21 representatives from Charter Member organisations met on 24 – 25 September, 2015 at Greenpeace Netherlands’ creative office in Amsterdam to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the digital age for CSOs. Engaging presentations from external speakers such as from Lauren Woodman, the CEO of NetHope (helping CSOs to better apply digital technology), and Catherine Shovlin, UK Director of Synthetron (who have developed a superb tool to hold global conversations of up to 1,000 people and synthetise the result in a two-pager) contributed to a great experience. Following the workshop, on 28 – 29 September, representatives of Amnesty International, Oxfam and Transparency, as well as online campaigns organisations such as 38 Degrees, 350.org and Purpose met in Berlin to determine the exact scope, content and process of our Digital Accountability project in the coming five months.

CSO Accountability in the Digital Age brought together 21 representatives from Charter Member organizations on 24 – 25 September at Greenpeace Netherlands’ creative office in Amsterdam. The workshop explored the opportunities and challenges that digitization presents for civil society organizations (CSOs) in their accountability and engagement practices.

Keynote speaker Lauren Woodman, CEO of NetHope, highlighted the accelerating pace of digital change and emphasized that clever collaboration and real-time stakeholder engagement are now central to strategic success. Member organizations showcased how they are integrating digital tools into their work from crowd-sourced strategy development at Amnesty International and Restless Development, to digital mobilization platforms like Greenpeace’s Greenwire.

Participants tackled four core themes:

1. New Models of Mobilization: Transparency International and Synthetron demonstrated how data and tech can deepen public engagement and advocacy impact.

2. Collaborative Organizing: ActionAid and World Vision shared how tech platforms empowered communities and improved service delivery.

3. Managing Risk: World Vision and Transparency International addressed digital data protection, reputation management, and risk mitigation.

4. Organizational Change: In a world café session, participants identified how governance, leadership, and MEL systems must adapt to support more open, connected, and responsive organizations.

The event laid the groundwork for the broader Digital Accountability project, culminating in a global strategy session at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre in March 2016. Participants committed to embracing digital transformation to enhance trust, effectiveness, and accountability across the sector.