Polara

Inspiration

I saw how political donation influence policy decisions so much in America, yet most politician's & tools bury this information behind technical jargon or unreadable databases. We deserve a transparent, engaging, and data-driven way to explore where political contributions and their impact within policy decisions. I wanted to create a tool that makes political finance as an intuitive place to explore and research.

What it does

Polara is a command-line platform that is used to increase political transparency that tracks and visualizes candidate and committee donations in a bold, accessible interface.

Search candidates & committees: Instantly see funding sources, top donors, and contribution timelines.

Interactive analysis: AI-powered summaries that break down the potential policy influence of these contributions.

How we built it

Core Framework React (with TypeScript) - Main UI framework JavaScript Vite - Build tool and development server (inferred from modern React setup)

Styling Tailwind CSS - Utility-first CSS framework

Challenges we ran into

Navigating complex FEC datasets and ensuring data accuracy. Designing a UI that feels both authoritative and engaging. (But mainly designing that command-line UI was super challenging and hard)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a platform that makes political finance data accessible to everyday citizens and successfully blending journalism-style storytelling with interactive data visualizations.

What we learned

UI design principles for a unique style and command-line platform

What's next for Polara

Expand coverage to include state-level election finance data. Build user personalization—alert users when a candidate receives large new donations. Making AI explanations unbiased, factual, and concise. Navigating complex FEC datasets and ensuring data accuracy.

Built With

• javascript
• react
• tailwind
• vite