Who are We?
Founded in 2024, Political Wallet is a nonprofit news organization covering the personal finances of United States politicians led by editor and founder Jay Hunter. Combined, the team has decades of experience covering government data professionally as journalists and data quality and integrity experts.
We believe that every individual has inherent biases and as pragmatists, we believe that unbiased reporting is impossible. Therefore, as an organization, we will disclose any potential conflicts of interest or bias when applicable at the top of any article.
Our reporting is available for free with no paywalls in support of our mission — explaining how government officials’ personal finances & policy decisions impact the public.
Our nonprofit model allows us to support our reporting through donations and paid supporters of this Substack.
Our Board of Directors
Christina Bellantoni
Director of the Annenberg Media Center at the University of Southern California
Adam Kurstin
Data Architect Professional
Sarah G. Lawrence
Data Editor & Civic Educator
Chris Nehls
Congressional Reform & Philanthropy Strategist
Jay Hunter
Editor, Political Wallet
Our Corrections Policy
We strive to always be factually accurate. If we discover an error in our reporting, we will revise the article and clearly state the correction and reason for the change at the top of the article rather than bury it at the end.
If you discover any errors, please contact our editor at jay[at]hunterindex.org.
Generally, we follow the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Our Editorial Independence Policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.
Our Donor & Financial Transparency Policy
We subscribe to the Institute for Nonprofit News’ donor and financial transparency policy:
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust, we do not pay certain taxes. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.
Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Note: Hunter Index D/B/A Political Wallet is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization as granted by the Internal Revenue Service. Hunter Index is incorporated as Nonstock Corporation as recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
