The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories 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. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "endowment" ...
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Colleges Use Cheap Loans to Lure Stars to Faculty
“Although colleges and universities have often provided housing for officials to live on campuses, in recent years they have also begun to use low-interest or no-interest mortgage loans as a recruiting tool, sometimes from their own endowments”.
Tags: education; students; faculty members; professors; teachers; money; compensation; perks; tax forms
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Politics, scholarship and the Armenian Genocide
The first story in the series documented the resignation of Donald Quataert, a distinguished American scholar, who stepped down from the chair of the Georgetown University-based Institute of Turkish Studies. Quataert said he had been forced out by a defunding threat from the Government of Turkey. Several board members also resigned and said political infringement of academic freedom was the reason. The second story in the series looks at evidence of a deliberate attempt to maintain Turkish state control of the U.S. nonprofit. Present and former Turkish ambassadors controlled the endowment that provided almost all the funding for the scholarly institute at the time of Quataert's resignation. Also, founding members of the institute as well as endowment trustees had been party to Ankara's decades-long campaign to suppress international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Tags: Armenian Genocide; Institute of Turkish Studies; Turkish scholars; improper financial control; Middle East Studies Association; public denial; politics versus academics
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Public Schools, Private Money
Reporters exposed problems with the management and transparency of nonprofit foundations associated with the North Carolina State University system, and excessive fees charged by Bank of America to run the North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation's endowment.
Tags: education; university; higher education; nonprofits; North Carolina State University; North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation; schools; colleges; mismanagement; Bank of America
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The Sacred & the Profane
The Riverfront Times finds that "Father Lawrence Biondi is praised for revamping the campus of St. Louis University and boosting its endowment. But the enemies he's made along the way claim that behind the fountains, statues and donations stands a Jesuit bully who's more interested in the material than the spiritual.
Tags: St. Louis University; colleges; Catholic colleges; Jesuit; endowments
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Worldly Rewards: Religious Institutions Are Invoking Premiums To Inspire the Wealthy
The Journal reports on how religious charities are beginning to practice a "so-called stewardship" -- providing all kind of goodies to prominent donors -- which "increasingly comes to resemble plain old fund-raising." The story finds that, "despite secular competition, religion still is America's favorite philanthropic category, with more than $70 billion going to churches, synagogues and other religious organizations in 1997 ... But the share of their charitable dollars Americans give to religion has been shrinking..."
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Unstable Element: Suddenly, Small Gaps In Nuclear Security Look Like Chasms
The Wall Street Journal examines evidence that al Qaeda, the organization of Osama bin Laden, has tried to obtain weapons-grade nuclear material. The article looks at the possibilities for terrorists to build nuclear weapons by using resources of current or former nuclear-power countries. Even though the reporters have found the evidence related to al Qaeda to be "sketchy and unverified ... it has sent authorities around the world rushing to shore up security measures that are in some cases surprisingly weak." The story finds that "armed guards at nuclear-weapons depots often lose in exercises with mock assailants," and that "materials for making a nuclear bomb are accessible enough to support a black market."
Tags: Osama bin Laden; terrorism; al Qaeda; uranium; International Atomic Energy Agency; United Nations; Exelon Corp.; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; college students; Energy Department; TNT; Defense Department; U.S. Customs Service; ex-Soviet republics; military; Project on Government Oversight
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Democracy Inc.
Wilson Quarterly looks at "the democracy industry" built on the American ideological commitment to advancing the democratic cause in the world. The report questions the practice of international corps of observers certifying election results in foreign lands, and finds that "outsiders sometimes do more harm than good." The author points to the example of the 1998 elections in Cambodia where the government denied opposition parties access to radio and television, and marred the election with violence. The story reveals that some foreign observers "failed to report these problems or blithely dismissed all signs of trouble." It also looks at "a subtler form of damage" that the democracy industry did in Indonesia in 1998 by stealing "the spotlight from local groups."
Tags: politics; promotion; National Endowment for Democracy; Carter Center; Asia Foundation; nongovernmental organizations; foreign policy; corruption; civil society; National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI); voting
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Government On Autopilot
The National Journal reports on how and why billions of dollars get spent on unauthorized government programs each year. Legislation governing the operations of many federal programs including the Justice Department, Energy Department and the National Endowment for the Arts expired years ago and has not been reauthorized. It is much easier to keep funding these programs than to reauthorize them.
Tags: congressional oversight; apporpriations; congressional commiteees
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For DePauw University, A $128 Million Bequest Proves a Mixed Blessing
"When Philip Holton died in 1995, followed two years later by his wife, Ruth, they left $128 million to little DePauw University here in the flatlands of central Indiana. . . but good fortune can be expensive". Now DePauw is finding new costs, including a staff to manage the money, in addition to deciding how to divide it among its academic departments. While the contribution has helped the school fulfill ambitions, it has also weighed down the system with new problems. June Kronholz reports more.
Tags: colleges; endowments; contributions; money; National Association of College and University Business Officers; budgets
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An Empty Promise
This National Law Journal investigation "examined the network of state funds that exist to reimburse clients whose money have been stolen by their attorneys." The reporter concluded that "the funds in general were largely a sham: they are poorly endowed, stingy about payouts and not publicized." The three-story packet compared the victims' experiences in "a large state and small state, Illinois and Nebraska" and provided information about the security funds caps and average reimbursements state by state.
Tags: theft; disbarment; American Bar Association; security funds; reimbursement