Since our founding six years ago, MuckRock has focused on one mission: To be the easiest way to request, analyze and share government documents in order to make politics more transparent and our democracy more informed. We’ve recently restructured our formal organization into a 501(c)(3) non-profit to ensure that we’ll continue to serve that mission, transparently and independently, for many years to come.
We are incredibly grateful to Matar Diouf and Robert Bertsche of Prince Lobel for their pro bono assistance with this process. It could and probably should have been incredibly challenging, but they made it an easy transition for us. (Long time MuckRock readers will remember that Robert was previously instrumental in keeping me out of jail. Dealing with the IRS might have been even more frightening than that fight).
For our users and readers, almost nothing about the site’s operations will change. It’s the same people, doing the same work, day in and day out.
We’ve always worked to run our filing service at break-even or at a modest profit so that we can reinvest in the site’s operations, and we’ll continue to do so. We believe that the site will operate best if our ongoing financial needs are covered by those who value our work and directly benefit from our services.
And to that end, MuckRock has never been in a better position organizationally, financially, or, now that we have been granted 501(c)(3) status, structurally. Site usage has approximately doubled each year since our founding, and over the past year alone we have helped users file over 10,000 requests at every level of government.
This change also gives us the ability to accept tax-deductible donations from supporters, as well as the opportunity to pursue targeted grants that align with our mission while preserving our independence to ultimately do what we believe is right for our community and for the public good.
Already, we have a number of exciting plans to make that support meaningful for both fans of our work as well as the public at large, as well as plans to open up more of our operations to the public in the coming months.
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Image by Derek Kouyoumjian
