The first step in making a difference is believing that you can.

A small group of committed people can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.

So he did. He started by gathering and normalizing the publicly available data from his town (and 55,000 others) so that anyone who wanted to could easily see how their local government is funded, how that funding is allocated, how much debt the town has incurred, and how one town compares to another. Soon enough, hundreds of government agencies were upgrading and adding new info to their profiles. Towns everywhere were using the new site as a financial transparency center—a tool to help build greater trust with their communities. With that, ClearGov was born.

It was once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Since our journey started, we’ve expanded from a single transparency solution to a broad platform that helps governments better manage their budget cycle from start to finish. We’ve helped thousands of local governments move from Excel-based budgeting to cloud-based, collaborative environments. We’ve turned countless annual reports—typically a PDF topping 100 pages in length—into award-winning interactive websites. Instantly. From capital planning to personnel budgeting; from budget books to strategic plans; from transforming any paper or PDF form to an online form, ClearGov has and is helping municipal agencies of every stripe do what they do better, faster, easier and more transparently.

In a sense, that makes us exactly what we’ve always been: a platform for positive change; a trust-building machine for local governments; and a small band of talented, incredibly zealous people whose purpose is to help make local governments work better for all of us. That’s our story and it is, very much, still being written today.