Editing OpenSecrets (section)

==History==
===Center for Responsive Politics===
The '''Center for Responsive Politics''' was founded in 1983 by retired U.S. Senators [[Frank Church]] of [[Idaho]], of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], and [[Hugh Scott]] of [[Pennsylvania]], of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].<ref name=founding/> In the 1980s, Church and Scott launched a "money-in-politics" project, whose outcome consisted of large, printed books. Their first book, ''Spending in Congressional Elections: A Never-Ending Spiral'', published in 1988, analyzed spending patterns in congressional elections from 1974 through 1986, including 1986 [[Campaign finance in the United States#"Soft" money/Independent expenditure|soft money]] contributions in five states. The first data was published by CRP in 1990 and the website OpenSecrets.org was launched in 1996, making the data more readily available.<ref name=founding/><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/features/on-the-web/opensecrets.org | title=OpenSecrets.org | work=[[Candid (organization)|Candid]] | date=July 5, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.cjr.org/news_startups_guide/2011/05/opensecretsorg.php/ | title=OpenSecrets.org | first=Daniel | last=Luzer | website=[[Columbia Journalism Review]] | date=May 20, 2011}}</ref>

===National Institute on Money in Politics===
The '''National Institute on Money in Politics''' traces its roots to the "Money in Western Politics" project launched in 1991 and funded by the [[MacArthur Foundation]]. Prior to 1991, data was not digitized and therefore was not easily available. In 1999, three regional teams merged to form NIMP, based in [[Helena, Montana]]. The organization published the Follow The Money website, where it compiled political funding information from government disclosure agencies.<ref name=impact>{{Cite web | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt14bs1xp.8 | title=Shining a Light on State Campaign Finance: An Evaluation of the Impact of the National Institute on Money in State Politics | publisher=[[RAND Corporation]] | first1=Geoffrey | last1=McGovern
| first2=Michael D. | last2=Greenberg | year=2014| jstor=10.7249/j.ctt14bs1xp.8 }}</ref>

The organization did not receive any government funding and relied on philanthropic efforts;<ref name=impact/> among its donations received was $2.3 million in funding from [[Open Society Foundations]].<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/6/soros-vs-american-courts/ | title=Soros vs. American courts | last=Pero | first=Dan | work=[[The Washington Times]] | date=October 6, 2011}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=November 2024}}

===Leadership history===
[[Sheila Krumholz]], who joined the organization in 1989, was the executive director of OpenSecrets and its predecessor from December 2006, having previously served as research director, until December 2023.<ref name=ourteam>{{Cite web | title=Our Team |url=https://www.opensecrets.org/about/staff | publisher=OpenSecrets}}</ref><ref name=leave>{{Cite press release | url=https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/05/press-release-executive-director-sheila-krumholz-to-leave-opensecrets-later-this-year/ | title=Press Release: Executive Director Sheila Krumholz to Leave Open Secrets | publisher=OpenSecrets | date=May 9, 2023}}</ref>