Sunlight Foundation

Funding

The Sunlight Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Sunlight was launched in April 2006 with a $3.5 million contribution from co-founder Michael Klein (Click here to read a Washington Post story about the launch of Sunlight).

Contributions

2013

  1. Omidyar Network $500,000.00

    For general support, with a portion contingent upon a "matching funds" challenge. ($1,700,000 awarded over three years starting in 2012 with an additional $4,300,000 available via "matching funds")

  2. Mike Klein $357,500.00

    For support of OpenCongress.

  3. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation $250,000.00

    For continued support of an international program to promote government transparency. ($750,000 awarded over three years starting in 2012)

  4. Ford Foundation $205,000.00

    For support to improve Docket Wrench (an online tool that shows influence over regulations), enhance Influence Explorer (our flagship data site) and integrate the two datasets into a central site.

  5. Open Society Foundations $125,000.00

    To continue and expand Sunlight's international program for a second year.

  6. Stanton Foundation $123,488.00

    To make targeted, technical improvements to Scout (a free, online alert system that demonstrates how legislation and regulations are shaped in Washington, D.C. and in state capitols) and work with a marketing firm to learn more about the existing users of Influence Explorer, OpenStates, and Docket Wrench.

  7. Open Society Foundations $40,000.00

    For support of an Open Data Charter.

  8. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Helianthus Fund $10,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Marjorie B. Roswell.

  9. United Way of the Bay Area $10,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Lenny and Christine Mendonca.

  10. Alicia Barrett $2,500.00

    On behalf of Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity for support of TransparencyCamp 2013.

  11. Granicus, Inc. $2,500.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2013.

  12. 49 gifts under $250 $1,495.00
  13. Forum One Communications Corporation $1,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2013.

  14. GitHub $1,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2013.

  15. O'Reilly Media, Inc. $878.44

    Royalties from the book Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions, 1st Edition (Published July 2009).

  16. Tad Oyler $750.00

    For general support.

  17. University of Maryland College Park $500.00

    Honorarium for Ellen Miller.

  18. Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, Peter Stair Fund $500.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Peter C. Stair.

  19. Meridian International Center $250.00

    Honorarium for Kathy Kiely.

2012

  1. Google Foundation (Google.org) $2,100,000.00

    To support the expansion of civic and political standards and data pipelines, source and integrate city-level data, incubate an ecosystem of civic startups and to collect and analyze cases that illustrate the power of technology-driven transparency policies to improve civic engagement, reduce government waste, and bring about other positive changes. ($2,100,000 awarded over two years starting in December 2012)

  2. Michael R. Klein $1,500,000.00

    For general support.

  3. Omidyar Network $1,457,938.00

    For general support, with a portion contingent upon a "matching funds" challenge. ($1,700,000 awarded over three years starting in 2012 with an additional $4,300,000 available via "matching funds")

  4. Omidyar Network $544,224.00

    For general support, with a portion contingent upon a "matching funds" challenge. ($6,000,000 awarded over three years starting in 2009, with an additional $3,000,000 available via "matching funds")

  5. Rockefeller Family Fund $500,000.00

    For general support.

  6. Ford Foundation $300,000.00

    For support of a Transparency Training Program (Sunlight Academy) to equip journalists, advocates and others with the tools to effectively access and use government data to increase transparency and government accountability. ($300,000 awarded over one year)

  7. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation $250,000.00

    For the development of a new international program to promote government transparency. ($750,000 awarded over three years starting in 2012)

  8. Atlantic Philanthropies $100,000.00

    To establish a new pilot, post-graduate journalism fellowship program, the "John E. Moss Fellowship," at Sunlight which will intensively train journalism post-graduates in new techniques and technologies. ($200,000 awarded over two years starting in 2011)

  9. Foundation to Promote Open Society $90,000.00

    For support of a new strategic international program which will focus on advancing international policy norms and strengthening and supporting transparency partners abroad. ($100,000 awarded over one year)

  10. Kaphan Foundation $75,000.00

    For general support.

  11. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $55,000.00

    For support of a bi-coastal datafest and hackathon which will bring together journalists, data analysts and coders to examine and use campaign finance, lobbying and government transparency data.

  12. Chang K. Park Foundation $50,000.00

    For general support.

  13. Robert R. McCormick Foundation $50,000.00

    For the development and promotion of Open States: Illinois, an Illinois legislative database and web platform (part of our Open States project) that will make publicly available data sources more accessible to journalists and citizens.

  14. Google, Inc. $45,000.00

    To support development of a Vote Planner App, which will let voters access information about upcoming elections and share their voting plans online.

  15. Poynter Institute $41,000.00

    For support of a McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute (SRI) and related training on the topic of investigating Super PACs. (Grant administered by Poynter in partnership with the Robert R. McCormick Foundation)

  16. Rockefeller Brothers Fund $40,000.00

    For general support. ($80,000 awarded over two years starting in 2012)

  17. Pew Charitable Trusts $39,874.00

    Contract for development of the Subsidyscope website.

  18. Alan A. Fischer $25,000.00

    For general support.

  19. craigslist Charitable Fund $25,000.00

    For general support.

  20. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Anonymous $25,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Anonymous.

  21. Stanton Foundation $25,000.00

    To work with a marketing firm to grow the user-base of Scout (a free, online alert system that demonstrates how legislation and regulations are shaped in Washington, D.C. and in state capitols) and expand the audience of people and organizations who interact with the Sunlight Foundation or one of our tools, websites or products.

  22. Open Society Institute $22,066.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2012.

  23. Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund $10,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Craig Newmark.

  24. Stuart M. Bloch $10,000.00

    For general support.

  25. Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, The KOIVU Fund $10,000.00

    For general support.

  26. 124 gifts under $250 $5,821.33
  27. Elbaz Family Foundation $5,000.00

    For general support.

  28. Hon. Raymond C. Clevenger, III $5,000.00

    For general support.

  29. Nicholas J. Klein $5,000.00

    For general support.

  30. Seattle Foundation, Washienko/Mathieu Family Fund $5,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Michael C. Mathieu and Kathleen M. Washienko.

  31. Justin Buell $4,238.95

    For general support.

  32. O'Reilly Media, Inc. $3,999.62

    Royalties from the book Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions, 1st Edition (Published July 2009).

  33. Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Marilyn and Michael Glosserman Community Fund $2,500.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Marilyn & Michael Glosserman.

  34. James and Theodore Pedas Family Foundation, Inc. $2,500.00

    For general support.

  35. James G. Hart Foundation $2,500.00

    For general support.

  36. Eric Spiegel $2,010.00

    For general support.

  37. Andrew McLaughlin $1,000.00

    For general support.

  38. Azavea Inc. $1,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2012.

  39. Brian and Lucy Conboy $1,000.00

    For general support.

  40. David S. Joerg $1,000.00

    For general support.

  41. Forum One Communications Corporation $1,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2012.

  42. Jason May $1,000.00

    For general support.

  43. Kenyon D. Wells $1,000.00

    On behalf of CGI Federal for support of TransparencyCamp 2012.

  44. Lederer Foundation, Inc. $1,000.00

    For general support.

  45. Microsoft Corporation $1,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2012.

  46. University of Arkansas, Winthrop Rockefeller Institute $1,000.00

    Honorarium for Ellen S. Miller.

  47. Anonymous $556.00

    For general support.

  48. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Michael J. Osenar Gift Fund $500.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Michael J. Osenar.

  49. Katherine Foss McClintic $500.00

    For general support.

  50. Robert Hanham $500.00

    For general support.

  51. Warren H. Haber $500.00

    For general support.

  52. Per Dutton $400.00

    For general support.

  53. Greg Bell $300.00

    For general support.

  54. Dane Summers $250.00

    For general support.

  55. Paul Schreiber $250.00

    For general support.

  56. Vincent Nibler $250.00

    For general support.

2011

  1. Omidyar Network $2,983,592.00

    For general support, with a portion contingent upon a "matching funds" challenge. ($6,000,000 awarded over three years starting in 2009, with an additional $3,000,000 available via "matching funds")

  2. Michael R. Klein $1,000,000.00

    For general support.

  3. Rockefeller Family Fund $1,000,000.00

    For general support.

  4. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation $599,132.00

    To create a suite of National Data Apps (Sunlight Health, Upwardly Mobile and Sitegeist) - platforms and tools for delivering federal data to the public. ($1,216,678 awarded over two years starting in 2010)

  5. Open Society Foundations $300,000.00

    To advance transparency and open government through reporting, tools and policies that will further expose for public scrutiny the influence of lobbying in Washington and will promote the full implementation, codification and expansion of the Open Government Directive. ($300,000 awarded over 15 months)

  6. Rita Allen Foundation $300,000.00

    To fully develop and implement the Open States Project which will provide a new resource for identifying and tracking activity within state legislatures. ($500,000 awarded over two years starting in 2011)

  7. Pew Charitable Trusts $228,750.00

    Contract for development of the Subsidyscope website.

  8. Kaphan Foundation $110,000.00

    For general support.

  9. Atlantic Philanthropies $100,000.00

    To establish a new pilot, post-graduate journalism fellowship program, the "John E. Moss Fellowship," at Sunlight which will intensively train journalism post-graduates in new techniques and technologies. ($200,000 awarded over two years starting in 2011)

  10. Mark Cuban $100,000.00

    For general support.

  11. Stanton Foundation $93,077.00

    To create a national, legislative alert system on the basis of issue or keyword – a Google Alerts for public policy (Scout).

  12. SRA International, Inc. $75,000.00

    For general support.

  13. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation $60,000.00

    For development of open-source software that reveals the patterns of influence behind public comments (Docket Wrench).

  14. Chang K. Park Foundation $50,000.00

    For general support.

  15. Open Society Foundations $40,000.00

    To expand and diversify a coalition of groups that will publicly demand transparency from the "Super Committee" and to coordinate action among the coalition.

  16. Rockefeller Brothers Fund $40,000.00

    To ensure greater transparency of the effects that corporations have on American public policy.

  17. Minnesota Historical Society $37,000.00

    Contract to develop a website to provide access to digital legislative content.

  18. Open Society Institute $27,525.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2011.

  19. Alan A. Fischer $25,000.00

    For general support.

  20. craigslist Charitable Fund $25,000.00

    For general support.

  21. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Anonymous $25,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Anonymous.

  22. Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation $25,000.00

    For general support.

  23. Omidyar Network $23,245.87

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2011.

  24. 906 gifts under $250 $5,519.00
  25. Elbaz Family Foundation $5,000.00

    For general support.

  26. Esther Dyson $5,000.00

    For general support.

  27. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Helianthus Fund $5,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Marjorie B. Roswell.

  28. Google, Inc. $5,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2011.

  29. James and Theodore Pedas Family Foundation, Inc. $5,000.00

    For general support.

  30. M & M Foundation $5,000.00

    For general support.

  31. Nicholas J. Klein $5,000.00

    For general support.

  32. O'Reilly Media, Inc. $5,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2011.

  33. Raymond C. Clevenger, III $5,000.00

    For general support.

  34. O'Reilly Media, Inc. $4,423.23

    Royalties from the book Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions, 1st Edition (Published July 2009).

  35. Adobe Systems Incorporated $2,500.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2011.

  36. David Bonderman $2,500.00

    For general support.

  37. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Andrew C. Florance Charitable Fund $2,500.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Andrew C. Florance.

  38. Alexander Chiang $1,000.00

    For general support.

  39. David S. Joerg $1,000.00

    For general support.

  40. Lederer Foundation, Inc. $1,000.00

    For general support.

  41. Simon Tong $1,000.00

    For general support.

  42. Scott Crabtree $600.00

    For general support.

  43. Jason May $500.00

    For general support.

  44. Warren H. Haber $500.00

    For general support.

  45. Christopher D. Carroll $499.00

    For general support.

  46. Per Dutton $400.00

    For general support.

  47. James Hart $250.00

    For general support.

  48. Joshua Tauberer $250.00

    For general support.

2010

  1. Rockefeller Family Fund $1,750,000.00

    For general support.

  2. Omidyar Network $1,472,184.00

    For general support, with a portion contingent upon a "matching funds" challenge. ($6,000,000 awarded over three years starting in 2009, with an additional $3,000,000 available via "matching funds")

  3. Michael R. Klein $1,000,000.00

    For general support.

  4. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation $607,546.00

    To create a suite of National Data Apps (Sunlight Health, Upwardly Mobile and Sitegeist) - platforms and tools for delivering federal data to the public. ($1,216,678 awarded over two years starting in 2010)

  5. Pew Charitable Trusts $376,250.00

    Contract for development of the Subsidyscope website.

  6. Ford Foundation $300,000.00

    To support the Data Commons Project to develop a repository of publicly available information on corporate lobbying and campaign contributions and better track governmental involvement with the private sector.

  7. Kaphan Foundation $75,000.00

    For general support.

  8. Adobe Systems Incorporated $50,000.00

    For support of Design for America.

  9. craigslist Charitable Fund $50,000.00

    For general support.

  10. Reid Hoffman $50,000.00

    For general support.

  11. Blum Family Foundation $40,000.00

    For general support.

  12. David Bonderman $40,000.00

    For general support.

  13. The National Priorities Project Inc. $37,800.00

    Contract to provide consulting services to audit existing data and build a relational database, API and basic web search utility.

  14. 1674 gifts under $250 $28,776.60
  15. Alan A. Fischer $25,000.00

    For general support.

  16. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Anonymous $25,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Anonymous.

  17. Fuller Foundation, Volgenau Family Fund $20,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Sara and Ernst Volgenau.

  18. Google, Inc. $20,000.00

    For support of Design for America.

  19. Cutts Foundation $10,000.00

    For general support.

  20. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. $10,000.00

    For general support.

  21. Google, Inc. $10,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2010.

  22. Harnisch Family Foundation $10,000.00

    To support the 180 Degrees: Citizen Meet the Lobbyists Project.

  23. Knight-Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism $10,000.00

    Grand Prize Award for Sunlight Live: our interactive, real-time investigative reporting platform.

  24. Palantir Technologies Inc. $10,000.00

    For support of Design for America.

  25. Minnesota Historical Society $5,285.71

    Contract to develop a website to provide access to digital legislative content.

  26. Anita M. Antenucci $5,000.00

    For general support.

  27. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Helianthus Fund $5,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Marjorie B. Roswell.

  28. James and Theodore Pedas Family Foundation, Inc. $5,000.00

    For general support.

  29. Raymond C. Clevenger, III $5,000.00

    For general support.

  30. Stuart M. Bloch $5,000.00

    For general support.

  31. O'Reilly Media, Inc. $4,844.18

    Royalties from the book Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions, 1st Edition (Published July 2009).

  32. Esther Dyson $2,500.00

    For general support.

  33. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Andrew C. Florance Charitable Fund $2,500.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Andrew C. Florance.

  34. Schwab Charitable Fund $2,500.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Bunny and Charles Burson.

  35. NIHCM Foundation Journalism and Research Award $2,000.00

    Honorable Mention for Print Journalism awarded for "The Heart of the Matter: How Congress and Special Interests Kept Crucial Clinical Trial Data Secret." This article investigates how former congressional staffers went to work for medical device manufacturers.

  36. Springcreek Foundation $1,500.00

    For general support.

  37. Bernie Loves CeCe Trust $1,000.00

    For general support.

  38. Christopher Halligan $1,000.00

    For general support.

  39. Stanton and Susan Sloane $1,000.00

    For general support.

  40. Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, Brian and Lucy Conboy Fund $1,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Lucy and Brian Conboy.

  41. Amanda Milstein $500.00

    For general support.

  42. Land and Ping Wayland $500.00

    For general support.

  43. Lawrence Lessig $500.00

    For general support.

  44. Lederer Foundation, Inc. $500.00

    For general support.

  45. May Family Foundation $500.00

    For general support.

  46. Online Searches, LLC $500.00

    For general support.

  47. Randall Leeds $500.00

    For general support.

  48. W. Robert Grafton $500.00

    For general support.

2009

  1. Omidyar Network $4,000,000.00

    For general support, with a portion contingent upon a "matching funds" challenge. ($6,000,000 awarded over three years starting in 2009, with an additional $3,000,000 available via "matching funds")

  2. Michael R. Klein $850,000.00

    For general support.

  3. Foundation to Promote Open Society $300,000.00

    To support a journalism training program and the development of transparency tools focused on state legislatures. ($300,000 awarded over 15 months)

  4. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation $300,000.00

    To create and launch web tools allowing easily accessible public information on Congress. ($565,000 awarded over two years)

  5. Rockefeller Family Fund $100,000.00

    For general support.

  6. Google, Inc. $66,067.00
  7. Kaphan Foundation $25,000.00
  8. Cutts Foundation $10,000.00
  9. Elbaz Family Foundation $10,000.00

    For general support.

  10. Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund $10,000.00

    For support of Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge

  11. Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation $10,000.00

    For support of Code for America. (Sunlight Foundation served as Code for America's fiscal sponsor until 9/30/2010)

  12. Sage Foundation, Inc. $10,000.00

    For general support.

  13. Stephen Case Foundation $10,000.00

    For support of Code for America. (Sunlight Foundation served as Code for America's fiscal sponsor until 9/30/2010)

  14. Anita M. Antenucci $5,000.00

    For general support.

  15. O'Reilly Media, Inc. $3,009.58

    Royalties from the book Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions, 1st Edition (Published July 2009).

  16. 55 gifts under $250 $2,548.76
  17. Blue State Digital LLC $2,000.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2009.

  18. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Andrew C. Florance Charitable Fund $2,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Andrew C. Florance.

  19. Armeane M. Choksi $1,000.00
  20. Dr. & Mrs. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. $1,000.00
  21. Robert S. Grimes, Esq. $1,000.00
  22. Ross & Moncure, Inc. $1,000.00
  23. The San Francisco Foundation $1,000.00

    For general support.

  24. Leonard Simon Clow $600.00
  25. Google, Inc. $500.00

    For support of TransparencyCamp 2009

  26. TheCapitol.Net $500.00

2008

  1. Pew Charitable Trusts $2,305,000.00

    Contract for development of the Subsidyscope website.

  2. Omidyar Network $2,000,000.00

    For general support.

  3. Michael R. Klein $500,000.00

    For general support.

  4. Rockefeller Family Fund $500,000.00

    For general support.

  5. Open Society Institute $250,000.00
  6. Blum Family Foundation $50,000.00
  7. ProPublica $50,000.00
  8. Shel Kaphan $50,000.00
  9. Cutts Foundation $25,000.00
  10. Miles Curtain Laws Robinson $25,000.00
  11. Elbaz Family Foundation $10,000.00

    For support of Watchdog.net.

  12. Gerson and Barbara Bakar $10,000.00
  13. Robert L. Miller $10,000.00
  14. Stuart Marshall Bloch and Julia Chang Bloch $10,000.00
  15. James and Theodore Pedas Family Foundation, Inc. $5,000.00
  16. Raymond C. Clevenger, III $5,000.00
  17. 30 gifts $250 or less $2,925.00
  18. Sunil Pail and Michelle Odom Foundation $2,000.00
  19. Springcreek Advisors $1,125.00
  20. Bank of America $1,000.00
  21. Conrad Cafritz $1,000.00
  22. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Skinner Fund $1,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Brian D. Skinner.

  23. Kobayashi Family Foundation $1,000.00
  24. LaSalle D. Leffall $1,000.00
  25. Lisa and Gregory Stanger Charitable Foundation $1,000.00
  26. Matthew Regan and Yoon-Young Lee $1,000.00
  27. Chad J. Fitzgerald $500.00
  28. Kobayashi Family Foundation $442.00
  29. Anonymous money order $300.00

2007

  1. Omidyar Network $2,000,000.00

    For general support ($1,000,000) and grantmaking ($1,000,000).

  2. Rockefeller Family Fund $1,000,000.00

    For general support.

  3. David Bonderman $250,000.00
  4. Blum Family Foundation $50,000.00
  5. Sage Foundation $50,000.00
  6. Fischer & Company, LLC $40,000.00
  7. Ted and Jim Pedas / Circle Management Company $25,000.00
  8. Fuller Foundation, Volgenau Family Fund $20,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Sara and Ernst Volgenau

  9. Raymond C. Clevenger, III $10,000.00
  10. Springcreek Foundation $6,000.00
  11. CRESA Partners of Greater Washington $2,500.00
  12. Peter Gottesman, CRESA Partners $2,500.00
  13. Springcreek Advisors, LLC $2,125.00
  14. Artifex Software, Inc. $1,000.00
  15. Domenico and Eleanor De Sole $1,000.00
  16. Schwab Charitable Fund $1,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Sanford K. Ain.

  17. Five gifts of $250 or less $555.00

2006

  1. Rockefeller Family Fund $1,900,000.00

    For general support.

  2. Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation $100,000.00
  3. N. Colin Lind $100,000.00
  4. Fuller Foundation, Volgenau Family Fund $20,000.00

    For general support, at the recommendation of Sara and Ernst Volgenau.

  5. Fischer & Company, LLC $15,000.00
  6. Philanthropic Collaborative, Inc. $5,000.00
  7. Springcreek Advisors, LLC $3,125.00
  8. Seven gifts of $250 or less $945.00

2005

  1. Michael R. Klein $3,500,000.00

    For general support to establish The Sunlight Foundation.

In-Kind Donations

We report any in-kind donations valued over $25.

2013

  1. UXPin

    Market value of one year subscription to UXPin's "Company Wide" Plan.

2012

  1. e.Republic, Inc.

    Free advertising at GOVERNING.com for TransparencyCamp 2012.

  2. Microsoft via TechSoup

    Software purchased from TechSoup donated by Microsoft.

  3. Columbia Books & Information Services

    Free advertising for TransparencyCamp 2012.

2011

  1. Microsoft via TechSoup

    Software purchased from TechSoup donated by Microsoft.

  2. e.Republic, Inc.

    Free advertising at GOVERNING.com for TransparencyCamp 2011.

2010

  1. Microsoft

    Market value of game consoles given in-kind.

2009

  1. Google, Inc.

    In-kind donation.

The Sunlight Foundation offers “transparency grants” for organizations that are using the Web to further our mission of making government information more accessible to the American people. Our goal is to support groups and individuals who are going beyond the traditional, single subject public disclosure database, and who are interested in creating cutting-edge tools to enable the media, bloggers and citizens to sift, share and combine government data in ways that are useful for them.

Grants

To date, Sunlight's major transparency grants have included:

2012

  1. $50,000.00 Electronic Privacy Information Center

    For the Open Government Project, one of the leading Freedom of Information Act programs in the United States.
  2. $25,000.00 Honest Appalachia

    To support technological improvements for open-source whistleblower web software.
  3. $15,000.00 Independent Arts and Media

    To support the work of the "Politify" project
  4. $10,000.00 TurboVote project of Democracy Works

    To improve tech capacity
  5. $7,500.00 Oyez Project at Chicago-Kent

    For technological developments related to identification of persons on recorded transcripts.
  6. $5,000.00 Internet Archive

    To support the preparation of online instructions and other guidance assisting users of the Internet Archive's new TV news research service.

2011

  1. $125,000.00 National Institute on Money in State Politics

    To investigate lobbyist expenditures in the states.
  2. $25,000.00 Media Standards Trust

    To support an open-source release of the Churnalism project
  3. $20,000.00 LittleSis.org

  4. $10,000.00 New Orleans Coalition on Open Governance

    To live stream and archive meetings of various city working groups.

2010

  1. $263,970.00 Participatory Politics Foundation

    To continue support for the OpenCongress project.
  2. $75,000.00 MAPLight.org

  3. $70,000.00 Center for Public Integrity

    For its "Will the Agencies Be Open?" project.
  4. $25,000.00 Harvard Kennedy School's Science, Technology and Public Policy Program

    To support its Technology and Governance 2.0 Conference.
  5. $25,000.00 National Priorities Project

    To support their Federal Priorities Data 2.0 Project.
  6. $25,000.00 Public Accountability Initiative

    For continuing support of the LittleSis project.
  7. $25,000.00 Wesleyan Media Project

    To develop a public database that tracks all advertising by source in the 2010 U.S. Senate and House campaigns.
  8. $15,000.00 Electronic Frontier Foundation

    To create a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) search tool for their site.

2009

  1. $1,200,000.00 Center for Responsive Politics

    To continue to maintain money-in-politics resources, and convert files to open data that would allow for free access to downloadable archives. It will also create and release new APIs and widgets.
  2. $1,000,000.00 National Institute on Money in State Politics

    To move their data on state-level campaign finance to an open source data commons. NIMSP will also participate in Sunlight Data Commons which will include complete access to previous and current data collected on state-level political donors to candidates, political parties and ballot measure committees.
  3. $150,000.00 OMB Watch

    To support FedSpending.org, a project that encourages the government to improve the quality, accuracy and consistency of federal spending data that is disclosed. It will also advocate for the use of open source software in disclosing federal spending data.
  4. $125,000.00 Taxpayers for Common Sense

    To support their transportation earmarks research project.
  5. $89,800.00 Public Accountability Initiative

    For LittleSis, to support further development as well as the creation of a LittleSis API that will allow third parties to access raw data on demand.
  6. $63,733.00 Center for Democracy and Technology

    For continued support of its OpenCRS project.
  7. $50,000.00 Public.Resource.org

    For the Federal Register 2.0 project, which will purchase and repurpose raw data underlying the Code of Federal Regulation.
  8. $50,000.00 Taxpayers for Common Sense

    For the Subsidyscope project, an initiative that will research and investigate the federal government’s transportation subsidies.
  9. $32,000.00 Columbia Journalism Review

    For continued support of their transparency reporting.
  10. $10,000.00 Code for America

    To get volunteer or stipended developers together with cities to tackle software, leading to greater municipal accessibility and transparency.

2008

  1. $180,000.00 MAPLight.org

    To enable MAPLight.org to redesign its Web site to make it more user friendly, promote strategically more key money/votes stats about significant votes; develop video training and online tutorials; launch widgets of money/vote correlations; develop new "tabs" on its Web site to demonstrate "money near votes" and committee "exposure" highlights; add a sophisticated user comment system and continue its ongoing research on each bill.
  2. $164,000.00 Metavid

    Metavid to continue to build and improve the infrastructure, with an increased emphasis on developing a community of more collaborators and users to the site.
  3. $134,177.00 Center for Media and Democracy

    To continue investment in the joint Sunlight Foundation/Center for Media and Democracy wiki on Congress – Congresspedia.
  4. $80,000.00 CorpWatch (Tides Center)

    For its EDGAR 10-K data mashup/visualization project. The EDGAR database records U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings; this project will create an open database of relationships, with name standardization, of corporations, their subsidiaries and board members.
  5. $72,600.00 Public Accountability Initiative

    For the further development of a prototype of online database of information on powerful American individuals and organizations called Little Sis. Visitors can browse and search linked profile pages for current and former members of Congress, other government officials, Fortune 1000 companies and their leadership, top lobbying forms and lobbyists, etc. The profile pages integrate a wide range of public information and could certainly include information from the relevant databases that Sunlight currently funds.
  6. $72,000.00 Watchdog.net, Inc.

    To create a site which brings government data -- like census data, lobbying disclosures, voting records and campaign disclosures -- into a single place. It is distinguished by open-sourcing its software, its data and all the products of this data.
  7. $70,397.00 The Focus Project's OMB Watch

    To support a project that define a proactive agenda that will modernize and increase public disclosure of government information and the organization's FedSpending.org Web site. This project combines data from the Federal Procurement Data System and the Federal Assistance Award Data System to create a free, searchable database of federal government contracting and spending.
  8. $41,188.00 Center for Democracy and Technology

    To support its OpenCRS project which harnesses the power of the Internet to promote the distribution of Congressional Research Service reports to the public.
  9. $38,000.00 Columbia Journalism Review

    For an initiative to investigate the rollback of government transparency and expansion of secrecy, through a special issue of the magazine (January 2009), interactive online content, a public event and an agenda outlining specific steps.
  10. $28,000.00 OpenTheGovernment.org (Fund for Constitutional Government)

    For their “Most Wanted” federal information project. It will build a site (with Sunlight) where users can contribute to a list of government data and documents that should be released online. The site both compiles information about often obscure but valuable government records and, using a Digg-like format, lets others vote on the information they would most like to see.
  11. $25,000.00 Mobilize.org

    A youth-oriented organization, to support grants for young entrepreneurs who will develop ways to use Sunlight-funded databases and new technology to advance a "clean elections" agenda.
  12. $19,000.00 National Institute on Money in State Politics

    For work, in collaboration with the Center for Responsive Politics, to create standardized identifiers and a Web site with this information, which will make the data publicly available.
  13. $10,000.00 Public.Resource.org

    To support Open Government Working Group meetings, to discuss and promote open government techniques and activites using the Internet.
  14. $10,000.00 Understanding Government

    To support the Preventive Journalism Prize, for journalism that investigates problems before they become crises, new and effective solutions to problems and government responses to these situations.

2007

  1. $522,838.00 Center for Responsive Politics

    To create databases on lobbyists, 527s, personal financial disclosures and travel, and to expand its campaign finance databases.
  2. $222,000.00 Taxpayers for Common Sense

    To enable the organization to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate and advance the use of the Internet and related technologies into their overall work.
  3. $200,000.00 MAPLight.org

    To provide core funding to support the organization's federal search engine that interactively exposes the links between dollars donated by interested parties and congressional votes.
  4. $157,000.00 Metavid

    To create an open, online platform that contains a video archive of public domain U.S. House and Senate proceedings built completely on open source tools.
  5. $140,000.00 Center for Media and Democracy

    To continue investment in the joint Sunlight Foundation/Center for Media and Democracy wiki on Congress – Congresspedia.
  6. $100,000.00 Capitol News Connection

    To fund an interactive widget that will allow citizens, via public radio stations' Web sites throughout the country, to ask lawmakers specific questions and get responses.
  7. $100,000.00 Center for Independent Media

    To support an effort to establish a national branch of its New Journalist Program in Washington, DC for training of political news bloggers who will cover Congress, federal agencies, the presidency, Supreme Court and the influence of lobbying, the national press corps and campaign finance.
  8. $75,189.00 The Focus Project's OMB Watch

    Grants to OMB Watch support a project to define a proactive agenda to modernize and increase public disclosure of government information and the organization's FedSpending.org Web site. This project combines data from the Federal Procurement Data System and the Federal Assistance Award Data System to create a free, searchable database of federal government contracting and spending.
  9. $55,000.00 Center for Democracy and Technology

    To support its (OpenCRS) project which harnesses the power of the Internet to promote the distribution of Congressional Research Service reports to the public.
  10. $50,000.00 The Focus Project's Fueling Democracy

    For the 21st Century RTK Project.

2006

  1. $405,090.00 Center for Responsive Politics

    To create databases on lobbyists, 527s, personal financial disclosures and travel, and to expand its campaign finance databases.
  2. $200,000.00 ReadtheBill.org

    To provide initial funding for the public educations efforts of this new organization, the leading advocate for open floor deliberations in the U.S. Congress, to require legislation and conference reports to be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before floor consideration.
  3. $199,128.00 The Focus Project's OMB Watch

    A project to define a proactive agenda to modernize and increase public disclosure of government information and the organization's FedSpending.org Web site. This project combines data from the Federal Procurement Data System and the Federal Assistance Award Data System to create a free, searchable database of federal government contracting and spending.
  4. $117,000.00 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

    To fund the launch of its Open Community Open Document Review System, which provides an online review process that enables people across the Internet to review, tag, comment on and rate the importance of government documents received by CREW through Freedom of Information Act requests.
  5. $95,000.00 Center for Media and Democracy

    To invest in the joint Sunlight Foundation/Center for Media and Democracy wiki on Congress – Congresspedia.
  6. $77,000.00 MAPLight.org

    Then TakeBackCA.org, to provide core funding to support the organization's federal search engine that interactively exposes the links between dollars donated by interested parties and congressional votes.
  7. $50,000.00 National Institute on Money in State Politics

    To support the development and implementation of several APIs so programmers can access and display in their own applications the Institute's data on campaign contributions to political campaigns at the state level.
  8. $35,000.00 Room Eight

    A grant to this blog, which covers New York politics, supported the expansion of its nonpartisan coverage of the 29 New York congressional members, including their legislative and budgetary activities and earmarks.
  9. $25,000.00 Center for Citizen Media

    To develop an Election Year Demonstration Project Web site to cover everything that can be reported on a congressional election, with an emphasis on drawing on the talents and ideas of local citizen journalists.
  10. $25,000.00 People for the American Way's Young Elected Officials Network

    To support a track on government transparency and accountability at its Young Elected Officials Network annual training and networking conference.
  11. $10,000.00 NewAssignment.Net

    To support its launch and work to spur journalistic innovation by grouping veteran journalists and passionate amateurs in online, collaborative reporting efforts.
  12. $10,000.00 The Project on Government Oversight

    A one-time grant supported its investigative reporting and blogging on the “revolving door” between the government and the private sector.

Mini-grants

To date, our mini-grants have supported:

2012

  1. $5,000.00 MyAmerica

    For development support to the citizen engagement MyMaryland project of the nonprofit MyAmerica, Inc.
  2. $1,200.00 Public Justice Foundation of Texas

    For hardware for analyzing and sharing with the media and public the role of campaign money and lobbying expenditures .

2011

  1. $5,000.00 Aurora Lights

    To jumpstart a secure whistleblower website that will allow governmental and corporate employees along with other would-be whistleblowers in the Appalachian region to safely leak information to the public.

2010

  1. $5,000.00 MuckRock.com

    To support its namesake community-powered freedom of information request tool that files, tracks, publishes and helps analyze government documents and data.
  2. $3,700.00 DemocracyWorks

    To support the TurboVote project, which will help people keep track of every voting related date or deadline.
  3. $3,000.00 PolicyPitch LLC

    To develop a data scraper/extractor for City of New Orleans ordinances and its Home Rule Charter, and for technology upgrades for improved user experience.

2009

  1. $5,000.00 TweetCongress

    A non-partisan group of concerned citizens that are pushing for members of Congress to join Twitter to create a more open communication between members of Congress and the public.
  2. $5,000.00 University of California Berkeley - School of Information

    To develop specific technical specifications for information services that will enable independent and effective public oversight of Recovery Act money and to rate the effectiveness of Revovery.gov web services actually provided.
  3. $5,000.00 WashingtonWatch.com

    To support the development of a tool for a distributed project to capture 2010 earmark requests by lawmakers in to a single database.
  4. $3,000.00 Swing State Project

    For the Race Tracker wiki project, a non-partisan reporting project on the new OpenCongress wiki to track who is running in each congressional district in the 2010 elections. It will also feature district-speci?c data on the past three presidential elections.

2008

  1. $5,000.00 Geocoder.us

    Which provides free address look-up information based on the U.S. Census, so that users can enter any address or intersection and learn the longitude and latitude coordinates for that location. The mini-grant supports the creation of an API to show congressional district boundaries for all U.S. addresses and the improvement of the site's open source address recognition system. Ultimately, this funding will support the site's ability to ascertain a congressional district from an address without the need to manually look up a zip+4 code on the U.S. Postal Service Web site.
  2. $5,000.00 Knowledge As Power

    To support the creation of a legislator email management and constituent relations communications system to increase transparency between legislators and their constituents by organizing a more effective form of communication between the two groups. This Web mail service pairs with KAP's existing legislation-tracking service, giving legislators and their staff the tools necessary to efficiently manage incoming constituent emails and systematize corresponding responses with personalized or automated letters. Sunlight's mini-grant will support a pilot email management system for one to two congressional offices and the entire Washington State Legislature.
  3. $5,000.00 Pacific Northwest Topic Hotlist

    Aggregates over 100 political news blogs in the Pacific Northwest and organizes several hundred postings by topic, specifically highlighting coverage by local bloggers of legislative issues and their representatives in Congress. This grant provides funding for Web hosting services for this news aggregator site and its accompanying widgets.
  4. $5,000.00 Speechology.org

    To support the creation and maintenance of a Web site that will archive video of key political speeches-including debates, State of the Union addresses, convention speeches congressional testimony and campaign advertisements-and facilitate online public critical analysis. Using Speechology.org, citizens will watch, evaluate and comment on the truthfulness of the speeches.
  5. $3,900.00 Public Justice Foundation of Texas

    For their work to support a one-time fee for access to the Texas Supreme Court case management database, to allow exploration of the connection between Texas judicial campaign contributors and the rulings of Texas state courts.
  6. $3,000.00 Public.Resource.org

    To support the purchase of the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations for redistribution as a public good, thus upholding the value of making government information available by lowering barriers.
  7. $2,500.00 Richmond Sunlight

    The Richmond Sunlight Web site monitors the activity of the Virginia legislature. Sunlight's mini-grant supports the purchase of an entire session of the Virginia Legislature's closed circuit video broadcast. The video will be then converted to QuickTime, posted on YouTube on a daily basis and integrated into the Richmond Sunlight Web site.
  8. $2,400.00 Philbrick-James Forum

    A volunteer, non-profit citizen newspaper for its “i on NH Congress” section, for non-partisan coverage of the New Hampshire congressional delegation.
  9. $2,000.00 Utah News Aggregator

    To support the creation of a Web news hub service and email newsletter subscription service for bloggers, political activists, legislators, candidates and concerned citizens of Utah. This forthcoming Web site will provide citizens with a full picture of daily politics in Utah, specifically focusing on local blog and mainstream media coverage of political news; congressional news updates, press releases and votes; a calendar of events including legislative meetings and messaging from all viable political parties and candidates.
  10. $1,600.00 WhereABill.org

    To create a new, dynamic bill-viewing system for GovTrack.us.

2007

  1. $10,000.00 NewsTrust.net

    To support its work to harness social wisdom to aggregate and highlight quality online journalism about elected representatives, with a focus on accountability, corruption and transparency in Congress.
  2. $10,000.00 Public Resource, Inc.

    In support of the development of a series of conferences on open government.
  3. $5,000.00 OpEdNews

    To create a volunteer moderated Web site system that aggregates news articles, blog coverage and links to Congresspedia articles for every member of Congress.
  4. $5,000.00 WashingtonWatch.com

    To support its outreach and efforts to determine the average cost, or savings, per individual of each bill introduced in Congress by performing calculations on government estimates compared to the US population.

2006

  1. $4,500.00 More Perfect

    To support its development of a wiki designed to involve the public in creating and collaborating on laws and policy.
  2. $2,500.00 BluegrassReport.org

    To fund software upgrades that power its Web site, which educates voters as it highlights the issues of political corruption and transparency in government, particularly in Kentucky.
  3. $1,600.00 Arizona Congress Watch

    For the acquisition of polling data and a clipping service to support its work to report on the activities of the Arizona congressional delegation.
  4. $1,600.00 Connecticut Local Politics

    For the acquisition of polling data, a video camera and the cost of Web hosting for this nonpartisan, not-for profit blog that covers Connecticut politics from town halls to the state's delegation in the U.S. Congress.

To apply for a grant from the Sunlight Foundation, contact us for guidelines.

Please read our Gift Acceptance Policy.

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