www.ire.org Search IRE  Member sign-in History How we started, Bylaws, The Arizona Project, Endowment Membership Benefits, How to Join, Find an Investigative Journalist, Listservs, Update Your Address Training Conferences, Seminars, Fellowships, Training Materials Resource Center 20,000-plus investigative stories, 2,000 Tipsheets, Reporting Guides, Beat Sources Broadcast Center Videostreamed clips, IRE feeds, IRE videos Database Library Government database collection, Data analysis Campaign Finance Information Center Campaign Finance Database, Stories FOI Center Columns, Awards, FOIA Database, Tipsheets The IRE Store Books, Audio tapes, Databases, Periodicals, IRE Logo Goods Job Center Hot jobs in journalism, latest fellowships and grants IRE Awards Latest contest, Past winners, How to enter Educators IRE Journalism Educators' Center IRE Board Elected members, Committees IRE Staff Staff members, Contacting us Privacy Policy

Matching programs make most of member's donations

The initial response to our last appeal for donations has been fantastic! In November alone, we received nearly 40 small individual donations to the endowment. Employers matched 13 donors' gifts. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will provide matching money for half the value of all 40 gifts.

This means one $50 donation could create up to $100 in matching money: $50 from the employee's corporation and $50 from the Knight Foundation for half the total of the employee-employer gift.

So, please make sure you check with your company when you give and see if it is a matching-gift company. If you need help, please give me a call and I will check for you. (In November, I contacted seven donors who were eligible for matching gifts and did not know it!)

Most corporate matching programs will match 100 percent of a gift. Just think, if all of the $4,000 in individual gifts we received in November were totally matched by corporations, it would mean another $4,000. With the Knight Foundation contribution of 50 percent, IRE would have received $12,000 -- tripling the initial gifts.

And it's probably not too late to check on matching possibilities if you made your gift in the calendar year 2001. You can check with your Human Resources Department to see if your company matches. If you submit to us the necessary paperwork we will finalize the process and mail it to the appropriate office.

Most important, the cascade of small donations during tough economic times demonstrates to other potential donors the passion that IRE members and supporters have for the organization. In addition to the endowment donations, we received another 20 donations that went either to our minority fellowships program or our "Help a Colleague" program -- in which colleagues purchase discounted memberships for recently laid-off members.

We also hope you will consider our "Recognition Gift Program." (See back page.)

We are almost halfway to our $5 million dollar goal. Please make a gift today and help us get that much closer to our goal.

To contribute by check, send your donation to:
IRE, University of Missouri
Attention: Heather Feldman, Financial Officer
138 Neff Annex
Columbia, MO 65211

To charge your donation to a credit card, call Heather at 573-884-7902 or click here.

If you need any assistance, please call IRE at 573-882-2042 or e-mail us at info@ire.org.