US Organizations
Organizations of interest whose focus is on public integrity issues at the national level or in other states
Association of Inspectors General (AIG)
AIG is a professional membership organization largely comprised of current and former Inspectors General in the U.S., but open to others interested in the work of oversight agencies in the U.S. The AIG website includes its Green Book, Principles and Standards for Offices of Inspector General, which is a thorough guide to how IGs should conduct their offices and investigations. It also serves as model legislation for establishing an Inspector General office and a directory of U.S. oversight agencies.
Better Government Association
The Better Government Association (BGA) is a nonprofit watchdog organization led by veteran journalists dedicated to spotlighting corruption in Illinois. Activities include in-depth investigations, promoting policy reforms, and citizen education. Together with Alper Services LLC, a Chicago-based consultancy for financial and insurance services, BGA produces a periodic Integrity Index, which ranks and assesses each U.S. state for its compliance with best practices for public access to information, open meeting laws, whistleblower protections, and management of conflicts of interest. Read the most recent index released in 2013.
Brennan Center for Justice
A research and advocacy center at New York University, the Brennan Center covers a range of legal and political issues related to advancing democracy and egalitarianism in the U.S. The Brennan Center’s money and politics issue area promotes public integrity reforms on issues like campaign finance and disclosure laws with a special focus on implementing New York City’s public campaign finance model statewide.
Center for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity is a major nonpartisan and nonprofit investigative journalism organization in the United States dedicated to exposing abuses of power and breaches of duty by powerful public and private institutions. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a CPI project, involves an expansive global network of journalists exposing corruption. Major topics include tax havens, illicit trade, and international bribery. The consortium publishes a regularly updated blog of global corruption stories called The Global Muckraker.
City Ethics
City Ethics is a small nonprofit organization founded in Jacksonville, Fla. in 2000 to provide a centralized storehouse of information and resources for local government ethics programs in the United States. City Ethics hosts useful, free resources for municipal integrity management, including model ethics codes, handbooks and training materials, and best practices. In addition, the City Ethics team provides consulting services to help communities implement or improve ethics programs. There is also a blog and public discussion forum.
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE)
CIGIE gathers training and other information for and about the more than 70 federal Inspectors General in the United States and contains a directory of all federal IGs at the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency's website.
Common Cause
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1970 advocating for open and accountable government in the U.S., with 400,000 members and 38 state chapters. The affiliated Common Cause Education Fund conducts research, education, and outreach on related issues. Sample advocacy goals include new whistleblower protections, increased lobbying disclosure requirements, and supporting state-level public campaign finance.
Ethics Resource Center (ERC)
Founded in 1922 in Washington, the ERC is a nonprofit research center dedicated to supporting the development of high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions. The ERC has a free bimonthly electronic newsletter about current topics in organizational ethics as well as various webcasts and online materials by the ERC team, outside sources, and ERC research fellows. The ERC also conducts periodic surveys of ethics practices in the U.S., some of which are publicly released. Although the ERC focuses primarily on private organizations, many of its research findings apply to public entities as well.
FACT Coalition
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition promotes an honest and fair corporate tax code, greater transparency in corporate ownership and operations, and commonsense policies to combat the facilitation of money laundering and other criminal activity by the legitimate financial system. The Coalition consists of civil society representatives from small business, labor, government watchdog, faith-based, human rights, anti-corruption, public-interest, and international development organizations. FACT is dedicated to eliminating loopholes in the United States’ tax code that incentivize corporations to shelter profits and jobs abroad, strengthening and standardizing anti-money laundering laws, and requiring ownership information of all business entities be made available to law enforcement and the public.
Integrity Florida
ntegrity Florida was established in Tallahassee in 2012 as an independent nonprofit research institute. Integrity Florida conducts and publishes investigative reports and other research aimed at promoting integrity and exposing public corruption in Florida. Subjects include access to information, ethics reform, campaign finance reform, and reducing cronyism.
Levin Center at Wayne Law
The goal of the Levin Center at Wayne Law is to educate future attorneys, business leaders, legislators and public servants on their role overseeing public and private institutions and using oversight as an instrument of change. Through academic programming, training and scholarship, the center will equip future lawyers, legislators and leaders with an understanding of how effective legislative oversight can lead to significant and meaningful changes in public policy.
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University
The center was established in 1986 in Santa Clara, Calif. with government ethics as one of its five focus areas. Free online materials include a training course on the basics of government ethics as well as articles, case studies, commentaries, webcasts, and podcasts. The center conducts a quarterly roundtable on emerging issues related to public ethics in local government and targeted ethics training for local government officials.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
The NCSL was established in 1975 as a bipartisan support center for state legislators and their staffs in the U.S. The NCSL’s Ethics Center, founded in 1999, compiles information on ethics laws, committees, and commissions in all 50 states. In addition, the center has state-by-state charts of rules and practices governing conflict of interest, lobbying, and gifts. The NCSL also provides guidance on legislation and campaign finance practices.
The National Institute on Money in State Politics
Based in Montana, the Institute maintains a searchable database of campaign contributions and lobbyist disclosures among each state, along with a growing trove of local-level data.
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University
The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics is a research center focused on practical ethics, sponsoring events, fellows, courses, and research. The center’s Research Lab, launched by Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig in 2009, is a five-year research project to conduct intensive normative and empirical investigations into the problem of institutional corruption, defined as “the economy of influence” that impedes institutions and degrades public trust. The Lab’s research focuses on gathering data, gauging perceptions, and determining causes, effects, and possible solutions. The Research Lab website includes publications, talks, blogs, podcasts, and teaching tools.