The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "campaign contributions" ...
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Campaign finance the data science way
The Center for Investigative Reporting and IRE teamed up with the San Francisco data science company Kaggle to help bridge the gap in journalism between hacking, math and substantive expertise. They challenged data scientists to approach a database journalists have looked at a million times over: federal campaign contributions. We'll introduce you to the winner of the competition and discuss the tools the data scientists used and their results.
Tags: hacking; math; data; campaign contributions; campaign finance
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Getting intimate with government data to produce hard-hitting stories
Torres gives advice on how to dig into government data to leverage stories covering areas such as government budgets, contracts, payroll, campaign contributions, and elections.
Tags: government data; data; federal government; public records
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Tracking the Economy and Business
Roush provides links to sites useful for tracking business and the economy - from the SEC to WARN Act filings.
Tags: business; economics; economy; OSHA; SEC; trademarks; patents; FDIC; American Hospital Directory; environment; campaign contributions; uniform commercial code filings
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Unsung Documents
This tipsheet provides information on how to find and effectively use documents in your reporting. It also give tips on working with material once you've obtained it. They also include a "favorite list" of docu
Tags: tax liens; campaign contributions; court records; flight logs; flight manifests; air travel consumer reports; unemployment; workers' comp; real estate; 911 tapes; surveillance videos
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Backgrounding People and Businesses on the Web
Dowdell provides a helpful framework for all your backgrounding needs. Starting with a strategy and some basic questions, she provides suggested helpful links for finding information on people and businesses on the web.
Tags: backgrounding; background check; business; property records; court records; public records; criminal background check; campaign contributions; politicians; articles of incorporation; business license; professional license
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Following The Money
Salant details where to look and what to look for when investigating campaign finance. He lists resources for the following: campaign contributions; lobbying; earmarks; legislative favors
Tags: campaign finance; Federal Election Commission; FEC; Center for Responsive Politics; CRP; Sunlight Foundation; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; National Institute on Money in State Politics; OpenSecrets.org; earmarks; lobbying; legislative favors
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Ten Things to Look For Next Month - Midyear campaign finance filings
This list looks at what to look for in the midyear filings for both campaign finance and lobbying. From largest contributors and opponents' fundraising to new registrations and issues in the news.
Tags: campaign finance; lobbying; PAC; donations; contributions; political action committees
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Tracing Money In Federal Politics
Campbell details how to track federal campaign finance information. He identified the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the "fountainheads of federal campaign data." Campbell gives an overview of the type of information available on these sites. And recommends searching the FEC site whenever you are backgrounding an individual.
Tags: campaign finance; federal elections; Federal Election Commission; FEC; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; backgrounding; money in politics; political contributions; campaign donations; donors
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Tracing Money in California Politics
Campbell details how to trace campaign finance information for the state of California, \"the ATM of national politics.\" The tipsheet aids in navigating information on the Secretary of State website, identifies the different ways you can search for candidates (since the 2000 primary), how to download the info into excel.
Tags: campaign finance; California; politics; donors; Secretary of State; money in politics; political contributions; campaign donations
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How to use campaign finance data to track fundraising, and other lobbyist largesse
The author discusses how to use FEC records to track fundraising done by lobbyists. He gives examples of data analysis and explains how to interpret the results. The author also discusses how to report on in-kind contributions from lobbyists.
Tags: campaign finance; FEC; fundraising; lobbyists; politics; state government; federal government