Every March, journalists, watchdogs, and citizens turn their attention to one thing: whether their government agencies are playing by the rules. Sunshine Week, a nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, education, private sector, and government that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government,  is more than just a media moment; it’s an annual audit of whether your agency’s public records practices can hold up to scrutiny.  

Florida Man Starts a Nationwide Movement: How Sunshine Week Began

In the wake of 9/11, the availability of government data and information declined significantly as Congress and state legislatures expanded exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. Supporters of these measures argued they were necessary to protect national security. During this period, Florida’s Legislature was considering approximately 150 bills that critics contended would limit public oversight of government. Journalists in Florida took notice of the proposed secrecy provisions and organized to voice their opposition.  

The coalition of journalists launched "Sunshine Sunday" in March 2002 to raise awareness around the need for open government. They anchored it to James Madison's birthday, March 16, 1751, since he is a famous champion of public information. Sunshine Week organizers often cite his famous quote on the subject: "A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both."

The nickname "Sunshine Sunday" is a reference to Florida's nickname "The Sunshine State" and a famous maxim by former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman."  He popularized this maxim in his book Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It where he advocates for the duty of publicity to expose wrong doings.  

In three short years, this grassroot movement garnered national attention. Sunshine Sunday ballooned into Sunshine Week, when Eric Newtown, director of journalism initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, pushed the American Society of Newspaper Editors to create a national coalition in 2005.  

Fast-forward 2 decades, we celebrate Sunshine Week March 15^th – 21^st this year.  

Turning Principles into Practice: Sunshine Week Resources

Sunshine Week consolidates journalist coverage and themes around government transparency, with the increased visibility creating pressure for increased accountability.  

Journalists around the United States and the foundation itself provide materials for publication, encourage year-round collaboration among more than 100 partners, host in-person conferences, and spotlight the effective use of public records by engaged citizens.  

Sunshine Fest is the keynote event where participants gather to craft solutions to the most pressing problems in freedom of information across both disciplinary and geographic boundaries. The conference promotes cross-functional collaboration, encouraging attendees to work together to create an action plan toward increased government transparency that they implement post-conference.

Sunshine Week organizers provide public education on government transparency and the public record request process. Here are some of the many great resources tied to Sunshine Week:

1. The Society of Professional Journalist’s (SPJ) is the nation's most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism. They’ve created a How to Conduct an Audit Tool Kit that provides the public with information on how to perform a government audit that can be applied at the local, state, and federal levels.

2. National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) is a nonpartisan alliance of state open government groups that publishes state FOI news and other resources on their website. They maintain a FOI Listserv, a national internet mailing list discussion board, to facilitate conversations about federal, state, and local government FOI, open government, and First Amendment issues.

3. Project on Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates, exposes, and champions reforms addressing systemic corruption, abuse of power, and waste. They work to promote "commonsense reforms" to build a more accountable government.

4. Sunshine Week Toolkit – Sunshine Week organizers publish copyright free FOIA Graphics, cartoons, and columns to make it simple for organizations to spotlight sunshine week while keeping a consistent message.  

The Week Agencies Can't Ignore

From Sunshine Fest to public education to spotlights in local news outlets, the coalitions behind Sunshine Week work to break through the noise and shine a light on sunshine law compliance, auditing response times, fees, and denials across agencies. These stories both inform citizens and create reputational pressure on agencies that underperform or rely on dubious exemptions.

This recurring public attention incentivizes agencies to take tangible steps to improve their FOIA and public records processes, including:

• Improving data collection and management so they can respond quickly when requests spike

• Investing in FOIA tracking systems and discovery-like tools that reduce backlogs and errors

• Developing more consistent redaction and review policies

What Sunshine Week Means for Your FOIA and Discovery Practices

FOIA and public records teams can treat Sunshine Week as an annual benchmark to review your organization's response times, denial rates, and fee practices against statutory requirements and the performance of peer agencies.

These benchmarking findings can then be used to build a defensible, repeatable records-response workflow tailored to your specific agency and team. Agencies can centralize where requests are logged, how custodians and data sources are identified, and how searches are run and produced.

Sunshine Week creates transparency between agencies, provides resources, standardizes best practices, and helps identify areas for scrutiny. Agencies can lean on resources from coalitions like SPJ, NFOIC, and POGO to increase their open government efforts and monitor Sunshine Week coverage to anticipate scrutiny and get ahead of it.

Ultimately, Sunshine Week is more than a media campaign, it's an annual reminder of the importance of FOIA processes to open government, and a reminder that teams who invest in their transparency practices are better prepared when the spotlight turns their way.

Logikcull is a platform that helps state, local, and educational teams respond to open records requests quickly, easily, and defensibly. It streamlines the end-to-end process of collecting, processing, searching, reviewing, redacting, and producing responsive documents. And it empowers teams to respond faster, more consistently, and with stronger defensibility, while fitting into tight government budgets.