Sunlight Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Sunlight Foundation ceased operations in 2020. Its work included research, policy development and reporting on government transparency.
IP TAKE: The Sunlight Foundation’s most recent work monitored the shift of information on government websites and the business dealings of Donald Trump and his family during the Trump Presidency. While it offered a great deal of timely and significant information to journalists and the public, the Sunshine Foundation was not a traditional grantmaker. Its grantmaking remained under $50,000 and generally supported public health and education on New York’s Long Island. Sunshine ceased operations in 2020, and its major projects have been transferred to other organizations and institutions.
PROFILE: Founded in April 2006 with a $3.5 million donation from co-founder Michael Klein, the Sunlight Foundation sought to use “civic technologies, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all.” Grantmaking was a very small part of this organization’s work; the Sunshine Foundation predominantly conducted its own research and policy development projects. According to the foundation’s website, which is still in operation, its two most recent initiatives, the Web Integrity Project and Conflicts of Interest ceased operations in 2020 and 2019, respectively, and “virtually all of the activities and staff of Sunlight have been transferred to other engaged institutions, or closed.”
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Sunshine Foundation does not make grants for civic engagement and democracy, but its Web Integrity Project monitored tens of thousands of federal government websites for “shifts in public information and access,” with the broad goal of increasing government transparency. Areas of specific interest included LGBTQ policy shifts during the Trump administration, federal budget documents containing information about how taxpayer money is spent and information about the treatment of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border with Mexico.
The Sunshine Foundation’s other recent initiative, Conflicts of Interest, consisted of extensive research of the business dealings of Donald Trump and his family, with documentation of how his connections presented conflicts of interest during his presidency and analysis of media coverage of related topics. Data collection and analysis for this project appears to have ended sometime in 2019, but the material collected exists in an online database.
Grants for Journalism
The Sunshine Foundation does not award grants for journalism, but its two recent initiatives, the Web Integrity Project and Conflicts of Interest provided journalists and the American public with important information about the censorship of public information and the business relationships of former President Donald Trump.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
The Sunshine Foundation continues to make a small number of grants each year in the areas of public health and education, with a strong emphasis on communities on New York’s Long Island. Public health grants have gone to the NephCure Foundation, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York. In education, the foundation has supported educational programs at Landmark on Main Street, a community center in Port Washington, New York, and Literacy Nassau, an organization that provides literacy education to underserved people of all ages in Nassau County, New York.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, the Sunshine Foundation made about $14,000 in grants that ranged from $200 to $10,000. Most of its grantees were community-based health and education organizations on Long Island. For additional information on past grantmaking see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
The Sunshine Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding. General inquiries may be directed to the foundation via email or telephone at 202-742-1520.
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