Sponsor Criteria

Sponsors cannot review, edit, approve, delay, or remove publications.

This sentence is the test. If any conversation, contract, or expectation would breach it, the sponsorship is declined regardless of value.

• — Public libraries and library systems.
• — Neighborhood and civic associations.
• — Mission-aligned foundations (civic education, journalism, planning literacy).
• — Universities — civics, planning, journalism, and law programs.
• — Religious congregations and community centers.

• — Developers, landowners, or operators of projects covered by any of our handbooks.
• — Law firms, consultancies, or PR firms representing those parties.
• — Political parties, candidates, ballot-measure committees, or PACs.
• — Industry trade associations whose members would benefit from a specific reading of our material.
• — Anyone whose participation would require the editorial firewall to bend.

Every sponsor is listed on the support pages. Sponsorship is not displayed on content pages — no logos on handbooks, packets, jurisdiction pages, or field reports. A sponsor whose work intersects a publication is named in that publication's footnotes if the connection is material.

If a sponsor's interest later intersects an active publication, the editorial team decides — privately, and in advance of publication — whether to disclose the relationship, decline the sponsorship for that edition, or both. The publication is never delayed.