Why This Work Costs Money — And Why It’s Worth It
Watchdog journalism isn’t glamorous. It’s not built on viral moments or celebrity interviews. It’s built on public records requests, phone calls that don’t get returned, spreadsheets full of contract data, and long drives to courthouses in counties most people have never heard of. It’s built on time — and time, for the people doing this work, is not free.
Corruption Watch – TX does not accept funding from corporations. We do not accept money from political parties, political action committees, or political campaigns of any kind. We do not take advertising from companies that do business with the governments we cover. Our independence is not negotiable, and it is not for sale.
What keeps us running is readers like you.
What Your Donation Supports
When you donate to Corruption Watch – TX, your money goes directly into the work:
Texas Public Information Act requests — filing fees, legal fees when agencies refuse to comply, and the staff time required to process thousands of pages of documents
Travel — getting reporters to the communities where stories are happening, not just covering them from a distance
Legal support — we need lawyers in our corner when powerful interests push back, and they will push back
Technology and security — secure tip-line infrastructure, document storage, and the tools that protect sources
Researcher and contributor stipends — the people who make this work possible deserve to be compensated when we can manage it
The Bigger Picture
Every dollar you give is a direct vote for the idea that Texas residents deserve to know what their government is doing with their money, their trust, and their safety. The officials we cover are counting on public fatigue, on complexity, on the hope that nobody has the time or resources to look closely.
You can change that calculus.
No donation is too small. Recurring monthly supporters are the backbone of what we do — they make planning possible and keep the lights on between major investigations.
Thank you for believing this work matters. It does.