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January 1986: Membership dues increase to $25 annually.
April 1986: IRE increases its coverage about freedom of information issues at the federal and state level when the Missouri School of Journalism's Freedom of Information Center halts its publication program.
June 1988: IRE establishes an endowment fund to improve long-term financial stability. The initial goal is to raise $1.1 million.
December 1988: Dale Spencer, a Missouri School of Journalism professor and lawyer, dies at age 63. Spencer played a significant role in bringing IRE to the university, and wrote a column about journalists and the law for almost every issue of IRE's magazine.
January 1989: Scandinavian journalists form an organization patterned after IRE, based in Stockholm.
August 1989: IRE member Elliot Jaspin is hired by Missouri School of Journalism and opens the Missouri Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. The mission is to help journalists learn how to use database analysis to improve their investigations.
November 1989: MICAR holds first boot camp.
January 1990: IRE membership fee increases to $30 annually to help balance the budget of about $270,000.
February 1990: Jeanne and Stan Abbott leave the Missouri School of Journalism faculty and their co-editorship of The IRE Journal for professional reasons. They served as volunteer Journal editors for six years, following the intensive volunteer effort of journalism school faculty member George Kennedy. IRE staff members Colbert and Weinberg become the co-editors, with continuing assistance from other IRE staff and members around the world.
March 1990: IRE and the Indiana University Journalism School collaborate on a computer-assisted reporting conference billed as "advanced investigative methods for journalists."
April 1990: IRE publishes a booklet, with supporting materials, about how to conceive, design and teach an investigative journalism course at the college level.
June 1990: Weinberg leaves as IRE executive director to spend more time with his family and to concentrate on writing books and magazine investigations. He continues as editor of the Journal. Interim executive directors Jan Colbert, Andy Scott and Tracy Barnett serve the organization until a multi-year search produces a permanent executive director. … The IRE board of directors adds a category to the annual awards competition: the Tom Renner award for crime reporting. Renner played a major role in the Arizona Project while on leave from Newsday. He later served on the IRE board, including a term as president. The board of directors commemorated his death by establishing the award.
August 1990: A revised edition of "The Reporter's Handbook," edited by Ullmann and Colbert, becomes available through St. Martin's Press. As with the 1983 edition, journalists from around the nation contribute chapters.
October 1990: MICAR begins publishing Uplink.
December 1990: A book known as "The Investigative Journalist's Morgue" is published by IRE and updated periodically. It provides summaries of thousands of print and broadcast projects available through IRE.
January 1991: The IRE Journal changes format from newsprint, tabloid size to regular, magazine size on higher quality paper. The frequency returns from four times a year to six times.
June 1991: Myrta Pulliam of The Indianapolis Star leaves the IRE board of directors. An IRE founder, she had served on the board since the first election. Pulliam remains active in IRE's fund-raising efforts.
April 1992: IRE officers and directors participate in the initial meeting of the newly formed Council of Presidents of National News Organizations.
June 1992: For the first time, an entire day is devoted to computer-assisted reporting at an IRE national conference. Held in Portland, Ore., hands-on sessions are part of the package. IRE becomes increasingly involved in publication of Uplink, a magazine with emphasis on computer-assisted reporting.
January 1993: IRE joins with the National Press Club to offer a conference on conceiving, reporting and writing investigations from a Washington, D.C., perspective.
April 1993: Journalists with a special interest in Latin America form the Inter-American Institute for Investigative Journalism, with headquarters in Miami and patterned to some extent after IRE. Executive director Andy Scott and assistant director Tracy Barnett both have experience in reporting in Latin America and are fluent in Spanish.
June 1993: With funding from the Scripps Howard Foundation, IRE offers scholarships for minority student journalists to work at IRE. IRE offers grants for minority journalists to attend the annual national conference.
July 1993: A Freedom Forum grant of $221,000 allows IRE to offer computer-assisted reporting training in newsrooms in the United States. These supplement the CAR boot camps at the Missouri School of Journalism that are run by IRE.
September 1993: Scott leaves the IRE executive director position to teach at a Vermont college. The paid staff now includes a conference coordinator and bookkeeper, an executive director, assistant director and part-time students. Searches are under way for a computer-assisted reporting director at headquarters, a computer-assisted reporting trainer willing to travel, and a computer systems maintenance staff member.
October 1993: Led by board member Pat Stith of The (Raleigh) News & Observer, IRE holds its first Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference in Raleigh, N.C.
February 1994: The Missouri Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting is renamed the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting and administered by IRE. When MICAR founder Elliot Jaspin leaves in mid-1992, Brant Houston of The Hartford Courant is hired as NICAR managing director. Rosemary Armao of The Virginian-Pilot is named IRE's executive director. New Missouri School of Journalism faculty member Richard Mullins begins training students in CAR techniques.
March 1994: IRE annual dues increase to $40 for professionals, $25 for students. … Jennifer LaFleur from the San Jose Mercury News becomes first training director, taking the IRE and NICAR curriculum into U.S. and international newsrooms.
May 1994: A professional fund-raiser, Marcie Setlow, is retained by IRE for a year to raise money for the operations. Over the next few years, she helps bring in grants of more than $1 million for computer-assisted reporting, campaign finance investigations, minority fellowships, and training in Latin America. Later, fund raising was moved in-house and done by IRE staff member Jennifer Erickson.
July 1994: IRE participates in the first joint convention of the Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Native American Journalists Association, known as UNITY '94. IRE and NICAR conducted panels on investigative reporting and hands-on training in computer-assisted reporting.
January 1995: IRE receives a grant of $125,000 from the Freedom Forum to establish a minority journalists training program as part of IRE's initiative to increase diversity in investigative journalism.
February 1995: IRE, the National Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists hold a second annual conference on investigative journalism in Washington, D.C.
March 1995: Continuing to build its international presence in multiple ways, IRE sends speakers to a Bulgarian university in conjunction with the Missouri School of Journalism.
May 1995: IRE publishes its budget in the Journal, so it can be easily accessed by members. Later, all financial documents are placed online.
August 1995: IRE and NICAR form listservs allowing journalists to communicate effectively online.
October 1995: LaFleur leaves IRE and returns to the San Jose Mercury News.
