Civil Society Practice
Civil society can use AI as well as any business.
Our civil society practice works with civil society organizations, public institutions and local communities to decide where AI helps their work, where it does not, and to put the useful part into practice.
Used widely, decided rarely
Many civil society organizations already use AI in some form. Few have chosen it together. Tools arrive through individual staff, vendors or funder expectations, and the people doing the work rarely get a say.
The change reaches everyone anyway. What matters is who it affects, who gets a say, and who is left out.
Same team, a different purpose
Our civil society practice is part of nth Ventures and runs alongside our commercial work. It builds on our team's experience leading publicly funded engagement, research and capacity-building projects.
It is the same team that builds for business, and what we learn in commercial work comes here. It does not run the other way. What participants in our funded projects tell us is never used to sell to them.
The purpose is different: to help you decide where AI helps your work, and to put the useful part into practice.
Our method is participatory
Listen
We start by listening to the people who do the work, through structured interviews and citizen and stakeholder dialogues. Together we decide where AI helps your work, and where it does not.
Build together
We shape the solution with you in co-design workshops, and build it with your team, to the same standard as our commercial work. Your people make the decisions at every step.
Own and share
You own the result, and we train your educators and practitioners to run it and build on it. When a project is funded, we publish the results and an open toolkit others can reuse.
Two ways to work with us
Funded projects
We apply for grants, on our own or with you as a partner. Grants cover the costs and we take no profit. The work stays separate from our commercial products, and the results are published openly.
Commissioned work
Organizations hire us directly for facilitation, training, participatory research and evaluation.
The two stay apart. Taking part in one of our funded projects never depends on buying anything from us.
Who we work with
We work with civil society organizations and groups of every size.
How we use the term "civil society"
We consider civil society to be organizations and groups that are independent of the state, do not exist to make a profit for owners, and work for a mission or a community.
That includes associations and nonprofits, foundations, community and neighborhood groups whether registered or not, trade unions, nonprofit think tanks and independent media, and faith-based organizations in their social and community work.
Where a funder or program uses its own definition, that definition applies to the project.
nth Ventures is a company. We work with civil society; we are not part of it.
We also work with municipalities, schools and other public institutions when they want the people they serve to have a say. They are not civil society, and we don't describe them that way.