Frequently Asked Questions
What is Civic Forecast?
Civic Forecast is a nonpartisan, data-driven civic intelligence app that turns fragmented public data into a clear, live view of what's changing in policy, money, and power. It organizes bills, budgets, elections, lobbying, court rulings, climate response, and economic indicators into trackable, source-attributed feeds.
Is Civic Forecast nonpartisan?
Yes. Civic Forecast does not endorse candidates or parties. Explainers describe what public records show and the range of mainstream interpretations, using public and research-grade sources from across the civic ecosystem.
Who builds Civic Forecast?
Civic Forecast is developed and published by Show Me Television. Its data is curated and its technology developed by API Automations, which normalizes 120+ commercial, public, and government data sources into one coherent feed. Sponsorship, marketing, and placement are handled by Leanback Digital.
What data sources does Civic Forecast use?
Civic Forecast draws on primary public records including the FEC, OpenSecrets, Senate LDA and House LD-2 lobbying filings, USAspending.gov, the U.S. Census Bureau and American Community Survey, OpenStates, Congress.gov, the Federal Register, the Supreme Court and CourtListener, OpenFEMA, NOAA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve (FRED), ACLED, and V-Dem, among others. Every signal is shown with prominent source attribution.
How much does Civic Forecast cost?
Civic Forecast is a subscription app with a free 30-day trial. After the trial it is $1.99/month or $19.99/year (two months free). Viewing every civic signal is free within the app; the paid tier is for optional tooling like notifications, tracking, and alerts. Students, military, veterans, and seniors receive reduced rates.
Does Civic Forecast sell user data?
No. Civic Forecast never sells user-level data and does not run cross-app tracking or shadow profiling. Any research or analytical use of its data is aggregate-only and anonymized — counts, rates, cohorts, and geography or topic buckets, never PII and never individual records — designed to support civic understanding rather than individual profiling.
How does Civic Forecast use data from its source and research partners?
Partner and source data moves through a governed pipeline: authorized access, normalization into internal schemas, geographic alignment, and derivation into aggregate civic signals — cards, metrics, maps, watchlists, and explainers. Civic Forecast publishes only transformed, aggregate outputs that cannot be reverse-engineered back into the source records. It never redistributes raw records, never offers a downloadable dataset or record-level export, and never builds a substitute for a provider's own product. Every surface that uses a source carries prominent attribution, including access date, filters used, and transformations applied.
Does Civic Forecast use source data to train AI?
No. Source and partner data is not used to train, test, or improve machine-learning, LLM, or AI systems outside the scope of its license. Automated processing is limited to producing the aggregate, source-attributed civic signals shown in the product — it never creates a substitute dataset and never enables record-level access.
Is Civic Forecast a news outlet or a data reseller?
Neither. Civic Forecast does not republish source content as journalism, and it does not sell, redistribute, or paywall source data. It is a civic-education layer: structured data and narrative context are kept separate by design, and every signal is a derived, source-attributed indicator rather than a copy of someone else's records. Viewing every signal is free — the paid tier covers optional tooling like alerts and tracking, so users never pay for access to a partner's data.
How can my organization become a data or content partner?
All partnership tracks start from the single intake on the Work With Us page at https://civicforecast.com/work-with-us/. Research and data-licensing conversations follow a published framework covering license class, attribution, use limits, and AI/ML posture, so a provider's access team can classify the request quickly. Narrative and content collaborations follow the same front door, and everything a partner publishes passes an editorial review gate before it appears in the app or on the site.
What topics does Civic Forecast cover?
Civic Forecast organizes civic data into nine hubs: Elections & Representation, Money & Influence, Courts & Justice, Society & Demographics, Climate, Disaster & Infrastructure, Economy & Work, Global Democracy & Conflict, Technology & Rights, and Narrative & News.
Where can I download Civic Forecast?
Civic Forecast is available on iOS and Android. Download links and every official channel are collected on the Link In Bio page at https://civicforecast.com/link-in-bio/.
Will Civic Forecast include ads?
Civic Forecast is subscription-first. Any sponsored placements are clearly labeled, optional to engage with, and selected only when aligned with civic education and public-interest goals. There is no surveillance advertising.
How does Civic Forecast handle data accuracy and corrections?
Civic Forecast builds on primary public records and verifies figures against their original source before publishing. When a number changes at the source, the card reflects the update. Accuracy or attribution issues can be reported through the contact page.
How is narrative and editorial content reviewed before it appears?
Automation prepares the draft; a human holds the review gate. Every narrative or explainer asset is source-aware and release-checked — it carries its source and credit line, its release status is confirmed before distribution, and structured data is kept separate from narrative context so editorial framing never colors the underlying figures. Nothing publishes to the app or the site without passing that editorial review.