The story
Founded by Frank Church and Hugh Scott in 1983.1
Center for Responsive Politics
The Center for Responsive Politics was founded in 1983 by retired two U.S. Senators, Frank Church of Idaho of the Democratic Party, and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania of the Republican Party. 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 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.
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. The organization did not receive any government funding and relied on philanthropic efforts; among its donations received was $2.3 million in funding from Open Society Foundations.
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Center for Responsive Politics, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3