After 6 years and thousands of public records requests, MuckRock turns nonprofit

By Kelly Hinchcliffe, Poynter, June 15, 2016

In the past year, MuckRock has helped reporters and others file more than 10,000 public records requests to government agencies. Now, the site will be posting some of its own public records since it has officially become a nonprofit organization.

MuckRock founder Michael Morisy made the announcement Wednesday and said he hopes the site’s new nonprofit status can lead to more crowdfunded public records projects.

I asked Morisy about why the change was necessary, how MuckRock will handle transparency within its own organization and what’s next for the website that’s dedicated to public records.

For people who don’t know, how did MuckRock get started?

MuckRock started in 2010 as a way to make public records easier for busy reporters: We help anyone file, track, and share their public records requests, and over the years we've added additional tools like crowdfunding for requests and projects. We're now publishing daily original reporting, such as a deep-dive into the private prison system, and working with users around the globe to help newsrooms, activists, and the general public better understand governmental operations.

Read more here.