MSI Integrity is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity organization. We are committed to transparency in our funding and financial arrangements, and prize the independence and integrity of our work. We take careful steps to ensure our funding sources do not create conflicts of interest in our work.
MSI Integrity was previously funded with general support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, as well as with project funding. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided seed funding to support the launch and development of MSI Integrity from 2012-2014.
We believe there should be economic equity between staff and that organizations should make their highest-to-lowest pay ratios publicly available. MSI Integrity strives to ensure that we never exceed a pay ratio of 3:1. In the event we exceed a 3:1 ratio, the issue is placed before the Board for discussion, who will seek input from MSI Integrity’s workers. The last ratio we had was 1.61 to 1. By comparison, median CEO pay ratio of S&P companies is 208 to 1, or roughly $14 million to $71,000.
Our most recent Form 990 is available for download here and a breakdown of our 2020 financials is available for download here. Please contact us if you would like to obtain copies of our financial information and IRS fillings from earlier years, as well as our conflict of interest policies or other governing documents.
Any specific funding received for individual projects is disclosed within the publications associated with those projects. For full transparency, below is a complete list of our previous project-related funding:
- As part of our exploration into Beyond Corporations and Shifting Power, we commissioned Noah Klein-Markman to research and author Creating Shared Value. This was funded with the support of the Catalytic Capital Consortium Fund.
- MSI Integrity’s ongoing research project on affected community experiences of global multi-stakeholder initiatives is funded with a Learn from Innovation Grant from Voice Global, financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed in consortium by Oxfam Novib and Hivos.
- The MSI Evaluation Tool project received funding from Cordaid solely for its publication and release.
- The travel costs associated with research for Protecting the Cornerstone: Assessing the Governance of Multi-Stakeholder Groups in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative were directly reimbursed by the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund. Once the report was completed, Publish What You Pay International arranged for design and printing of physical copies.
- The Open Society Foundations have provided project support for work related to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, including for outreach relating to Protecting the Cornerstone, completing and conducting outreach related to the MSI Pilot Evaluation Reports and our focus on the human rights implications of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
We welcome support from a range of sources. If you are interested in supporting our work, please donate via PayPal below.