According to political scientist Ellen Gutterman, "TI's presence in Germany, and indeed its organizational development and rise from a small operation to a prominent international TNGO [Transnational Non Governmental Organisation], benefited from the activities and personal connections of at least three key German individuals: Peter Eigen, Hansjoerg Elshorst, and Michael Wiehen".

[26] Since 2023 TI partners with ChatBot and utilises artificial intelligence technology on its website to enhance its digital engagement and support transparency initiatives at scale.

It brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.

[28]The organization defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain which eventually hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.

In 2010, TI developed a five-year strategy with six strategic priorities organized by the following categories: People, Institutions, Laws, Values, Network, Impact.

This strategy is based on more than 1500 external and internal contributions addressing both the corruption environment of today and the one TI anticipates in the years ahead.

Drawn from diverse geographical, cultural and professional backgrounds, council members are appointed by the TI board of directors to advise them and to support the work of the organization as a whole.

As chapters are staffed with local experts they are ideally placed to determine the priorities and approaches best suited to tackling corruption in their countries.

This work ranges from visiting rural communities to provide free legal support to advising their government on policy reform.

According to the newspaper Le Monde: "In its main surveys, Transparency International does not measure the weight of corruption in economic terms for each country.

Alex Cobham, fellow at the Center for Global Development, states that it "embeds a powerful and misleading elite bias in popular perceptions of corruption".

Others argue it is not plausible to ever measure the true scale and depth of a highly complex issue like corruption with a single number, and then rank countries accordingly.

[51] At its annual members' meeting in November 2013 in Berlin, TI's national chapters from Germany and Ireland proposed a resolution calling for the "end of the prosecution of Edward J. Snowden...

[53] Five months earlier, in June 2013, representatives from TI met Snowden at the Moscow airport, where he asked for political asylum in Russia.

[54] In January 2015 it was reported that TI accepted $3 million from the German engineering multinational Siemens, which in 2008 paid one of the largest corporate corruption fines[55] in history – $1.6 billion – for bribing government officials in numerous countries.

In 2014, Siemens made the donation to TI after pleading guilty in 2008 to bribery charges relating to widespread corrupt practices in Greece, Norway, Iraq, Vietnam, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Venezuela, China and Russia.

The president was accused of falsifying records, conflicts of interest, and arbitrarily expelling 10 chapter members who opposed the hiring of staff against the organization's rules.

[10] The stated basis for the dis-accreditation was the board's recognition of differences in philosophies, strategies, and priorities between the former chapter and the Transparency International Movement.

For a non-governmental organization whose goal is to fight corruption around the world, and which collects millions of dollars in funding from governments and companies every year, this is a disturbing finding.

[75] TI's political impartiality, as well as its own transparency, have been called into question over hacked conversations of prosecutors in Operation Car Wash, leaked to The Intercept.

[76][77] In these, chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol and head of TI Brazil, Bruno Brandão, discuss a "backstage campaign" to "disarm resistance on the left", fund selected candidates, and target others, seen as adversaries, using social media.

Plans extended to preparing a series of false accusations ("denúncias sem materialidade") intended to damage the reputation of former president and potential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and lead up to a chat in which participants celebrate the election of Jair Bolsonaro.