Public Accountability Initiative

The Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) is an American nonprofit watchdog organization investigating corporate and government accountability.^[1][2][3] Founded in 2008 and based in Buffalo, New York, it operates the volunteer-run online database LittleSis, described by its co-founder "an involuntary Facebook for influential people".^[4][5][6] LittleSis, a play on the authoritarian Big Brother from George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, was funded by a grant from the Sunlight Foundation and launched in January 2009.^[7][4] By August of that year it included profiles and financial information on over 28,000 individuals and 10,000 organizations.^[4]

References

1. Woodall, Candy (October 28, 2015). "Wolf administration says new study on pipeline task force is 'way off'". PennLive.
2. Begos, Kevin (June 16, 2013). "Report faults Heinz Endowments head for gas ties". WTAE. Associated Press.
3. Summerson, Mia (March 25, 2017). "Public accountability report takes aim at National Fuel". Niagara Gazette.
4. Watson, Stephen T. (August 30, 2009). "LittleSis keeps Big Brother in his place. Web site exposes ties among the powerful". The Buffalo News.
5. Estes, Adam Clark (July 13, 2009). "How do health care lobby dollars match influence in Congress?". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
6. Jaffe, Sarah (September 1, 2017). "LittleSis is Watching the One Percent". The Baffler.
7. Klonick, Kate (March 19, 2009). "Profiles of Power". Columbia Journalism Review.

External links

• Official website
• LittleSis.org