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Math & Democracy

EIN 83-1486591 · Seattle, WA

Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.

LegitimacyPassesRegistration and standingFinancial healthStrong100 out of 100GovernanceFair63 out of 100Impact evidenceDescribes programsHow well its results are evidenced

What it says it does

To bring data science to deliberative democracy.

Income
$2.4 million
Spending
$548,914
Spent on programs
66%
Reserves
45.4 months of spending
Largest source of income
donations and private grants, 100%
Employees
6
Volunteers
10
Highest pay
$113,495, executive directorpresident

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Financial health

Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 90% of charities in its peer group (human services, $1m to $10m).

  • Reserves

    35 of 35

    Spendable reserves would cover 45.4 months of spending.

  • Debt

    20 of 20

    It owes 2% of what it owns.

  • Living within its means

    15 of 15

    Income exceeded spending by 77% of income.

  • Income trend

    15 of 15

    Income rose 3595% on the year before.

  • Spending floor

    15 of 15

    66% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 3 cents.

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Governance

Fair: 63 out of 100. Higher than 15% of charities in its peer group (human services, $1m to $10m).

  • Independent board

    18 of 25

    2 of 3 voting board members are independent.

  • Conflict of interest policy

    15 of 15

    Has a written conflict of interest policy.

  • Whistleblower policy

    0 of 8

    Reports no written whistleblower policy.

  • Record keeping policy

    0 of 7

    Reports no written policy on keeping and destroying records.

  • Board minutes

    5 of 5

    Keeps minutes of board meetings.

  • Board sees the tax return

    10 of 10

    Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.

  • Pay set independently

    5 of 5

    Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.

  • Independent check of accounts

    0 of 15

    Its accounts were not audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.

  • No reported misuse

    10 of 10

    Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Impact evidence

Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.

Programs described in its return (2)
  1. $363,722 spent. See Schedule O
  2. Software Maintenance & Development: The Computational Democracy Project (CompDem) designs, engineers, and maintains Polis, an open source, real-time software system for gathering, analyzing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words, enabled by advanced statistics and machine learning. Polis facilitates large, productive online conversations to unlock breakthrough points of consensus on deadlocked political issues. Polis is a powerful platform for collective self-representation, enabling the construction of an interactive model of the public opinion landscape.CompDem hosts the home instance of Polis, providing free use of the tool to the world. Worldwide on www.pol.is over 600,000 people have participated in deliberative conversations casting over 15.8 million votes on user-generated statements. We steward the AGPL v3 Polis codebase by maintaining stability, security, and deployability; reconciling forks from contributors (including multiple nation states); and coordinating the roadmap for feature development. In 2024 we overhauled the Polis user interface text based on field UX research, added 5 new UI language translations, and integrated Googles Perspective API, which aids human moderators by automatically flagging toxic statements.Facilitation Services: CompDem supports partners to use Polis ethically, rigorously, and creatively. CompDems pro bono work focuses on groups who are advancing democracy and pursuing self-determination. We Provide support and services to governments, First Nations, civil society organizations, social movements, geographic communities, communities based on membership and/or identity, think tanks, independent media outlets, and academic researchers who are undertaking the building of future democratic systems. In 2024 we collaborated with Google Jigsaw to run a pilot program in Bowling Green, KY, in advance of a major community engagement BG2050, that was run in Feb-March 2025. Over the course of the 33 days, 7,890 local residents shared 3,940 unique ideas for the future of Warren County and submitted over a million votes on Polis.Education, Outreach & Networking: The Computational Democracy Project teaches people to apply data science towards problems of civic engagement and collective decision-making. CompDem provides ongoing education in the form of published How-To content and custom training. CompDem maintains an extensive and growing knowledge base for those implementing Polis, as well as an open data repository and open source Jupyter notebooks for academics and data scientists participating in the development of methods.CompDem supports a network of data scientists, civil servants, and ethicists to operate as a community of practice and convenes advisory boards of professionals in relevant fields and other stakeholders. CompDem interviews facilitators around the world, and we maintain a list of narratively written case studies on https://compdemocracy.org/case-studies/CompDem undertakes outreach in the form of public speaking and writing. In 2024, Board President Colin Megill spoke at Google Jigsaw and Stanford University.

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Legitimacy checks

  1. Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.

    Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

    Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.

  2. Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.

    Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.

    Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.

  3. Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.

    On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.

    Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.

  4. Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.

    Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.

    Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.

  5. How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.

    Recognized by the IRS since February 2021.

    Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.

  6. Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.

    Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.

    Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.

Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.