To hold corporations accountable for their impact on people and the planet, whether it’s environmental harm or worker exploitation, changemakers need reliable, accessible data. Yet too often, this data is hard to find, locked in spreadsheets, or duplicated across siloed efforts, limiting its potential to drive real change.
That’s why Wikirate was created more than 10 years ago: to make corporate policy and impact data openly available, shareable, and actionable.
Wikirate provides two essential components to create an effective ecosystem of shared knowledge:
- a backbone infrastructure to collect, store, and share corporate accountability data;
- a connective tissue that fosters collaboration, interoperability, and learning.
The path forward
To continue to make a real difference, we need long-term support that allows us to scale our impact. Wikirate has collaborated on many impactful projects with civil society organizations over the past decade, and we’ve reached a pivotal moment.
In the next few years we plan to:
- Improve the infrastructure: Our open data platform, wikirate.org, is the largest open data repository of its kind. But discoverability and usability remain significant challenges. We need to improve the platform to make it easier for users to publish and find data, saving changemakers time and amplifying their impact.
- Build a collaborative global network: Data openness and interoperability are key. Right now, our team is connecting individual organizations and helping a handful of them publish their data on wikirate.org. But that’s not enough. If we want to make more corporate data open and accessible, we need to scale up these efforts. That’s why we launched ODCAN (Open Data for Corporate Accountability Network), a global initiative bringing together CSOs that use data to hold corporations accountable. By systematically weaving connections, we can ensure that organizations working on similar issues align their efforts, exchange critical data, and publish it on Wikirate.
- Gather more data beyond corporate reporting: Holding companies accountable requires more than just analyzing the reports they release. We need independent, non-company-reported data, especially supply chain data that links brands to their suppliers. Investigative journalists and CSOs have already exposed the gap between corporate commitments and real-world impact, but we must make this process faster and scalable. Wikirate provides the infrastructure to support CSOs, journalists, and investors in confronting companies with hard evidence, and sometimes even informing corporations about hidden issues in their own supply chains.
- Scale our advocacy efforts: to ensure that data on corporations is accessible, we will advocate for open data to be integrated into transparency legislation at the government level. This will ensure that more information can be made available on wikirate.org.
Open infrastructure: a strategic and urgent investment
Open infrastructure is not a “nice to have”; it’s the foundation for effective, equitable systems of accountability. Platforms like Wikirate ensure that corporate impact data remains open, interoperable, and accessible to civil society organizations, journalists, and researchers working to expose exploitation, environmental harm, and corporate greenwashing. Without robust, community-driven infrastructure, we risk a future where vital information is siloed, paywalled, or controlled by commercial actors whose priorities do not align with the public good.
This is a moment of collective responsibility. Project-based grants cannot sustain long-term operational needs. Strategic funding must support the backbone, not just the outputs, of data-driven advocacy. By investing in Wikirate, funders help build a transparent, resilient ecosystem where good ideas thrive and public-interest accountability can scale. This is not just support for a platform, it’s an investment in the future of open, democratic oversight.
Join us in accelerating change
If you or your organization is interested in supporting our open data platform and contributing to a more transparent and sustainable global economy, we would love to connect. Together, we can ensure that corporate accountability data remains a public good that is accessible to all, for the benefit of all.
We are deeply grateful to the funders and partners who have supported us on this journey so far. Their commitment to transparency and accountability has helped us build a platform that serves as a crucial resource for those advocating for a more responsible corporate world.
“At Humanity United, we see open data as critical infrastructure for responsible business practices. Wikirate is helping build that foundation — connecting the dots between civil society, corporate disclosures, and public accountability. Their work supports not only transparency, but the kind of interoperability and learning that enables systemic change.”
Katrina Gordon, Senior Manager, Forced Labor & Human Trafficking at Humanity United
“Wikirate provides an essential open data infrastructure for supply chain transparency. Their system made it possible to connect data reported by brands and workers in one dynamic tool: Fashion Checker. Through this flexible and engaging structure, we were able to make a complex dataset on supply chain wages accessible and useful to a broad audience of consumers, journalists, advocacy organizations, and workers themselves.”
Paul Roeland, Transparency Lead, Clean Clothes Campaign
“Wikirate’s open platform leverages data from its extensive network of civil society connections, helping to bridge the data gap on companies’ social performance. This enables investors to access a wealth of valuable CSO data, empowering them to make informed decisions throughout the entire investment lifecycle.”
Anita Dorret, Director, Investor Alliance for Human Rights
Donate now or get in contact with us to discuss how you can support open infrastructure for civil society today!
info@wikirate.org