Demo Lab Foundation is a civic innovation lab empowering citizens to strengthen freedom and democracy across Latin America.
Demo Lab Foundation is a civic innovation lab empowering citizens to strengthen freedom and democracy across Latin America.
Based in Costa Rica, one of Latin America’s oldest democracies, Demo Lab advances freedom and democratic renewal across the region by empowering citizens through transformative civic participation.
By cultivating a new generation of leaders, developing innovative civic tools, and mobilizing philanthropic capital in support of freedom and democracy, we work toward a future where democratic values thrive and every voice helps shape a freer, more dignified, and prosperous society.
Our Purpose
Demo Lab builds the ecosystem for freedom in a world where it is disappearing. As a civic innovation lab, we scale freedom-first solutions through education, innovation, and strategic collaboration, training emerging leaders, developing civic technology, and convening global networks to defend freedom and strengthen democracy across the region and beyond.
A Letter
from Our Founder
A personal reflection on the origins of Demo Lab, the challenges we face today, and our unwavering commitment to empowering citizens as stewards of freedom in a rapidly changing world.
A Letter from Our Founder, Dr. Álvaro Salas-Castro
Ten years ago, Demo Lab was still just a research question in my PhD work: how do we bring citizens closer to where decisions are made, and make freedom tangible in daily life?
That question became a seed. It moved from seminar rooms at Cornell University to the streets of San José, where I saw that freedom was not an abstract principle but a daily discipline, shaped by hardship, mistakes, and courage. And then it crossed borders again, into a small bar off Sullivan Street in New York City, where a late-night conversation turned urgency into a blueprint.
What if Costa Rica could lose its civic strengths before anyone noticed?
What if we could build a living freedom and democracy lab inside Congress itself?
How could we make freedom investible, so that capital, institutions, and citizens all pull in the same direction?
From that moment, Demo Lab Foundation stopped being an idea and became an experiment in motion. Thanks to my doctoral studies at the Maxwell School of Citizen and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. We built a civic lab inside the Costa Rican Congress, a place where citizens, ministers, journalists, and young leaders could share one table and redesign how power listens. It was bold, unorthodox, almost punk rock… but it worked.
Over this first decade, that experiment has grown into a movement: a platform where civic imagination meets action. Through the Freedom Academy, the Innovation Lab, and the BLISS Summit, we have piloted and scaled new ways to teach freedom, to test democratic innovation, and to align global leaders around the defense of open societies. Together with allies across sectors, we’ve shown that freedom can, in fact, be designed, taught, and funded like our future depends on it.
The most catalytic step in this journey has been our strategic partnership with The Reynolds Foundation. Their bold trust and long-term vision have accelerated our ability to build civic infrastructure at scale, expanding civic education, seeding innovation, and weaving a global network of leaders committed to freedom as the starting point, not the afterthought, of democracy.
Ten years in, our mission is clearer than ever. Authoritarianism moves fast, and so must we. But this anniversary reminds me of one simple truth: freedom does not depend on chance; it depends on us, on the choices we make, the coalitions we build, and the risks we are willing to take together.
Here’s to the next decade of building the foundations of freer societies, brick by brick, person by person.
Dr. Álvaro Salas-Castro
Founder, Demo Lab Foundation
KNOWLEDGE
Cinematic, incentivized civic education through the Freedom Academy; training young leaders in freedom and unlocking real-world opportunities for civic impact.
INNOVATION
In the Innovation Lab, we partner with tech organizations to build and scale civic tools that strengthen freedom and democracy.
ECOSYSTEM BUILDING
The BLISS Summit convenes philanthropists, activists, technologists, and leaders to build a coordinated ecosystem for freedom and democracy.
Core Pillars
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF IMPACT
For a decade, Demo Lab has transformed urgency into action; building civic capacity, innovating with purpose, and strengthening the global freedom ecosystem.
Explore the milestones, voices, and lessons that shaped our first ten years and the ambitions guiding our next decade.
Meet Our Team
Demo Lab is guided and supported by a diverse group of leaders dedicated to our mission. Our governance structure includes the Board of Directors, who provide strategic oversight; Emeritus Board Members, whose wisdom and legacy continue to inspire; and our Operating Team, driving day-to-day action.
