<p class="MsoNormal">The Sunlight Foundation is still offering grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to local groups, individuals or any groups of citizens that have creative ideas for changing the relationship between elected Federal representatives and the people they represent. This is the second year of our mini-grant program. Last year we funded five extraordinary programs selected from nearly one hundred applicants.<br /><br />Successful applicants will receive, in addition to a grant, consulting and strategic support and opportunities for networking. Our goal is to provide that extra element that takes a project from good to great -- server space, a video camera, or access to polling data -- or provide the seed that makes a new project viable. Projects could range from citizen media, to creative use of the Internet to engage citizens in watchdogging, to opening up new ways of communicating with federal lawmakers or creative mapping of lawmakers&#39; activities.<br /><br />We encourage applications from existing small nonprofits and Web sites, from offshoots of national groups, from individuals, and from informal groups of citizens.</p>