Follow The Money

Follow The Money is a free and verified archive of contributions to political campaigns in the US

URL: http://www.followthemoney.org
Keywords: US, corporate interests, lobbying, campaign financing, finance tracking, elections
Project Current Phase: Released
Project Start Date: 2013
Launch Date: 2013
Most Recent Update: 2015
Update Frequency: yes
Thematic Focus: Politics
Issue addressed: Tracking financial influence
Geographic Focus: US

How does a user interact with and navigate the project?

Description

Summary of the project and its approach

Follow The Money is a verifiable archive of contributions to political campaigns in all 50 states of the US.

Approach (How?): The National Institute on Money in State Politics uses data from official disclosure agencies, and staff then use research techniques to verify, standardise and code the data for inclusion in the archive.
Language: English
Commissioner: The Bauman Foundation, The California Endowment, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Energy Foundation, Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Knight Prototype Fund, Mac Arthur Foundation, Robert Mc Cormick Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Rockfeller Family Fund, Rockfeller Brothers fund, Sunlight Foundation
Publisher: The National Institute on Money in State Politics (US)
Partners

Indicators of reach and impact of the project

Target Audience
Online Audience Reached: International
Twitter: Yes (652 followers)
Publisher's Twitter Followers
Online Rank: Google: 6 Alexa: 342,430 OSE Domain Authority Rank: 71/100 Marketing Grader Rank: 51/100 ()
Online Rank (Publisher): Google: Alexa:
News Source: Very High
Offline Audience Reached: National
Outcome: The National Institute on Money in State Politics is considered the go-to resource to facilitate reporting into campaign contributions (RAND Corporation 2014). They have also been cited in legal proceedings over 1,000 times in the past decade source: http://www.followthemoney.org/our-data/our-data-in-action/)
Last updated: 19/10/2015
Attempts against the project: N/A /

What tools and code were used to create the project?

Tech Best Practices:
Code Repository
Tool
Database
Frontend
Backend
Data Format
Data Standard
Technical Documentation URL
Technical Architecture Documentation
Schema Documentation
Design Documentation
API Documentation: http://www.followthemoney.org/our-data/apis/documentation/

Data Sources: http://www.fec.gov/; https://stations.fcc.gov/; http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Political-Organizations/Political-Organization-Filing-and-Disclosure%20; http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/campaign-finance.aspx; http://www.followthemoney.org/resources/state-disclosure-agencies/

Team size and expertise

What strategies were in place for managing the project?

Documentation about project practices

Collect: http://www.followthemoney.org/our-data/about-our-data/
Organise / Model Data: http://www.followthemoney.org/our-data/about-our-data/

How projects handle different aspects of data management