Transparency: what to publish, and how

Transparency is not a brochure. It is publishing the numbers that let anyone check whether money did what it was given for — and publishing them even when they are uncomfortable.

What a transparency page shows on Society of Timor

• Income by donor and year; spending by programme
• Programme-expense ratio — the share of spending that reaches programmes rather than overhead
• Fundraising efficiency — what it costs to raise a dollar
• Cost per outcome, where outcomes are measured
• Audited statements and annual reports where they exist — and the honest label "not published" where they do not

The rule behind it

Every number is computed from the organisation's own accounting on the platform. Nothing is typed into the page by hand, and a figure that cannot be computed says so instead of showing a zero.