PPF Blog

PPF Projects at PDF16

We have three non-profit projects that help “interested bystanders” become civic actors.

Get in touch to support our work in 2016, free & open-source & open-data as always.

NYC Councilmatic – track and share everything in the NYC Council.

  • Councilmatic_alerts_2Impact: new public comments for local engagement, with participating Council offices and community groups.
  • Next: email alerts for local issues, and rolling out to more cities (coming soon, mockup at right)

(The Chicago and Philadelphia versions of Councilmatic are closely related, but not operated by PPF. Hey friends DataMade & Mjumbe.)

AskThem – the only questions-and-answers platform for every federal & state elected official.Trump_widget_askthem

  • Impact: public dialogue for open debates around the 2016 elections, with candidates responding to popular questions. See our UI & dev needs!

OpenGovernment.org – see everyone who represents you in government, all in one place. GovKit_datascape

  • Impact: a new resource for tracking elected officials, finding their official contact info, and watchdogging campaign contribution data. Crucial social wisdom.
  • Next: an Open Civic Data API, down to the city and local levels of government, to support widely-requested “civic features” in social media and civic tech apps.

We urgently seek funding support in 2016 to keep these sites up & running ahead of new funding opportunities in 2017.

Here’s the deal. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 non-profit (annual budget: just $75,000, probably about two percent of major non-profits in our field, less than one full-time employee). We make hugely popular web resources for “interested bystanders” and issue activists, filling a need for open infrastructure for civic participation and closing the feedback loop of local engagement.

We are creating unique non-profit value, with opportunities to scale, and an earned-revenue plan behind each of the above for sustainability. See more of where we’re headed & what’s still needed to deliver public priorities into government entities for an official response, like 311 issues.

More detailed fundraising prospectus available upon request. Simply email me, david @ ppolitics dot org. @ppolitics, I’m based at the Civic Hall co-working space, easy to reach and happy to talk at #PDF16.

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