As we say goodbye to 2022, all of us at Good Jobs First are extremely grateful for your support. Whether you’ve been with us for the past 24, 20 or five years, or just joined us in our fight for corporate accountability this year, we hope you’ll stay with us in 2023 and beyond!
I want to support work that drives a more equitable economy.
Here is a small snapshot of what we did in 2022:
- Provided data and expertise to scores of journalists exposing corporate crime and abuses of public funds; we were sources to writers at outlets like Forbes, Bloomberg, LA Times, The Guardian, Investigative Post, Newsweek, and City Business Journals across the nation.
- Investigated and exposed Amazon’s use and abuse of public funds in their quest to market domination – we published a report about Amazon’s international subsidies, joined the “Make Amazon Pay” campaign, and documented $5 BILLION given to Amazon in public subsidies nationwide.
- Published six reports on topics including electric vehicle subsidies and their effects on local economies, and evaluating the effectiveness and equity of the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
- Launched our brand new website, making our databases and your investigative viewing experience more efficient and streamlined.
- “Graded” 250 state-level economic development programs based on the quality of transparency and accountability in a wide-ranging report.
- Contributed data used in a number of peer-reviewed academic articles about economic inequality, workplace discrimination, corporate misconduct and more, by scholars from the Harvard Kennedy School, London School of Economics, and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, among other renowned institutions.
- Revamped Violation Tracker by adding features including historical parent-subsidiary matching, letting subscribers know who owned the company at the time of a violation. This year alone we documented $56 billion in penalties and fines paid by corporations for misconduct.
And we have big plans for 2023 including:
- Transparency and Accountability Fights: Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, and Louisiana all have battles brewing and we plan to stay in the middle, helping allies in those states push against expansion of corporate welfare programs, increase transparency (who is getting these subsidies, anyway?), and making permanent good changes.
- Five years of GASB 77: Our landmark government accounting victory enables us to pull back the curtain on what corporate tax abatements cost local governments, and we just got five years’ worth to show. We’ll tell you what we found.
- Banning the use of non-disclosure agreements: Our bipartisan group that makes up the Ban Secret Deals coalition will ramp up its pressure campaign to end, once and for all, the secret, anti-democratic deals that have no place in public economic development activities.
- Our Birthday. We’re turning a big one in July — 25! — and you’re all invited to the party.
Now that we’ve excited you, we hope before the year ends, you’ll consider supporting our work. A generous donor has agreed to match gifts up to $10,000 – and we can get there with your help!
For those willing to write checks (no processing fees!) our address is:
Good Jobs First
1380 Monroe St NW, PMB 405
Washington DC 20010
Thank you for your continued support. We are raring to go in 2023, and look forward to seeing you in the journey.
Happy New Year, from all of us Good Jobs First!