Through better journalism — to greater public understanding and more effective government

Founded in 1999, Understanding Government is a non-profit foundation dedicated to improving government effectiveness by deepening public knowledge about the executive branch of government. 

Our goal is to improve the way journalists report on government and thereby to increase public understanding of executive branch programs, priorities, and problems.   We are interested in policy formation, but we are mainly committed to improving the way government implements policy and expends public resources.

We report on government, highlight the best journalism about government, and commission special reports about different challenges America faces, including ways to overcome them.

Preventive journalism is a guiding principle at Understanding Government.  Preventive journalism is reporting that finds problems before they become crises.  It is investigative journalism before the scandal breaks, before the levies break, before taxpayers’ money is wasted, before the public health and safety is threatened.  It includes solutions and follow-on reporting to see which solutions are working and which are leading us further astray.