manifesto
we study how people organize — so communities can thrive.
Local Foundation exists to understand how human networks actually work — in neighborhoods, startup ecosystems, and regional communities. We build tools, run experiments, and surface signals that help people coordinate better, distribute trust, and create resilient futures together.
core beliefs
what we believe.
Values that shape how we research, what we build, and how we show up alongside the communities we work with.
Communities are coordination systems, not just groups.
They're made of relationships, rituals, flows of knowledge, and shared infrastructure that enable people to act together.
Networks are the real infrastructure of resilience.
When shocks arrive, it's the density and quality of human networks — not just formal institutions — that determine how places adapt.
Startup ecosystems are early indicators.
Founders, builders, and local organizers reveal how a region learns, collaborates, and renews itself long before official metrics catch up.
Participation is a design choice.
The way we structure events, platforms, and governance either invites people in or keeps them at the edges.
Signals matter more than stories alone.
To see emerging patterns, we need live signals from the field — not just retrospective reports.
Infrastructure should be open and enabling.
Tools, platforms, and data systems should help ecosystems see themselves, coordinate more easily, and share what works.
Experimentation is how we learn responsibly.
We prototype new ways of collaborating in small, reversible steps, always grounded in the needs and rhythms of real communities.
We work with, not on, communities.
We collaborate with ecosystem builders, public-interest projects, and local actors; our role is to support, connect, and make patterns visible.
commitments
what you can hold us to.
We publish our research and signals openly, in language practitioners can use, so others can learn, adapt, and build on what we see.
We build infrastructure that communities can actually use, not just talk about.
We give communities our best tools for free, because charging people who already hold places together, mostly unpaid, would be backwards.
We stay embedded in real ecosystems — listening, showing up, and learning alongside our partners.
about
a distributed organization.
Local Foundation is a distributed research and infrastructure organization working with communities, founders, and public-interest projects to understand and support human coordination systems. We explore how people organize, collaborate, and adapt — and we build the tools and experiments that make those patterns visible and actionable.
the team
who we are.
A small, distributed team of builders, entrepreneurs and tech experts — working close to the communities we study.
More on why the organization exists, how we work, and where we're based.
About the organizationnetwork
Our Community Partners
Community is not built alone. Our work is shaped by a rotating group of ecosystem builders, researchers, and partners from across the world.
work with us
understanding how people coordinate — and helping them do it better.
Partner on research, build on our infrastructure, or follow the signals. We collaborate with ecosystem builders, public bodies, founders, and community organizations.