Center for Responsive Politics


The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-profit, nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C., that tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy. It maintains a public online database of its information.
Its website, OpenSecrets.org, allows users to track federal campaign contributions and lobbying by lobbying firms, individual lobbyists, industry, federal agency, and bills. Other resources include the personal financial disclosures of all members of the U.S. Congress, the president, and top members of the administration. Users can also search by ZIP codes to learn how their neighbors are allocating their political contributions.

History

CRP was founded in 1983 by retired U.S. Senators Frank Church of Idaho, of the Democratic Party, and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, of the Republican Party. It was officially incorporated on February 1, 1984. In the 1980s, Church and Scott launched a "money-in-politics" project, whose outcome consisted of large, printed books. Their first book, published in 1988, analyzed spending patterns in congressional elections from 1974 through 1986, including 1986 soft money contributions in five states. It was titled Spending in Congressional Elections: A Never-Ending Spiral.

Activities

In 1996, CRP launched its online counterpart, OpenSecrets.org. The website is a clearinghouse for data and analysis regarding money in politics.
CRP hosts a Revolving Door database which documents the individuals who have passed between the public sector and K Street.
In 2015, the News & Observer published an op-ed by Robert Maguire, the political nonprofits investigator at CRP, that was critical of a 501 social welfare organization for spending $4.7 million in 2014 on political ads in support of Thom Tillis, Senate candidate from North Carolina.

Funding

Major donors to the Center for Responsive Politics include the Sunlight Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Open Society Institute, the Joyce Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. At the end of 2017, the organization reported $1.44 million in annual revenue and $2.92 million in net assets.

Staff

has been the CRP's executive director since December 2006, having served as the CRP's research director. She joined the organization in 1989.