Some companies have bravely built their brands on corporate transparency. And have succeeded well because of it. But for every Tom's or Zappos, or Method , the rest of the world still needs a watchdog.
The same is doubly true for politicians and presidents.
Enter the Government Accountability Institute. This watchdog organization is calling out politicians on both sides with the release of their findings from an eight month study on Internet Campaign Fundraising. It's called Campaign Funding Risks.
This is quite an illuminating app. Because now you can track just how corrupt vulnerable your states politicians are are when it comes to campaign donations. According to the key facts, almost 48% of congress does not require validation by credit card, or have any means of verifying their donors addresses. This means nearly half of congress could potentially be accepting fraudulent donations, most of them from overseas.
Enter a zipcode on the interactive map and see who is in the clear and who isn't, based on the GAI's extensive study.
For the political nerds out there, you can download their full report. The short version is, half of congress (and their third party organizations are wasteful, doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as they get it. Here are some key facts:
Of the 446 house and senate members who have an online donation page, 47.3% do not require the three or four digit credit card security number (officially called the card verification verification value, or the CVV) for internet contributions.
The institute uncovered and identified an individual who established websites posing as both the Republican and Democratic national committees. The individual has operated the phony websites for years and has accepted thousands of dollars in "Donations." GAI's finding were detailed by ABC news.
Yeah it's kinda sucky to pull the curtain back and see the sordid money-grubbing peep show that is the current "transparent" administration. But until there are more Tom's and Zappo's in the world, and until the current crop of politicians are removed and replaced with people who believe what they say, at least we can keep track of 'em.