Congratulations to the CalMatters team for being awarded $9 million from The Trust in American Institutions Challenge. This grant will help the team expand its Digital Democracy platform to statehouses across the country. Digital Democracy reveals how decisions are made in California. It’s a custom-built AI tool that tracks every word spoken in public hearings, every dollar donated to politicians, every bill introduced, every vote cast, and more. By expanding this platform nationwide, more Americans will have access to the information they need to make informed voting decisions, and more reporters will have access to records that will hold legislators accountable.
Trust is the operating system of democracy. When it breaks down, everything built on top of it starts to fail. That's why, together with Lever for Change, I launched The Trust in American Institutions Challenge — a $9 million open call for bold, scalable solutions to one of the most urgent problems of our time. Today, I'm proud to announce that CalMatters and their Digital Democracy platform are the winners! As statehouse reporting has declined across the country, so has accountability. Voters are left with less independent information about their elected officials, fewer tools to engage with government, and more reason to distrust it. It’s a race to zero. CalMatters built something that breaks the distrust loop. Their work gives the public and journalists direct access to everything happening in the legislature: every vote cast, every dollar donated, every word spoken. This $9 million grant capital will power CalMatters' Digital Democracy platform as they expand to statehouses across the country. Congratulations to the entire CalMatters team –– and deep respect to the other finalists — The American Journalism Project, Recidiviz, Results for America, and Transcend — whose proposals were genuinely exceptional. Trust won't be rebuilt overnight. But it can be rebuilt. It starts with CalMatters. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gx5C7c5m
