Calico
California Charity Observatory
The California Charity Observatory, built on the Calico research project, compares repeated copies of California’s public charity registry to study changes in the published records.
Research in progress.
No findings or figures have been published here. The dashboard and paper are in progress.
Method
The California charity registry is a public source of organization records. Calico keeps semi-monthly snapshots — repeated copies of the published data — so those records can be compared over time.
One pattern under study is the cure signature: a Last Renewal field changing from populated to blank. The research examines this source-level pattern; it does not explain an organization’s intentions or the cause of a change.
The comparisons use deterministic calculations: the same inputs produce the same results. Results remain linked to the source snapshots.
Research questions
How does the published delinquent population change over time? What do source records show about cure patterns across cohorts, amnesty take-up, and time to a recorded cure after a CT-453 Intent to Suspend?
These are research questions, not published findings. Calico describes the public source’s records, not an organization’s intent, risk, or performance.
Publication
The dashboard and paper will be published on this page. Each figure will include its source, as-of date, and source hash. Corrections will be recorded without removing the earlier figures.
Calico is a public monitor, not an enforcement tool. Publication will use aggregates, never a named list of organizations in the published delinquent population.
Dashboard · Not published / Paper · Not publishedRead the public research repository ↗