Five databases at NICAR now offered for free to members

Among some other changes happening at the NICAR Data Library (go here to read more about them), we are now providing five databases for free to IRE members:

Federal Election Commission’s Federal Campaign Contributions, updated weekly, contains campaign contribution information for all candidates seeking federal office and all federal political action committees.  The individual contributions table includes only itemized contributions, meaning those that exceed $200 (note that individual donor addresses are not available in this data).

Small Business Administration’s Disaster Loans are the primary form of federal assistance for non-farm, private-sector disaster losses. This loan program is the only form of SBA assistance not limited to small businesses. Disaster loans from SBA help homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and nonprofit organizations finance their rebuilding. The data identifies the borrower, the disaster, the amount and, for business borrowers, whether the loan was paid in full or deemed uncollectible.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations database is a listing of all organizations granted tax exemption by the IRS. The data includes the organization's name, address, contact person, total annual income, total assets, and codes describing their activities generically.

U.S. Coast Guard’s Recreational Boating Accidents database, released every summer, covers recreational boating accidents that resulted in death or injury requiring more than first aid. Accidents involving vessel loss, vessel damage of more than $2,000 or disappearance of a person under circumstances that indicate death or injury are also included.

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse’s Single Audit database contains information on audits of organizations that receive a certain amount of federal assistance. The Office of Management and Budget requires these audits, and database lists all the federal sources of the organizations' expenditures and the amounts spent. The data also includes notations about whether the audits have revealed any problems, plus valuable contact information, including names, addresses and phone numbers, for the organizations being audited and the auditors.

Members can download these databases at any time by logging in to the IRE website and visiting each individual database page.