Who is PAI? What is LittleSis?

The Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) aka LittleSis is a nonprofit watchdog research organization focused on corporate and government accountability. We conduct and facilitate power research and public interest research on how power relationships shape policy in the United States. Our research brings transparency to the influence of big money and corporate power in our daily lives. 

We frequently work in partnership with organizers and journalists to support challenges to this influence, and we also work to make power research more participatory, through trainings and workshops. We consider ourselves a movement utility that can help power the path toward a future grounded in racial, environmental, and economic justice. 

PAI also oversees LittleSis.org, a wiki database and platform for power research. LittleSis is like the opposite of Big Brother – instead of surveilling our communities, we track the people and organizations in the power structure, from CEOs and major investors to politicians and lobbyists. Data on LittleSis is drawn from a diverse array of online sources, and maintained through a combination of automated scripts and user edits. Activists, journalists, and researchers use the site to conduct research, analyze data, and create visual network maps with Oligrapher, the LittleSis power mapping tool.