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Dear Friends,

As we mark the 15th anniversary of the LittleSis database, we are reminded that the fight against corporate power is a long one. While presidential administrations come and go, an unelected elite of billionaires, corporate executives, and influence peddlers is always at work in the background, pulling the levers of power to maximize private profit at the expense of our environment, communities, and dignity as working people.

LittleSis was built to expose the power players operating at the commanding heights of business and government and the hidden networks through which they steer public policy to benefit the ruling class.

Over the past 15 years we have reported on dirty deals and corporate propaganda, trained hundreds of movement researchers to map elite power, and maintained our database of more than 1.8 million relationships between powerful people and organizations.

Today we’re excited to share some highlights from the past 15 years of our work, but we also have our eyes on the future.

We are in this fight for the long haul.

[Will you join us and help us to raise $15,000 so we can continue to bring our hard-hitting investigations and critical strategic and research capacity to campaigns across the country]([link removed])?

15 Years of LittleSis

2009

LittleSis [launches]([link removed]) with funding from the [Sunlight Foundation]([link removed]). The project aims to bring together power structure researchers from investigative journalists to social justice activists to amateur dirt diggers into a community where disparate research areas are connected together to create a big and detailed map of the powers that be.

2010

LittleSis starts publishing independent research reports, including “[Fishing for Taxpayer Cash”]([link removed]), an exposé on Bass Pro’s practices of extracting subsidies from cities seeking economic development, which leads to Buffalo, NY canceling plans to subsidize a Bass Pro store downtown.

2011

LittleSis publishes [“The Committee to Scam NY”]([link removed]), an investigation of the elite corporate networks mobilized to push austerity measures promoted by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo.

2012

Our series of “frackademia” reports revealed how the oil and gas industry uses the perceived independence and authority of universities to disguise pro-fracking advocacy as independent research. Our reports drove the closure of an industry-funded institute at [SUNY Buffalo]([link removed]) and the resignation of frackademic leaders and new conflict of interest policies at [University of Texas, Austin]([link removed]).

2013

[“Conflicts of Interest in the Syria Debate”]([link removed]) exposes major newspaper and cable news networks’ continued practice of bringing on “experts” to agitate for war without disclosing those experts’ roles at weapons companies and arms industry-funded think tanks.

2014

LittleSis launches [Oligrapher]([link removed]), a tool for visualizing information in the LittleSis database to create graphics of corporate power networks, inspired by [They Rule]([link removed]) and the artist [Mark Lombardi]([link removed]).

2015

LittleSis releases comprehensive review of over [130 fracking studies]([link removed]) that were used to push for fracking expansion in Pennsylvania and finds that 76% were industry-connected and only one included a consideration of health concerns.

2016

“Trump’s Billionaires Club” series at our news site, Eyes on the Ties, profiles billionaire Trump donors and advisors [John Paulson]([link removed]) and [Stephen Schwarzman]([link removed]).

2017

We released the first LittleSis “[Map the Power]([link removed])” toolkit that shares tools and resources for independent researchers to build their research skills and strategy, kicking off our efforts to build movement research capacity that continues today with our public training series. We also released our first [zine]([link removed])!

2018

LittleSis [investigation]([link removed]) into major Buffalo landlord Nick Sinatra’s failure to pay property taxes recoups more than $1 million owed to the City of Buffalo and Erie County.

2019

Private prison industry faces a [$2.35 billion funding gap]([link removed]) as organizing by coalitions like Families Belong Together and [Corporate Backers of Hate]([link removed]) compels big banks that had lent billions to private prison corporations to end future lending to the industry.

2020

LittleSis research on [billionaires’ alarming wealth growth]([link removed]) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic fuels campaigns for increased taxes on the ultra-rich to fund investment in healthcare, education, and working families.

2021

LittleSis and Color of Change release research on [police foundations]([link removed]), exposing how major corporations have used private non-profits to channel money, weapons, and technology to police departments and buy influence over police priorities. Several major corporations, such as Coca-Cola, terminate their relationships with police foundations.

2022

LittleSis, We the People Michigan, and Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition release [research]([link removed]) on DTE Energy’s profiteering and pollution in a campaign that wins a 90% reduction to DTE rate hike proposal, saving ratepayers $300 million.

2023

Activists with the All Eyes on Yass campaign crash the elite [Pennsylvania Society weekend]([link removed]) in New York City and call on politicians to break ties with private equity billionaire Jeff Yass, who has spent millions advancing a right-wing agenda in Pennsylvania.

2024

LittleSis launches [Research Tools for Organizers]([link removed]), a series of free public trainings designed to build capacity for power research within the movement by training organizers to strategically use open source databases and tools for campaign research. Over 850 people joined us for this series!

Thank you so much for your support over all these years. With your help, we’re looking forward to building on this foundation for a just future for all.

To the next 15 years of mapping the power,

The team at LittleSis

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LittleSis

266 Elmwood Ave #191
Buffalo, NY 14222


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