Important records sit below the attention threshold.
Local archives rarely attract sustained technical investment, even when they contain the facts needed for oversight, research, and public participation.
Independent public-interest foundation
Better public decisions begin with a legible public record.
We build durable, open infrastructure for the ordinary records that shape civic life—so people and public-interest tools can find, understand, and use them.
Evidence firstOpen by defaultBuilt to endureMeasured in public use
The opportunity
The missing layer of civic infrastructure
Public bodies produce a vast record of consequential, everyday decisions. Too often that record is scattered across brittle websites, image-only PDFs, and inconsistent archives. The information is technically public, yet practically difficult to use.
How we choose our workWhy this work
Unfashionable problems can have outsized returns.
Careful infrastructure changes what is possible.
Preservation, structured data, indexing, and clear editorial context can turn closed-off documents into a dependable public resource.
Open records compound in value over time.
A useful archive serves today’s reader while becoming tomorrow’s evidence base for journalists, researchers, communities, and responsible AI systems.
For funders
Patient capital for public knowledge.
Some of the most valuable civic work looks modest at first: a cleaner archive, a stable identifier, a record that remains available. Early funding gives this infrastructure the time to become trustworthy.
Review funder information- 01Build the foundation
Develop durable systems and standards before the pressure to scale.
- 02Prove public value
Ship useful work, listen closely, and evaluate whether it reaches the people who need it.
- 03Grow with integrity
Expand where evidence, community need, and operational readiness align.
In development
Town Crier
Our first public-facing project will turn difficult-to-follow public records into clear, source-grounded reporting while preserving a direct path back to the evidence.
See what we’re building