COMPARED
Loomio is a decision-making tool for cooperatives, nonprofits, boards, unions and distributed teams. Discussions happen in threads, and move towards decisions through polls and proposals: dot votes, ranked choice, consent proposals with agree, disagree, abstain and block. It is open source and made by a worker-owned cooperative in New Zealand.
True Causes comes earlier in the same story. Before a group decides what to do, it has to agree on what the problem is. True Causes lets the whole group map its causes, so that the decisions that follow are aimed at a root rather than a symptom.
| Loomio | True Causes | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | What do we decide? Do we agree to this proposal? | What causes what? Which causes are deepest? |
| What people do | Discuss in threads; vote in polls and proposals | Everyone writes causes alone; the group then judges one pair at a time: does this cause significantly influence that one? |
| What comes out | A recorded decision with its discussion | A map of causes, deepest first, with every disagreement kept on it |
| Decision rule | Chosen per poll: consent, majority, ranked choice and others | A link counts at three quarters of the votes cast; a split is published as disputed |
| Names | Members discuss under their names | Nobody is named inside a room |
| Open source | Yes; can be self-hosted | Hosted service; not open source |
For the ongoing business of a member-run organisation: proposals, policies, who does what, decisions people can find again later.
When a decision keeps being made and the problem keeps coming back. Map the causes first; then take the actions that target the deepest ones to your usual decision process, Loomio included.
Checked in September 2026. Product names belong to their owners. If anything here about another product is out of date or unfair, write to hello@mg.truecauses.org and we will correct it.