If you missed #GivingTuesday this week, you can satisfy your passion for open government next Tuesday on Colorado Gives Day by making a tax-deductible donation to the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.

The nonprofit does what better-financed, more committed media used to do: fight to make sure government records are truly public and accessible, and push back against those who try to do the public’s business beyond public scrutiny.

“Colorado’s open records laws and the open meetings law are there so that everyone – journalists and the general public – can hold government accountable,” my friend Jeff Roberts, the coalition’s executive director, tells Colorado Politics. “For our democracy to work as the Founding Fathers intended, it’s essential that people know what’s going on, how taxpayer money is spent and how government decisions are made. But governments at all levels sometimes make access difficult, whether it’s charging exorbitant fees for public records, improperly withholding records or making decisions in secret.

“The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition works with news organizations all over the state, helping them navigate the sunshine laws and fight for access. Our freedom-of-information hotline is available to the public free of charge. And this year, the CFOIC helped to modernize the Colorado Open Records Act, ensuring Coloradans’ right to digital public records in useful file formats.”

More than 40 percent of the questions the coalition receives about Freedom of Information laws and procedures are from rank-and-file citizens and people who work in government.

Last year the Freedom of Information Coalition led a legislative fight to modernize the formats of information subject to the Colorado Open Records Act, so people could view them on a computer in searchable formats rather and on sheets of paper.

The CFOIC also campaigns against fake news. “There has never been a higher premium on the public’s right to obtain accurate, truthful and reliable information about government at all levels,” it said in a fundraising e-mail.

To give or to learn more, visit the Colorado Give’s website by clicking here.