OpenCorporates has received industry recognition for the positive impact we have on society by receiving an award in the Data4Good Awards.
Organised by the Enterprise Data Management Council and Chief Data Officer Magazine, the awards aim to “acknowledge and celebrate the exemplary use of data to best address global challenges in an effort to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.
We were chosen by industry leaders out of a competitive field of 50+ nominations and were recognised alongside household names in technology and data such as IBM, Microsoft and EY – who won other categories.
The award categories in the Data4Good Awards 2022 looked to choose finalists whose initiatives were most aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. OpenCorporates won the category for how data is applied to promote “peace, justice and strong institutions”.
“I am delighted that the positive social impact of our mission and the transparent company data OpenCorporates makes openly available has been recognised with this award.
Rebecca Lee, Chief Impact Officer – OpenCorporates
“We work with a phenomenal set of organisations who use our data to help tackle some of the most important and difficult issues in society – from exposing corruption, tackling financial crime and addressing modern slavery, human rights and environmental abuses through to research on diversity and minority representation in the business environment”.
Our mission in action
As part of our mission to deliver genuine corporate transparency for the benefit of business and society, we make our data openly available via our website – and provide free access to our API and Bulk Data to journalists, NGOs and other causes that benefit society.
Millions of users leverage this data every month for causes that aid society, including: journalists, a wide range of civil society, anti-corruption investigators and anti-financial crime professionals, but also small business owners who need to understand who they’re doing business with. This helps create a more trusted business environment.
Our data has powered some of the world’s biggest investigations and disruptive societal projects in recent years, including:
- Exposing fraud in Covid-19 loan schemes
The Miami Herald, Bloomberg and The Times all used our data to identify that millions of dollars were allegedly fraudulently claimed from Covid business relief schemes in the US and UK – including the Paycheck Protection Program. - Panama & Pandora Papers investigations
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) used our data to verify companies mentioned in millions of leaked documents known as the Pandora Papers. This leak made global headlines as it revealed many apparent uses of shell companies to conceal ownership of assets via opaque offshore systems and anonymous shell companies. OpenCorporates’ records were used in a similar way to identify companies mentioned in the earlier “Panama Papers” leak. - Promoting supply chain transparency
TISCreport uses our data to help end corruption, human rights abuses and environmental crimes by shining a light on the companies that make up corporate supply chains. - Shining a light on who finances deforestation
Trase Finance uses our data to bring unprecedented transparency to the hundreds of billions of dollars that finance tropical deforestation each year by linking the trade of commodities that drive deforestation to financial markets worldwide.
Sam Leon, Data Lead at anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, who have used our data to support multiple investigations, including to expose the junta that controls Myanmar’s multi-billion dollar jade industry, explains how our data helps:
“OpenCorporates aggregates that data, connects it and makes it available to us… so we can use it in the course of our research in ways that’s just really not possible with either the existing government website or other proprietary data services”.
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