AMERICA IS IN AN INFORMATION CRISIS
DISINFORMATION IS THREATENING PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, SOCIAL TRUST AND DEMOCRACY.
OUR PUBLIC HEALTH, DEMOCRACY AND TRUST IN ONE ANOTHER DEPEND ON
The Good Information Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2021 to tackle the growing information crisis in America that is undermining social trust, harming public health, and damaging our democracy.
The mission of the Good Information Foundation is to increase the flow of good, factual information online to counter and rebut the spread of misinformation and disinformation. We do this by creating, incubating, funding and lifting up fact-based solutions, voices, programs and initiatives that can be quickly developed, tested and deployed at scale. We are on offense against disinformation.
The Good Information Foundation will incubate and invest in efforts that:
- Develop and deliver factual, relevant and local information to specific populations who live in news deserts, are under-reached by trusted news organizations, and who are vulnerable to being reached with bad information
- Develop training programs and curriculum for young journalists, content creators and organizers committed to building a better internet and fact-based media ecosystem
- Produce new research, case studies and thought leadership that identify, measure and elevate new solutions to countering and diluting the effects of disinformation on vulnerable communities
- Develop civic education, training and communication programs that help increase informed civic participation among lower-voting and non-voting communities
- Provide direct support to mission-aligned organizations and individuals working at the forefront of the information crisis to scale tested efforts to increase the flow of good information online
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The Good Information Foundation will build a network of local freelance editors, reporters, content producers and community organizers committed to producing and distributing factual, value-driven news and content to the communities in which they live. The Good Information Foundation will compensate them to publish their original reporting online and offer the content free of charge to any global, national, state or local news organizations looking to bolster their reporting capacity and coverage within those communities and geographies. |
PROGRAMS
VOTING COUNTS
Voting Counts will create and launch a nationwide advertising campaign to restore trust in our elections. This will involve not only debunking the conspiracy theories around the 2020 election, but also pioneering new ways of rebuilding trust in our election system. This is a major effort, requiring deep research, message development, and testing before launching a focused and sustained national campaign.
GOOD INFORMATION CIVIC NEWS INITIATIVE
Through the Civic News Initiative (CNI), the Foundation will fund and organize a network of local and niche media properties, freelance reporters, editors and social content producers to distribute factual, values-driven news and content to the communities in which they live that effectively counter and dilute the impact of disinformation. The Foundation will compensate publishers and freelancers and influencers to publish their original reporting online and offer the content free of charge to any global, national, state or local news organizations looking to bolster their reporting capacity and coverage within those communities and geographies.
FINANCIALS
The Good Information Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization committed to financial accountability and transparency. We rely on funding from individual donors, and public and private foundations. Contributions or gifts to Good Information are deductible for federal income tax purposes as charitable contributions to the extent allowable by law. For more information or to support our work please email info@goodinfous.org.
GOOD INFO LABS
Good Info Labs actively combats disinformation by pushing factual information, media literacy and civic education content to vulnerable audiences in order to inoculate them from disinformation and increase their informed civic participation.
Our program work will not only impact our under-reached target audiences directly, but will also provide us with case studies, best practices and other thought leadership to share with the broader democracy, journalism, and counter-disinformation communities.
PROBLEM: >20% US ADULTS RARELY SEE NEWS – BUT OFTEN SEE RUMORS AND DISINFORMATION.
These “Passive Information Consumers” are worried by rumors and lies and aren’t sure who to believe. Their trust in media and democratic institutions fades, as does their will to follow news and participate in elections. They aren’t ideological.
The journalism and information that would most help them doesn’t reach them. They are anxious, intimidated and unhappy about feeling uninformed. The good news is that data shows that they are relatively easy to educate. They pay attention, and remember. There’s no need to change their minds from their existing beliefs, because they don’t have strongly held beliefs to begin with.
OUR SOLUTION: PUSH NEWS TO THEM.
We can target this audience with news and information that inoculates them against disinformation, builds media literacy, and establishes long term habits of following current events and discerning truth from fiction.
This has the triple benefits of:
- Educating and informing people.
- Reducing vulnerability to disinformation.
- Creating a framework for robust evaluation of real world impact.
THE EROSION OF TRUST
It’s been over a year since Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. Many of us thought that, over time, the unfounded belief that the presidential election of 2020 was fraudulent would fade away. Some of us thought that calling the conspiracy theories about the election the “Big Lie,” would strip the claim of its power. But that has proven not to be the case. In some ways, the power of this idea is growing. Almost every Republican candidate for office at every level feels compelled to parrot the Big Lie.
The number of people who believe President Biden’s victory was illegitimate or stolen has held steady, even increasing in some demographics. Polls show that 78% of Republicans and 81% of Trump voters believe that President Biden “did not legitimately win the election.” An alarming plurality of independent voters agree with them. All this, accompanied by GOP efforts to restrict the right to vote and gerrymander their districts, stokes further doubt in the safety and security of our elections. It is clear: calling it the Big Lie is woefully insufficient.
All of this disinformation is causing a fundamental breach in the trust Americans have in our electoral system. If people lose faith in our elections, that undermines their belief in another hallmark of our democracy: the peaceful and orderly transfer of power after an election.
TAKING ON THE ATTACKS
Aside from calling the attacks on the 2020 election the Big Lie, there is no organized large-scale effort to establish the legitimacy of the last election and to assure Americans of the legitimacy of the next. Resources are being directed toward crucial efforts to fight voter suppression, but virtually nothing is being done to defend the legitimacy of our electoral infrastructure. If we don’t attempt to restore trust in our electoral system, all the efforts to make it fairer and freer will be undermined. We must rebuild the fundamental belief, long taken for granted, that we can trust our electoral system even when we don’t like the results of the election. That’s the foundation and chief guardrail of our democracy.
Voting Counts proposes to create and launch a nationwide advertising campaign to restore trust in our elections. This will involve not only debunking the conspiracy theories around the 2020 election, but pioneering new ways of rebuilding trust in our election system. If we can erode — even by a few points — the level of support for the Big Lie – and can increase — even by a few points — confidence in our electoral system, we can reshape our current political landscape.
For more information or to support Voting Counts please email