CivicBand is joining the Raft Foundation
CivicBand was founded to help communities speak truth to power through civic government transparency. We believe that local governing bodies have at least as much impact on our communities as national governments, if not more. We’re partnering with the Raft Foundation, our new fiscal sponsor, to make sure that both our mission and the data that powers CivicBand are protected and supported. This partnership will allow us to take donations as a 501(c)(3) and grow sustainably for years to come.
CivicBand, today, is the largest collection of civic meeting data for the United States of America and Canada. Critical information that was stuck in confusing systems full of PDFs is now searchable, linkable, and shareable. We’re increasing transparency into the decisions being made by over 700 municipalities, in all fifty US States, Puerto Rico, and a majority of Canadian provinces. As we continue to grow, adding more data sources and tools, the ability to continue our mission sustainably becomes more and more important. We’ve known for a while now that we wanted to partner with a fiscal sponsor to keep public data in the public trust, and we wanted to make sure that our partner is the best possible fit for what we’re trying to do.
Raft Foundation is exactly the right partner for us, and we’re excited to be joining them. Their focus on community care, community technology, movement infrastructure, and societal transformation captures everything we’re trying to do at CivicBand. Nathan Hewitt, Raft’s Founder and President, has been amazing to work with. He understood what CivicBand is about right from the beginning, and CivicBand is excited to grow alongside his vision for the Raft Foundation.
If you would like to be a part of CivicBand’s work, the best way to help right now is supporting us on Open Collective. Anything you can contribute helps, and we’ve set up some small thank-yous for donating. If you want to increase your donation’s impact, or if thinking about making a donation makes you internally yell “In this economy?!?”, then introducing CivicBand to journalists, activists, and potential donors is an incredibly valuable way to help.
In the spirit of transparency that is at the core of both CivicBand and the Raft Foundation, our immediate plans with financial support are to pay our hosting bills and ideally send our founder, Philip James, to SRCCON so he can connect with a collaborative group of data-minded journalists. If we’re able to raise enough through donations, we’ll be able to bring on our founder full time, and really accelerate what CivicBand can accomplish.
With your support and the help of the Raft Foundation, 2025 is shaping up to be an incredible year for CivicBand. Please reach out with any questions or suggestions, and let’s get going on the civic transparency our communities deserve!