The mission of the Sortition Foundation is to promote and institute sortition in empowered assemblies. It helps run citizens' assemblies by providing selection and stratification services.
Mission and Purpose
The Sortition Foundation promotes the use of sortition, or random stratified sampling/selection, in government.
Origins and Development
The Sortition Foundation has bases in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, and has further affiliations with similar foundations in many other countries.
Organizational Structure, Membership, and Funding
It is a not-for-profit company purposed to serve deliberative initiatives. People are given the option to become a member of the Sortition Foundation to financially support the work they do.
Specializations, Methods and Tools
Providing sortition and selection services for deliberative initiatives. The Sortition Foundation have developed two open-source software tools to assist in these tasks. They also design invitations to participate and provide options for potential participants to register their interest.
Major Projects and Events
A selected sample of major projects:
- Mornington Peninsula Shire's Standing Citizens' Panel
- Five Citizens' Juries in England on Rethinking Water
- Citizens' Charter on responsible social media conduct in Bosnia and Herzegovina
More projects/case studies can be found here.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
The Sortition Foundation continues to innovate in the area of democratic lotteries, both in terms of attempting to improve the ways in which they reach parts of the population who do not traditionally respond to invitations to participate; and through working with partners on events such as the Global Assembly.
