Short Summary
North Carolina Common Sense aims to create greater fiscal transparency and more efficient government policies in the state of North Carolina. It is completely led and staffed by students from Duke, UNC and Elon. In 2013, North Carolina received a D grade in terms of government transparency and ability for citizens to access budgetary information. North Carolina is currently the eighth least fiscally transparent state in the USA. It is our goal to work with think tanks, government officials and university professors to help solve this situation while simultaneously making this state better. In order to do this, we need funding to build an easy to use, comprehensive website so that we can begin disseminating our visualizations.
What We Need & What You Get
In order to build a website that has the ability to upload visualizations, link to relevant articles and sites, and provide space for forums and open feedback, we need significant funding. Most of this money will go towards the design and development of the website while the rest will go towards funding visualizations that are currently being planned and created. One of the great aspects of our organization is that we have extremely low overhead costs as we are inherently a student run organization. Thus, all of your funding goes directly towards accomplishing our goals. If you fund the campaign, we are going to provide some great perks:
- $20 will get you a great North Carolina Common Sense pen
- $100 will grant you access to our current research and a North Carolina Common Sense pen.
- $250 will grant you access to a presentation by one of our esteemed partners, either a famed scholar or former politician, as well as a North Carolina Common Sense pen.
If we do not reach our goal, the donations will go completely towards designing as comprehensive a website as we can afford. This is our first priority; a quality website will ensure our continued prospects for growth.
The Impact
The impact of a contribution is endless. As students, gaining both financial and emotional support from the community is essential for us to reach our goals. North Carolina Common Sense was born out of a love for our state. We are hoping that the resources and extensive connections we have already established will allow us to become a beacon of change for students in other states and help create even more internal support within North Carolina. If even one policy and transparency effort succeeds, we will have contributed to the great state of North Carolina and helped to support the livelihoods of all students and citizens. We have already created 7 successful visualizations and we hope to have 40 completed by May 2014. If you have any questions or suggestions on research that we are doing, please feel free to contact us at shb18@duke.edu. We always welcome new suggestions and members, regardless of financial support. We are a collaborative and inclusive community.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you are not yet willing to contribute, we completely understand. Please still help us by:
- Getting the word out and helping us advertise our campaign!
- Using the Indiegogo share tools!
- Giving us suggestions for new topics and joining our organization!