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Dear Friend of OpenSecrets,
I’ve been “wrapping up” for many months now, but today I’m writing my last letter to our OS community, saying goodbye to my colleagues and friends who are like family to me, and sending my thanks to our board and staff. It has been my great honor to lead OpenSecrets (and before that, the Center for Responsive Politics) for 17 years, and I’m excited to pass the reins to my successor, Hilary Braseth, who begins as Executive Director next week. I am confident that you will be impressed with her expertise and vision, and hope that you will be moved to give her and the entire OpenSecrets team your enthusiastic support.
We’re all too well aware of the litany of challenges facing democracies across the globe in 2024 and beyond. Over the past several years (some would say decades), the rapidly changing norms and evidence of democracy’s fragility has been startling to witness. Despite all of these changes, some things hold true — including money’s influence in U.S. politics and elections, the role it plays in shaping both foreign and domestic policies, and the need for transparency so that we may hold our government accountable. A government “of, by and for the people” requires our access to information about the forces shaping our daily lives and future prospects.
For these reasons, OpenSecrets endures as a critical and unique source of data and respected research — following the money and deriving meaningful analysis and original reporting from hundreds of millions of data points every year so that Americans can use these tools in pursuit of a more vibrant, representative and accountable democracy.
I am enormously grateful to our team and proud of our accomplishments. Having merged the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in Politics in 2021, our expanded team has worked diligently to carefully integrate state and federal campaign finance and lobbying data, and to uphold our longstanding commitment to accuracy and nonpartisanship.
Every year, this commitment inspires collaborations with media outlets large and small, dozens of scholarly citations, hundreds of requests for custom research, tens of thousands of media citations, and millions of visitors to OpenSecrets.org. That’s why we say that this small nonprofit is a force multiplier, empowering the work of thousands, and the understanding of millions of Americans with unassailable facts.
Your continued support can help [[link removed]] this small but mighty organization play an important role in informing and empowering Americans and strengthening our political system for years to come.
In addition to hope for OpenSecrets’ continued success, I am signing off with hope for an election season that engages all Americans on issues of real importance for our nation, and candidates who respect the rules and norms of a healthy and representative democracy and prove themselves worthy of our vote. We should accept no less.
With heartfelt gratitude,
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Sheila Krumholz
Executive Director
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OpenSecrets
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