Status
VigilData (VigilData LLC) is currently preparing a nonprofit conversion path. We do not yet claim recognized 501(c)(3) status, and donations are not represented as tax-deductible unless made through a qualified fiscal sponsor.
Legal status
VigilData (VigilData LLC) is currently preparing a nonprofit conversion path. We do not yet claim recognized 501(c)(3) status, and donations are not represented as tax-deductible unless made through a qualified fiscal sponsor.
We will not represent VigilData as a recognized 501(c)(3) or claim tax-deductibility until those statuses are formally established and reflected in this configuration. See IRS Form 1023 and IRS application for recognition of exemption for the formal process we are tracking against.
Tax-deductibility of donations
VigilData is currently preparing a nonprofit conversion path. Donations are not represented as tax-deductible. If a qualified fiscal sponsor is engaged, tax-deductible giving may be routed through that sponsor; that arrangement will be disclosed on this site before any tax-deductibility language is shown.
Funding model
VigilData is donor-supported and grant-eligible. Sources may include individual donors, recurring members, institutional partners, and foundation grants. We do not run political advertising and do not sell user data. VigilData's policy is to not rely on any single funder for more than one-third of its operating budget where feasible.
What donations and grants fund
- Data collection — engineering and storage for ingestion pipelines across federal, state, and judicial sources.
- Verification — human review, methodology, and corrections work.
- Infrastructure — hosting, databases, third-party API access, and security.
- Public tools — civic-tech features such as the watchdog scanners, search, and data export.
- Responsible AI — source-trail capture, human review, model disclosure, and corrections paths for AI-assisted research outputs.
Infrastructure costs
The platform's core monthly cost categories are application hosting, database hosting and backups, scheduled enrichment jobs, third-party data API access, and email/transactional services. Actual figures will be published in annual reports once a full fiscal year of nonprofit operations is complete.
Annual report & Form 990
Once a full fiscal year of nonprofit operations is complete, an annual report and the relevant IRS filings will be published here. Placeholder sections will be replaced with linked documents.
Donor policy
VigilData declines donations that come with conditions on coverage, priorities, or conclusions. Significant donors will be disclosed in line with our donor disclosure threshold (to be finalized in our governance documents). See /governance#donor-independence for the donor-independence policy.
For funders
Funder due-diligence materials are available at /for-funders, including a one-page concept note, grant opportunity scoping, and a funder alignment brief. Grant inquiries: grants@vigildata.org.