A joint investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting, the Tampa Bay Times and CNN identified America's 50 worst charities -- organizations that plead for financial support and lie to donors about where their money goes, taking multiple salaries and secretly paying themselves or their friends through consulting fees and fundraising contracts.

Reporters Kris Hundley and Kendall Taggart spent more than a year reviewing documents and building a one-of-a-kind database of the country's worst charitable organizations.

Find out more about what they found and how they found it as they join IRE in a live Google Hangout tomorrow. Tune ...

Make your plans now to join us in San Antonio for the 2013 Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference.

Check out the list of panels and sessions -- this isn't everything, just a sampling of what you'll be able to dig into when we gather from June 20-23.

Keynote speaker Marcela Turati will detail the dangers journalists face in Mexico. We'll showcase sports investigations with help from Deadspin, The Washington Post's Sally Jenkins and more. And in dozens of panels and hands-on sessions, you'll be armed with the tools, tips and strategies you need to ...

The deadline has been extended to April 14 for an all-expenses paid reporting workshop on covering agribusiness from The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and Investigative Reporters and Editors, held May 30 to June 2 in Champaign, Ill. Applications must be received by midnight Central Time. 

The workshop will bring together educators, reporters and editors from small-to-midsize newsrooms to hear and learn how to take an in-depth look at the issues surrounding agribusiness. 

Why investigate agribusiness ...

Monday is the last day to register for an all-expenses paid reporting workshop on covering agribusiness from The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and Investigative Reporters and Editors, held May 30 to June 2 in Champaign, Ill. The workshop will bring together educators, reporters and editors from small-to-midsize newsrooms to hear and learn how to take an in-depth look at the issues surrounding agribusiness. 

Why investigate agribusiness? Corporate agribusiness is growing each year. Agribusiness produces food ...

Time is running out for your chance to get free investigative training for your newsroom. The deadline to apply for Total Newsroom Training from IRE is by the end of the day on Friday, Feb. 22. 

TNT is meant to reach organizations that are hungry for customized investigative training but can't afford it. Training is tailored to the needs of your newsroom and is designed to increase your ability to provide watchdog and enterprise coverage for your community and to produce work that can lead to changes and improvements in those communities.

Custom sessions can include hands-on training using ...

IRE is launching a new program and is looking for news organizations dedicated to doing watchdog work. This is your newsroom’s opportunity to have intense, in-house investigative training -- for free. If your organization is hungry for customized investigative training and can't afford it, apply today. Spots are limited.

Total Newsroom Training from IRE is designed to increase the ability of news organizations to provide watchdog and enterprise coverage for their communities and to produce work that can lead to change and improvements in those communities.

The program is meant to help small to medium-size news organizations, and IRE ...

By Megan Luther

African journalists face different reporting barriers than their colleagues in the U.S., yet they share the desire to learn investigative techniques.

IRE traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of October to train reporters at the annual Power Reporting: The African Investigative Journalism Conference.

More than 200 journalists attended the three-day conference, which included typical sessions such as hands-on Excel training, but also addressed the risks that some journalists face. 

The Dangers
Freedom of the press takes on a different meaning in Africa. Journalists have been murdered, exiled and imprisoned for publishing the truth. 

Somalia ...

By Mc Nelly Torres

Víctor Hugo Michel is excited and overwhelmed.

He hasn’t stopped thinking about all the stories he will be able to report and write using the data analysis and investigative tools he learned this past weekend at the IberoAmericana University in México City.

“I never thought I could organize data, rank it and compare it electronically to find new trends and information which is not easy to see with the naked eye,” said Michel, a reporter for the newspaper Grupo Milenio in México City. “These tools are like using a new set of ...

By Christopher Dolan, University of Scranton

From the art of the interview to “Facebook creeping,” we learned many invaluable investigative tools at IRE’s Scranton Watchdog Workshop.

During the day-long event, various expert investigative journalists taught the tricks and techniques needed when hunting down a good story.

Tisha Thompson from WRC-Washington had many tips for crafting a strong interview during her one-hour presentation. Ms. Thompson drew from her experience in the field to outline how journalists should handle their various interviewees—detailing how a journalist should interact with victims, criminals and everyone in between. Ms. Thompson said when interviewing both ...

This is the first post under Transparency Watch, an occasional series from IRE tracking the fight for open records. If you have a story about a quest for public records you'd like to share, email us at web@ire.org.

By Laura Bischoff, The Dayton Daily News

The Dayton Daily News published a hard hitting Sunday story on Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee spending $7.7 million on housing, travel, entertainment and community outreach.

The tab included $64,000 for bow tie cookies, bow ties, bow tie and O-H pins, $31,000 for a party attended by ...