Skip to main content

About the Institute

A real nonprofit, building civic education in the open.

Rights & Records Institute, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic education organization. We help people understand constitutional rights, public records access, lawful documentation, responsible citizen journalism, digital safety, and civic accountability — and we build the governance to do it credibly.

Meet the founders For donors & funders

Why we exist

Turning public interest in accountability into practical education.

People increasingly use phones, livestreams, public records laws, and independent media to understand what public institutions are doing. That can strengthen accountability — but only when people know the rules, request the records, preserve evidence, avoid needless escalation, and publish with accuracy and context.

The Institute exists to make those civic skills easier to learn and share. We are not designed to promote harassment, trespass, intimidation, reckless escalation, partisan campaign activity, or unsupported accusations. We exist to improve civic knowledge, records literacy, calm documentation, evidence preservation, and public-interest reporting — nonpartisan and lawful.

What makes us nonpartisan & educational

  • Rights with responsibility. We teach rights alongside limits, context, jurisdictional variation, and the need for qualified counsel.
  • Nonpartisan by design. No party, candidate, or campaign framing — only rights, records, transparency, and public benefit.
  • Education, not incitement. Materials are built for learning and lawful conduct, not confrontation or entertainment.
  • Public benefit first. Every program should leave behind something the public can use for free.

Mission, vision & values

A serious, year-round institute — built to last.

Mission

Rights & Records Institute helps people understand, document, request, preserve, and responsibly publish information about public institutions through nonpartisan education on constitutional rights, public records access, lawful documentation, de-escalation, digital safety, and civic accountability.

Vision

A society where everyday people can participate in civic accountability with confidence, discipline, legal literacy, records competence, and respect for public safety, privacy, and truth.

Values

  • Rights with responsibility
  • Public records literacy
  • Nonpartisan civic education
  • Responsible publishing
  • Calm documentation
  • Access and inclusion
  • Public benefit first

Scope & guardrails

What we do — and what we don’t.

Clear boundaries protect donors, participants, and the public. Here is the line we hold.

We do
Teach practical rights education, public records literacy, lawful documentation, responsible publishing, and digital safety.
Provide individualized legal advice, legal representation, or attorney-client services.
Support scholarships, public resources, recorded lessons, templates, and educational access.
Use charitable funds as a revenue conduit for private commercial event activity.
Promote calm, lawful, safety-conscious engagement with public institutions.
Encourage trespass, harassment, threats, intimidation, obstruction, doxxing, or reckless escalation.
Teach people to ask better questions, request better records, preserve better evidence, and publish better context.
Train people to provoke confrontations for entertainment value.
Operate as a nonpartisan civic education nonprofit.
Participate in political campaigns or require ideological conformity from participants.

Founders & governance

A real organization, building its governance in the open.

Rights & Records Institute is governed by its founders and a seated Board of Directors, and is building an advisory network with experience in civil liberties, public records access, journalism, digital safety, education, and de-escalation.

Board of Directors

Scott Offord

Scott Offord

Founding Member & Board Member

Organizer behind the 1A Auditor Summit initiative; helping build a nonpartisan civic education platform across rights, records, documentation, publishing, de-escalation, digital safety, scholarships, and free resources.

Mateo Benavides

Mateo Benavides

Founding Member & Board Member

Supports digital infrastructure, the resource library, web systems, and the long-term program platform.

Brenda Bentley

Brenda Bentley

Board Member

Brenda Bentley serves on the board to support the Institute’s nonprofit governance, public-benefit mission, and commitment to nonpartisan civic education.

Advisory circle · in formation

Advisory roles we’re seating

  • Civil rights attorney
  • Public records expert
  • Journalist
  • Digital safety expert
  • De-escalation trainer
  • Educator
  • Nonprofit governance advisor
Contact us about a board or advisory role

Governance

The accountability we teach, we practice.

Rights & Records Institute documents its decisions, discloses conflicts, preserves records, corrects errors, and reports impact clearly. These commitments guide our work as the board and advisory circle come together.

  • Conflict-of-interest review on any related-party arrangement, including 1A Auditor Summit LLC.
  • Separate accounting for restricted grants, charitable funds, and commercial event activity.
  • Editorial and legal review of higher-risk educational materials before publication.
  • Documented, fair, mission-aligned scholarship selection protected from insider favoritism.
  • Clear disclaimers, version dates, and update logs on public resources.
  • Privacy-conscious handling of applicant, donor, and inquiry data.
  • Independence of educational judgment from sponsors, vendors, and commercial interests.
  • Public benefit beyond the room — durable templates, guides, and recordings by default.

This is a governance and program framework, not legal advice. Mission, policies, and relationship language are subject to nonprofit counsel review before formal adoption.

How it all fits together

The nonprofit and the Summit, kept clearly separate.

Rights & Records Institute operates nonprofit educational initiatives associated with the 1A Auditor Summit. Donations to the Institute support the nonprofit’s charitable and educational work.

501(c)(3) nonprofit

Rights & Records Institute, Inc.

Operates the educational programs and public resources:

  • 1A Rights Education & Public Records Lab
  • Rights, Records & Responsible Reporting Resource Library
  • Scholarship & Access Program
presented in connection with
For-profit producer

1A Auditor Summit LLC

Produces the affiliated annual convening:

  • Ticketing & registration
  • Sponsorships
  • Event logistics

The 1A Auditor Summit is produced by 1A Auditor Summit LLC. Donations and grants to the Institute are kept separate from the Summit’s commercial sponsorships.