IRE Radio Podcast | Navigating Nonprofits

Americans donate about $300 billion a year to charities, with about 30 percent of that taking place in December. But not all charities are good stewards of donated dollars. For our last podcast of 2014 we’re talking about how to investigate nonprofits and charities. Here’s the lineup:

• Justin Elliott of ProPublica talks about investigating the American Red Cross’ Superstorm Sandy relief efforts
• Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic explains how he exposed major problems with the nonprofits running the Fiesta Bowl

You can find and download previous podcast episodes on iTunes or our Soundcloud page.

We’ll be back in January with new episodes and guests. Until then, we’d love to hear your ideas for the podcast. Email us at web@ire.org.

EPISODE NOTES

Looking for links to the stories, resources and events we discussed on this week's podcast? We've collected them for you.

• Read "The Red Cross’ Secret Disaster" on ProPublica’s website and listen to NPR’s version of the story
• See how ProPublica solicited information on the American Red Cross
• Check our Behind the Story blog the week of Nov. 17 for more on ProPublica and NPR’s Red Cross investigation
• Members only: Download Paula Lavigne’s tipsheet “Nonprofit numbers that don’t add up.”
• Read Harris’ Arizona Republic story on political contributions of Fiesta Bowl employees
• Members only: Download Craig Harris’ tipsheet "Investigating sports nonprofits,' which walks through how he looked into the Fiesta Bowl’s finances.
• View all of the Republic’s Fiesta Bowl coverage as well as its BCS investigation
• Members only: Listen to "Investigating nonprofits: From bowl games to America’s worst charities" a 2014 IRE Conference panel featuring Craig Harris, Paula Lavigne, Kendall Taggart and Kris Hundley.
• Use Charity Checker, a project by the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting, to find information on thousands nonprofits
• Sign up for our January 2015 CAR Boot Camp
• Learn about NICAR Courses, our latest training tool designed for college instructors wanting to teach students the basics of data journalism
• Looking for the charitable giving stats we cited at the top of the episode? Check out Hope Consulting’s 2010 study and Charity Navigator