Professor Tracy Westen sold his nonprofit politics site to a startup with money on its mind. Elizabeth Wasserman Subscribe to The Industry Standard Tracy Westen is no typical Internet executive. In 1996, Westen cofounded the Democracy Network, a nonpartisan, nonprofit interactive project to encourage voting and citizen participation in government. A joint project of the League of Women Voters and the Center for Governmental Studies, the Web site offers information about local, state and federal elections. Grassroots will make unrestricted cash contributions to both organizations, although the company won't disclose the amount of those contributions.
Some people are horrified.
It doesn't really sit right with the mission of Democracy Network or the League of Women Voters. Grassroots is doing exactly one of the things we fear. Which is why Westen decided to sell. The more hits we got, the more expensive were our bandwidth costs. If we were successful beyond our wildest dreams, we would have been put right out of business.