Sunlight Foundation

The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses the tools of civic tech, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all. Our vision is for modern technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation. Our overarching goal is to achieve changes in the law to require real-time, online transparency for government information.

Sunlight’s efforts have produced real results. Over the past decade, we served more than 4.2 billion API calls, indicating how much the data we liberated has been needed. Our reporting and analysis is frequently cited by the world’s preeminent journalists. Our research has led to congressional hearings and legislative action. Our tools were used to strip problematic measures from bills. Our advocacy has led to legislative and agency reforms, from a major victory when, at our urging, the federal government agreed to begin the process of releasing all data sets held by federal agencies, to the enactment and implementation of the DATA Act, the most significant open data law in United States history. Today, we are pushing for more reforms, defending transparency and ethics in government, helping open up cities with their communities, and holding government accountable.