How organizations were vetted
Organizational signatures on the 2020 SaveOTF letter went through a short internal-review process. The coalition wanted to be sure that each name represented a real organization with a mandate to weigh in on internet-freedom questions, not a paper front. Groups submitted their letterhead or organizational contact, agreed publicly to the letter's text, and were added to the published list in daily batches.
The bar was intentionally low but not zero. A one-person consulting practice with no public work in the field would not qualify. A three-person NGO with a short website, a listed staff page, and a history of statements on internet-freedom questions would. That common-sense threshold kept the list credible without making it hard for smaller organizations to sign.
For a bird's-eye view of the whole coalition, see our signatories overview.
Global digital-rights and civil-liberties groups
Some of the best-known international groups signed early. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, Article 19, the Center for Democracy & Technology, and PEN America were all on the list. So were digital-rights organizations that specialize in specific parts of the problem — for example, groups focused on encryption policy, on surveillance exports, or on shutdowns. Their signatures carried the most visible weight in the news coverage that followed the letter's release.
Several of these groups also lent staff time to the campaign — helping to draft, translate, and distribute the letter, or preparing quotes for reporters. That kind of hidden labor is how big coalition letters actually get out the door. It rarely shows up in the credits, but the letter would not have moved without it.
Read our OTF explainer for the funding pipeline these groups were defending.
Regional and country-specific NGOs
Below the global groups sat a much larger set of regional and country-specific NGOs. This layer of the list did most of the political work. A Belarusian digital-rights group defending OTF meant more to a US member of Congress than yet another Beltway signature. So did a Kenyan shutdowns-focused group, a Brazilian encryption-education NGO, and a Taiwanese security research foundation. Each one carried the credibility of specific communities that use the tools every day.
Some regional signers were tiny — three or four people, a shared inbox, a website in one language. Others were older, larger operations. The mix was the point.
Open-source projects that signed
The third recognizable group was open-source project foundations and maintainers. Some of these projects had received OTF grants directly; others had not. All of them shared the concern that the pipeline they depend on could be dismantled with a single political decision. Signatures came from projects behind Tor, Delta Chat, Certbot, and several tools you have never heard of that quietly hold up parts of the anti-censorship web. Their signatures grounded the letter in specific working code, not just advocacy language.
A few of these projects signed as legal entities; others signed through the volunteer collectives that maintain them. That difference mattered less than the shared message: real infrastructure was in the balance, and the people who write and maintain that infrastructure wanted policymakers to know it.
What the organizational list is good for now
Five years on, the organizational list is a useful directory. Most of the groups on it are still operating. Their websites still describe their current campaigns, their current job openings, and — importantly — their current ways to help. If you are trying to figure out where to volunteer, donate, or send a story tip, the SaveOTF organizations page is a working starting point.
The list is also a useful cross-check when you meet a new group and want to know whether they are part of the wider internet-freedom community. A name that appears on the 2020 organizations list is not a guarantee of anything today, but it is a strong hint that the group takes the issue seriously enough to put its reputation on the line in public.
That practical afterlife is what the organizations that signed the SaveOTF letter left behind for the people who cared enough to look them up.