Elena Calistru
Founder @ Funky Citizens | Ashoka Fellow | Member @ European Economic and Social Committee
Building bridges in a world of walls
Some people go left, others right. Elena Calistru proudly walks the road in between and works hard to prove that reason, nuance, and civic common sense still matter in the “extreme center.” As the founder and president of Funky Citizens, she’s spent over 15 years turning bold, stubborn ideas into real civic tools that help millions of Romanians make sense of their rights, their taxes, and the policies that affect them.
It all started as a mission to decode public budgets, which became a movement powered by platforms like Factual.ro, Funky Republic, and Buletin.de.București, offering citizens what they need in order to fight against disinformation, bureaucracy, and apathy. Elena can also be found representing Romanian civil society in Brussels as part of the European Economic and Social Committee. Internationally recognized as an Ashoka Fellow and recipient of the International Women of Courage Award, Elena continues to show that courage often looks like doing the work, day after day, even when it’s complex or slow.
