Full Fact began in April 2008 in response to Peter Oborne’s argument in his book The Rise of Political Lying that there is a “burning need” for an organisation in Britain similar to the successful US non-profit FactCheck.org.

It started, as many things do, with a group of friends in the pub refining the idea before Will Moy, then working in the House of Lords and motivated by his experiences in Parliament, pitched it as an election project to a senior member of each of the three main parties, and one BBC political correspondent. The responses were unanimously quick and enthusiastic, a surprise which provided the impetus for bringing the organisation to life.

Empowered by advice from this collection of luminaries and various contacts they recommended Will started putting together a Board and a business plan.

The support of two individuals changed Full Fact from a good idea to a working proposition: John Lloyd, the immensely respected journalist, and later Michael Samuel, a successful businessman (and one-time Conservative donor), who offered funding as well as guidance. They were joined on the Board by Labour Peer Peter Archer QC; Julia Neuberger, a Liberal Democrat Peer; and in due course the media expert Professor Jean Seaton.

With the prospect of a 2009 election disappearing came the opportunity to plan Full Fact as a lasting project and to this end we secured a three-year grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, matched by Michael Samuel.

Zoe Smith was recruited from ITN online to get Full Fact started and we opened our offices at the beginning of 2010, quickly growing from one to three staff and starting to develop a reputation for accurate and impartial analysis and promoting the facts for their own sake without an ulterior motive.

The election was challenging as the mainstream media staged a brief but massive foray into the world of factchecking and stole much of Full Fact’s debut thunder. It took until the silly season, when the mainstream media marches en masse in the other direction, for Full Fact to start to gain momentum among the public.

Even before Full Fact achieved widespread attention, though, we were making an impact behind the scenes, notably getting the then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown to drop a claim for which No. 10 was unable to provide backing, that the government had helped 300,000 small businesses through the recession.

Since the autumn Full Fact has become more focused on achieving change and we have seen this reflected in numerous media and several Ministerial corrections, as well as having systemic impacts on the Department of Work and Pensions, the London Mayor and the review of crime statistics. Much more remains to be done.

We have grown by an order of magnitude since June 2010. We plan to do the same again by 2013. We have revamped our website and seen a significant increase in our growth rate and have ambitious plans for the next few years.