Sunlight Announces Six More Grants

September 6, 2006

Contact: Gabriela Schneider 202-742-1520 ext 236

WASHINGTON, DC – The Sunlight Foundation and Sunlight Network (an affiliated 501 (c)4) is announcing six grants today, furthering its mission to promote more openness in government. The grants are going to organizations developing cutting edge projects ranging from an effort to forge a partnership between citizen journalists and traditional reporters, to a model depository on all information related to the 2006 election in one congressional district. “While Sunlight continues to develop 21st technology to engage citizens in the effort to bring about a more open government, we are equally committed to fostering some of the most innovative projects around the country,” said Executive Director Ellen Miller. “We couldn’t be more excited about what our latest round of grantees has in store. Each, in very different ways, is going to change the face of politics.” The grants are as follows: $35,000 to the National Institute on Money in State Politics to continue the development and implementation of their initial Web Service Application Program Interface (API), to conduct extensive outreach to ensure its adoption later in this year, and to develop several custom APIs for journalists and/or academics. $25,000 to the Center for Citizen Media to develop an Election Year Demonstration Project for citizen journalism in one Congressional district. CCM will oversee the creation of a website that will seek to cover everything that can possibly be reported on a Congressional election, with an emphasis on drawing on the talents and ideas of local citizen reporters. The site will include in-depth biographical and political information on candidates, audio and video archives, campaign finance profiles, first-person reports, links to articles, etc. This project is designed to serve as a model for possible nationwide implementation in hundreds of districts in 2008. $10,000 to New York University as a matching "seed grant" to support the launch of Jay Rosen's NewAssignment.Net project. NewAssignment.Net is a non-profit site that is working to foster journalistic innovation by showing that open collaboration over the Internet among traditional reporters, editors and large groups of reader-reporters can produce high-quality work that serves the public interest, holds up under scrutiny, and builds trust. This project is an experiment in networked journalism, exploring how to blend the experience of veteran journalists with the engagement of passionate amateurs to produce work that neither could manage alone. $4,873 to TheWeekInCongress.com for software and hosting. In its third year, TheWeekInCongress.com is a free, non-partisan Website that explains all bills and resolutions that the U.S. Congress considers on the floor each week and how much they will cost the taxpayers. Their reports simplify legislative language thereby empowering voters to participate in democracy from a well-informed position. Readers can easily contact their lawmakers from the website. TheWeekInCongress.com is also a source of story ideas for editors, enterprise reporters and columnists in all media markets. $2,500 to BluegrassReport.org for software upgrades. In barely a year, BluegrassReport.org has reached its technological limit with its very basic website as it communicates with its 25,000 readers a week. The Sunlight Foundation's mini grant is crucial for a growing this organization, allowing it to upgrade its website and adding needed software to better educate the voters as it highlights the issues of political corruption and transparency in government, particularly in Kentucky. $1,600 to Connecticut Local Politics (connecticutlocalpolitics.blogspot.com) for acquisition of polling data, a video camera, and the cost of web hosting. Connecticut Local Politics is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit blog covering Connecticut politics from town halls to the state’s delegation in the U.S. Congress. The site, which was launched in January of 2005, welcomes all points of view, and includes opinion pieces on the news of the day from many viewpoints, interviews, live online question-and-answer sessions with candidates, an informational wiki about the 2006 election and coverage of major events. Founded in January, 2006, the mission of the Sunlight Foundation is to strengthen the relationship between lawmakers and their constituents. Sunlight puts information and tools in citizens’ hands so they can learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing. Our ultimate goal of full transparency by Congress, its Members and staff will help reduce corruption, ensure greater accountability, and foster public trust in this vital institution of democracy. ###