“Transparency means that something can be seen through. When we talk about transparency in government, we mean that citizens must be able to “see through” its workings, to know exactly what goes on when public officials transact public business. Government that is not transparent is more prone to corruption and undueinfluence because there is no public oversight of decision making.”

Charitable organizations

“Consumers have the right to know basic information about charitable organizations. This information includes:

• the official name of the charitable organization and its principal place of business; 
• the organization’s registration status with the Bureau of Charitable Organizations; 
• an accurate description of the organization’s charitable purpose; 
• how the organization intends to use donated resources; and 
• financial information, such as the organization’s financial statements and IRS 990 returns that explain how donated resources were used for a given fiscal year.”

(SOURCE: Pennsylvania Department of State Bureau of Charitable Organizations Website.)

Schools

An ideal school transparency checklist would meet at least two criteria: inclusion of relevant information and interpretation of data whose meaning or importance is not self-evident. Bonus points might be awarded for trend data (e.g., on tax increases in recent years) or benchmarks and cross-district patterns (e.g., tax and salary data for nearby districts or test scores from districts with similar demographics.

Financial transparency

Are the following documents available online and readable with widely available software?

Financial documents

• Annual budget
• Check registers
• Property tax rates (millage)
• Income or other tax rates

Process-related materials

• Scheduled board meetings (including committees)
• Board meeting agendas (including committees)
• Minutes of meetings
• Board policies
• Board contact data
• Administration contact data

Key budget components

• Superintendent salary
• Salary schedule, teachers
• Union contract(s)
• Formal board and union proposals in current negotiations

Academic performance documents

• District “Report Card”
• Test scores
• Dropout/graduation rates

(SOURCE: Sunshine Review, “Sunshine Review is about state and local government transparency, engaged citizens, and holding government officials accountable. The Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares information about state and local transparency using a 10-point Transparency Checklist to evaluate 6,000 state and local government websites. Sunshine Review is a non-profit that collaborates with individuals and organizations across America to promote state and local transparency.”