At Fix The Status Quo, our goal is to give civil society organisations the tools to create meaningful change. We believe that effective NGOs are a critical part of healthy democracies. They can help bridge the gap between citizens and the politicians in power, and hold decision-makers accountable.
Proca is our digital campaigning toolkit that supports democratic action. Our competitors’ proprietary platforms lock organisations into systems they can’t inspect or control. We made Proca open source.
Open source isn’t a technical label for us – it’s a political and ethical choice rooted in our values.
Infrastructure you can trust
Campaigning tools like Proca handle sensitive data and shape how people engage with civic processes. The ability to inspect, audit or adapt the technology behind a campaign is the key to trust. When that infrastructure is proprietary and opaque, there’s no way room for accountability.
Proca takes a different approach – one that prioritises transparency and trust. We publish our source code openly on GitHub. This allows anyone to examine how the system works, how we process data, and how we handle security.
For us, this transparency is essential for movements and organisations that rely on public legitimacy.
Designed for civil society, not platform lock-in
Many digital campaigning tools are built as closed platforms. Organisations using them are dependent on the vendor’s (often nontransparent) internal roadmaps. In reality, these often prioritise profit over usability.
Over time, this creates technical, financial, and organisational lock-in. Any custom development – such as adding a new language or updating an outdated feature – is either impossible, or very costly. That’s how organisations end up using tools that haven’t been a good fit for years.
Lock-in isn’t just a hypothetical “worst case scenario”, either. It became the painful reality of many small CSOs in the US after the recent acquisition and consolidation of non-profit software solutions by a venture capital group. Overnight, many organisations found themselves facing up to 50% increases in price for the same service, with the only alternative being months of retraining staff, moving supporter and donor data into a new system, and risking loss of income.
Proca’s open source model deliberately avoids this. Organisations can:
- review and understand the code they rely on,
- self-host or adapt Proca if needed,
- contribute improvements back to the project,
- avoid being locked into proprietary systems that extract value from civic engagement.
This approach reflects our broader commitment to digital sovereignty for civil society. We believe that CSOs should keep control over their tools, data, and strategy. Proca makes that possible.
Security in transparency, not obscurity
Open source does not mean “less secure”. In fact, for high-trust civic infrastructure like Proca, it often means the opposite.
Because Proca’s code is open:
- security assumptions can be reviewed and challenged,
- vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed collaboratively,
- cryptographic and data protection mechanisms can be independently verified.
This is particularly important when it comes to private data, or formal democratic processes (e.g. Citizens’ Initiatives). Proca is designed with strong privacy and security principles, including data minimisation and optional encryption at rest. Our commitment to transparency means anyone can check exactly how we practice what we preach.
Our software and processes have been audited by the German Federal Office for Information Security and certified to host European Citizens’ Initiatives (before the European Commission changed the regulations and removed the ability for independent hosting).
A tool that can evolve with its community
Open source enables Proca to grow as part of a wider ecosystem rather than as a closed product. Campaigners, developers, and organisations can adapt it to different legal contexts, languages, and organising cultures. The tool can serve grassroots movements as well as large, federated international organisations.
This is especially relevant for international and decentralised campaigns without a central “leader”. For example, European campaigns targeting EU decision-makers often run in large coalitions. Proca’s open source character makes cooperative governance possible. That means we can remain responsive to the needs of the movement.
Technology for the people and the movement
Ultimately, Proca exists to support collective action for change. Making it open source is one way we ensure that the tool itself belongs to the commons – not just in spirit, but in practice. Groups using Proca retain control over their campaigns and the personal data of their supporters. They can adapt the software to their context and goals. Proca is tech designed for movements, not locked behind a paywall or corporate strategy.Finally, open source also means solidarity. With Proca, enhancements and features funded by one client benefit all. This way, better-resourced organisations can support their grassroots or underfunded partners. Our flexible pricing and solidarity fund support grassroots groups in accessing the tools they need. We’re value-based and we reject projects that promote oppression, hate or violence.