The executive branch is where policy is supposed to be turned into action.  Yet the public knows little about what happens there — about which agencies are doing useful work and which are wasting the public’s money and time.  If the public gains better knowledge of the workings of the executive branch, it will take a more informed view about government and government accountability.  Understanding Government is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving the performance of the executive branch by helping journalists do a better job of covering it.  We raise funds from a variety of private sources in order to achieve this mission. These funds support the three major activities of the foundation:

1.  Understanding Government’s website, www.understandinggov.org, which is a clearinghouse for information on the work of government and a forum for discussion and debate;

2.  Commissioned reports from leading journalists on current issues of importance in politics and government affairs (see reports);

3.  The Prize for Preventive Journalism, an annual prize awarded to the journalist who writes the strongest article or series bringing attention to a current social problem before it reaches the crisis stage, and describing solutions that can prevent it from becoming a major crisis.  (read more here)