approach will help us balance ambitious vision with practical, phased execution, allowing us to strengthen foundational mechanisms before scaling up larger initiatives. Finally, member engagement and financial sustainability must be actively nurtured. We recognize that adoption of governance tools and participation in network-wide decision-making requires more than availability—it requires strong onboarding, compelling incentives, and clearer engagement pathways. Additionally, OpenCivics will focus on diversifying financial streams, moving beyond small grants to develop cooperative funding models, sponsorships, and direct donor engagement. # **2025 Strategic Priorities** _Building the Infrastructure for Regenerative Civic Innovation _ - **Strengthening Governance and Network Coordination** OpenCivics Consortium aims to continue its evolution towards fully decentralized, self-organizing entity with clear decision-making frameworks. Key initiatives include refining the structure of General Assembly bi-weekly meetings to foreground peer learning and more focused inquiries, developing self-governance tools and methodologies, finalizing foundational agreements to streamline new member processes, and expanding delegate engagement to ensure broad participation in governance. - **Expanding the Knowledge Commons and Open Protocols** Developing shared tools, methodologies, and educational resources will support modes of decentralized governance and civic collaboration. Priorities include expanding the Open Protocol Library, providing education on designing and executing civic initiatives, mapping and analyzing network-wide initiatives, and instituting structured feedback loops to support iterative learning. - **Building Financial Resilience and Expanding Funding Pathways** Ensuring long-term sustainability through diverse funding models is essential. OpenCivics will aim to establish donation facilities and patrons, run targeted fundraising campaigns, and provide financial support for grassroots civic experiments. - **Nurturing Community Engagement and Participation** Fostering a thriving, participatory community is central to OpenCivics’ mission. Enhancements include improving pathways for participation and onboarding, showcasing member contributions, strengthening strategic alliances, and deepening collaboration infrastructure. - **Enhancing Communication, Narrative, and Digital Presence** Refining OpenCivics' external communications ensures clarity, transparency, and visibility. This includes producing a Theory of Change video, expanding outreach and mobilization efforts, strengthening OpenCivics’ digital presence, and standardizing internal and external communications. - **Advancing Open Civic Innovation and Iterative Experimentation** Exploring emerging technologies, tools, and new governance models will help build open civic infrastructure. OpenCivics will aim to experiment with blockchain-based governance and funding models, expand the scope of OpenCivics Labs, develop structured guides for participation in Labs R&D efforts, and convene a global gathering of civic pioneers. # **Our Civic Renaissance Ahead** _“We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” — R Buckminster Fuller _ We stand at the precipice of a profound inflection point in history. The old world—the one built on extraction, control, and limitless expansion—is fraying at its edges, coming apart under the weight of its own systemic misalignments. The institutions that once promised stability now buckle under their inability to meet the scale of our needs in this moment. The social contracts that once tethered individuals to a collective vision are dissolving into distrust, polarization, and the hollow spectacle of politics as theater. And yet—despite the collapsing systems, despite fires and hurricanes that rage, despite the encroaching shadow of authoritarianism—something new and rich in potential is emerging. We see it in the places where people refuse to surrender to despair, where communities are not waiting for governments to act but are instead forging their own futures. This is not about resistance—it is about regeneration. If we do not shape this transition with intention, others will shape it for us. If we do not organize ourselves, we will be organized by the collapsing forces of the old world. If we do not claim the right to govern ourselves, that power will be consolidated in hands that do not serve us. This is the work ahead. This is the future calling. In Us We Trust, OpenCivics Stewards