Mission:
To increase political transparency and foster more openness and accountability in government.

Background:
The Sunlight Foundation was founded in 2006 by Michael Klein and Ellen Miller with the goal of using the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens.

Outstanding Web Features:
Over the last two-plus years, the organization has assembled and funded an array of Web-based databases and tools, including Congresspedia, Earmark Watch, Fed Spending, Open Congress, and Open Secrets. A project of Sunlight and the Center for Media and Democracy, Congresspedia documents, in wiki format, the people, organizations, and issues shaping the public agenda and provides articles on members of Congress by state. Wiki the Vote, the site's congressional elections portal, offers profiles of candidates running for Congress, coverage of the elections, listings of local blogs for each state, and informal groups of citizen editors working together to improve and expand related articles. A joint project of Sunlight and the Participatory Politics Foundation, OpenCongress provides a collection of official government data as well as relevant news items and blog posts. And the Sunlight Foundation's Punch the Clock Map map features local lawmakers' schedules, including information about who they are meeting and why.