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CIVIC HERALD

For funders, partners & oversight

Public-interest infrastructure for understanding Congress.

Civic Herald turns the public record into plain language. Government data goes in; plain language comes out, checked by human reviewers and bound by a strict non-advocacy charter. We inform; we never advocate.

The opportunity

There’s a funded field for exactly this.

Nonpartisan civic-data tools are a recognized, funded category. The bar for neutrality is already set by the field’s leading institutions, and we’re built to meet it.

$430M+
invested in civic-tech since 2011
Day 1
grant-eligible via fiscal sponsorship
33·33·34
balanced reviewer panel, by design

The roadmap

Federal first, then wider and deeper.

Phase 1 · now

Federal MVP

Bill spine, values onboarding, briefings, scorecards, alignment, alerts, and the chat agent, with provenance on every claim.

Phase 2

Money & depth

Campaign-finance integration; stock-trade disclosures; deeper money-and-ties analysis.

Phase 3

State expansion

Add state legislatures from open legislative data, with the same provenance rules.

Phase 4

Local & direct

City and county councils and citizen-voted ballot measures.

Why your name is safe with us

We protect your neutrality as hard as our own.

A transparency product can’t afford even the appearance of a lean. Our defense is visible balance and full self-disclosure, copied from the institutions that set the standard.

Public donor disclosure

Every donor above $5,000 listed; anonymous funding capped.

Model · INN · OpenSecrets

Editorial firewall

No funder reviews or influences our analyses.

Model · INN · BPC

No directed money

We refuse funding from parties, candidates, and PACs.

Model · Vote Smart

Cross-spectrum funding

We pursue visible left- and right-of-center backing.

Model · Knight

Balanced reviewer panels

Equal numbers from left, center, and right. Each rates their own lean and reviews blind.

Model · AllSides · Ad Fontes

Government-data discipline

Official sources first. Issue categories follow the government's own.

Model · USAFacts · CAP

Who we're building toward

The company we want to keep.

Funders we're building toward

  • Knight Foundation

    Informed & engaged communities.

  • Hewlett U.S. Democracy

    Nonpartisan support for governing institutions.

  • Carnegie Corporation

    Strengthening U.S. democracy.

  • McGovern Foundation

    AI and data science for social good.

Fiscal sponsor / accelerator

  • Multiplier

    Fast, full-service fiscal sponsorship.

  • Fast Forward

    The tech-nonprofit accelerator.

  • Aspen Policy Academy

    Nonpartisan policy venue.

Data & academic allies

  • Congress.gov / GovInfo

    The authoritative federal source.

  • GovTrack · OpenSecrets

    Open legislative and money-in-politics data.

  • USAFacts

    The model for government-data-only discipline.

  • Comparative Agendas Project

    The scholarly issue taxonomy.

Start a conversation

Let’s talk about funding, fit, or oversight.

We’re glad to walk any prospective funder, fiscal sponsor, or data partner through the methodology and the guardrails. Use the form, or write to us directly: partners@civicherald.app