Hunter Index: An Explainer
Hunter Index, The Index, Politicians, Government Officials: Let's Talk Semantics & What It Is We Offer You - Our Audience
As Hunter Index has gained more readers and subscribers, our editor, Jay Hunter decided it’s time to review the elevator pitch and (re)introduce the organization to you. We promise to get back to our normal editorial coverage soon.
So, what is in this edition? An introduction to the Hunter Index as well as some transparency behind the organization and our startup efforts.
Hunter Index: What is It?
When we say Hunter Index, we are referring to these the two things:
Company name: like any other business, Hunter Index is officially incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are in the process of obtaining a 501(c)3 non-profit status with the Internal Revenue Service.
Publication name: our current product aka a news website and newsletter currently hosted on Substack is also arrogantly named Hunter Index.
The Index: What is It?
The Index is shorthand for our organization’s exclusive database of the $4 trillion collective “portfolio” of 600-plus public officials’ personal finances.
This database is fueled by financial disclosure data obtained through official government sources available to the public.
We spend over 3,000 hours per year updating, maintaining and (adding new members to) the database. Our data quality assurance experts review every politician’s forms and audit our data collection team’s efforts before any data becomes available to you.
You can view our beta preview of a subset of the database here.
Index members include: members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, select federal agency officials, and other “politicians” or civil servants who may be elected or appointed to a public office.
The database is managed by a team of data collection, processing and quality assurance experts who collectively have more than 20 years experience working with political personal financial data at organizations like The Economist, CQ Roll Call, The Washington Post & Los Angeles Times.
Our data team is constantly adding new members to the Index as we obtain more data.
These efforts are incredibly time consuming and expensive but are aided based on donations & financial support from readers like you.
Why a Non-Profit & What’s Your Mission?
Our board of directors decided to apply for 501(c)3 non-profit status due to the original goal and overall purpose of Hunter Index.
Mission Statement
Hunter Index explains how government officials’ personal finances & policy decisions impact the public.
We believe that a non-profit structure better serves our mission to educate the public on their politicians’ wealth and any potential conflicts of interest. We strive to be nonpartisan, transparent, and fact-based in our reporting.
If you’d like to read our organization’s “Pitch Deck” that discusses our goals for this year, you can view it here.
Why Does It Matter?
Please be informed of your politicians’ personal finances.
That’s our desired outcome of our work at the Hunter Index. We believe it is important for constituents to understand how their government officials’ personal finances may affect their policy making decisions as well as understanding the potential wide disparity between their wealth and that of the people in their home state or district.
Remember our favorite questions: Would you make a decision that costs your family money for the public good? Isn’t that what we ask of our government officials?
Managing Hunter Index and its exclusive database which makes reporting like this article possible is extremely expensive and labor intensive.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help fund this non-profit news organization led by a disabled journalist or help grow our readership by sharing this publication with others.