National Institute on Money in State Politics

What National Institute on Money in State Politics does

The National Institute on Money in State Politics, founded in 1999 in Helena, Montana, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates FollowTheMoney.org, a nonpartisan, comprehensive campaign finance transparency platform covering all 50 states and federal elections. The organization built a 50-state database archiving over $100 billion in campaign contributions, more than 2 million state lobbyist-client relationships, independent spending reports in 31 states, and lobbying spending in 20 states. Its core technology consists of structured data ingestion from state and federal disclosure agencies, normalized for cross-state querying, with a free public website, a free API for developers and newsrooms, and a suite of analytical tools including Election Overview, My Legislature, Lobbyist Link, Power Mapping, and Ballot Measures. The platform serves journalists, academic researchers, public interest groups, and the general public, with notable API integrations at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WRAL, ProPublica, Politico, and the Center for Public Integrity.

The business model is a hybrid nonprofit revenue structure: primary funding comes from grants from a concentrated set of major foundations (Arnold Ventures, Ford, Hewlett, Mertz-Gilmore, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Knight Foundation), supplemented by individual donations, data licensing agreements with businesses, and research contracts including expert witness testimony. All public data is provided free of charge, and the organization has explicitly committed to refusing any support that threatens its nonpartisan independence. Go-to-market is product-led and community-led: free self-serve access drives top-of-funnel discovery, while technical assistance, training, and research-report publications drive deeper engagement with journalists, academics, and advocacy groups.

In 2018, the Campaign Finance Institute was integrated into the organization, which simultaneously dropped 'State' from its name to reflect expanded federal scope. In June 2021, the organization merged with the Center for Responsive Politics to form OpenSecrets, combining state and federal campaign finance data into a single platform now headquartered in Washington, DC. The Institute has been recognized as the gold standard resource for state campaign finance data by RAND Corporation and received the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2015.

Name

National Institute on Money in State Politics

Legal name

National Institute on Money in State Politics

Website

https://followthemoney.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The National Institute on Money in State Politics operates FollowTheMoney.org, a free, nonpartisan 50-state campaign finance transparency database serving journalists, researchers, public interest groups, and the public. Founded 1999, it merged with the Center for Responsive Politics in 2021 to form OpenSecrets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Campaign Finance Data and Transparency Platform

NAICS

Political Organizations (813940), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Communications, Transparency & Open Government (BPAIAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Government Accounting & Financial Reporting (BPAIAEAD)

Keywords

• Campaign finance data
• Political transparency research
• Lobbying data tracking
• Money in politics
• Donor disclosure database

Headquarters

HQ city

Helena

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants: Primary funding source from charitable foundations including Arnold Ventures, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Mertz-Gilmore, Open Society Foundations, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The Institute will not accept support that threatens its independence.
2. Individual Donations: Donations from individuals who support open democracy and campaign finance transparency
3. Research Contracts: Expert witness testimony in legal proceedings and data licensing agreements with businesses that find value in the unique product

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The National Institute on Money in State Politics operates FollowTheMoney.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign finance transparency database compiling comprehensive campaign-donor, lobbyist, and political information from government disclosure agencies in all 50 states. The platform provides free public access to a 50-state federal/state database archiving over $100 billion in contributions and more than 2 million state lobbyist-client relationships, alongside a free API for programmatic data access. The organization also provides custom research, data licensing, and expert witness testimony services.

Product overview

The National Institute on Money in State Politics operates FollowTheMoney.org as a comprehensive, nonpartisan campaign finance transparency platform. The core offering is the FollowTheMoney.org database, which provides free public access to campaign contribution data across all 50 states and federal elections. The platform consists of multiple integrated tools: the core search/database, Ask Anything natural language query, Election Overview for historical election data, My Legislature for state legislative information, My District for geographic district lookup, Lobbyist Link for lobbyist-client relationships, Independent Spending and Lobbying Expenditures trackers, Power Mapping for visual analysis, and Ballot Measures coverage. The API enables programmatic data access for external developers. The organization merged with the Center for Responsive Politics in 2021 to form OpenSecrets, expanding to include federal data alongside its state-focused database.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• FollowTheMoney.org Campaign Finance Database Nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign finance database that compiles comprehensive campaign-donor, lobbyist, independent spending, and political information from government disclosure agencies in all 50 states and at the federal level, made freely available to the public via the FollowTheMoney.org website.
• FollowTheMoney.org API Free Application Program Interface providing programmatic, real-time access to the FollowTheMoney.org campaign finance database, allowing users to sign up for a myFollowTheMoney account, build queries around candidates, political committees, donors, industries, locations, and years, and export results for use in dynamic tables, charts, and infographics.
• Data Services and Custom Research Custom research, data services, and expert witness testimony provided by the Institute for legal proceedings, data licensing agreements with businesses, and specialized analysis for organizations that find value in the unique campaign finance dataset.

Quantifiable outcome

• Data spans all 50 states covering candidates, parties, ballot measures, and lobbying
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Center for Responsive PoliticscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2021The National Institute on Money in Politics and the Center for Responsive Politics joined forces to become OpenSecrets. The combined organization now displays both state and federal campaign finance data. This merger created a comprehensive resource covering all levels of U.S. political finance.
• Campaign Finance Institute (CFI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Campaign Finance Institute officially joined the National Institute on Money in Politics in 2018. CFI had earned a reputation as the nation's preeminent think tank on money in politics since opening in 1999. The combination brought together complementary research capabilities and data resources.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Ballotpedia: Comprehensive nonprofit encyclopedia of U.S. politics covering candidates, ballot measures, and elections. Overlapping audience of journalists and researchers but broader editorial scope beyond campaign finance.
• Transparency International: Global nonprofit coalition tracking corruption and government transparency. Broader international scope and thematic coverage but overlapping mission of government accountability.

Emerging players

• GovTrack: Tracks U.S. federal legislation and legislator activities with open data and developer tools, serving overlapping civic-tech and journalism audiences with related transparency data products.
• InfluenceMap: Specializes in tracking corporate lobbying and influence on climate and policy, with comparable data-vendor and transparency positioning but narrower policy focus than the Institute.
• LittleSis: Free database of powerful individuals and organizations and their networks, offering partial overlap with the Institute's power-mapping and lobbyist-client relationship data.

Direct peers

• MapLight: Nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks the influence of money in politics by linking campaign contributions to legislative votes, providing similar transparency data products for journalists and researchers.
• Center for Public Integrity: Investigative journalism nonprofit that uses Institute data for major transparency investigations (State Ad Wars, Ballot Measure Tracker). Similar mission, audience, and funding model.
• FollowTheMoney.org (legacy Institute product): The Institute's own state-level platform, which now routes users to OpenSecrets.org for federal data. Listed for completeness as the primary data product that defines the Institute's distinctive market position.
• OpenSecrets (Center for Responsive Politics): The merged counterparty that combined with the Institute in June 2021 to form the unified OpenSecrets organization. Operates the federal-level campaign finance database that complements the Institute's state-level data.
• Project Vote Smart: Nonprofit providing comprehensive political candidate and elected official data, including contribution histories sourced in part from the Institute's database. Similar civic-information mission and free public access model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/moneyinpolitics
• Facebookfacebook.com/FollowTheMoney.org

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

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