Had the pleasure to design the landing page and packaging for this ambitious project by the enterprise team of the Tampa Bay Times. America’s Worst Charities brings to light disturbing practices by funds raisers across the nation. In many cases only a small fraction of the funds raised actually go to the intended causes, and some of those charities themselves are little more than a network set up by groups who run both the soliciting phone banks and the “cause,” thus keeping most of the funds collected in service and salary fees.

This report was the result of a yearlong collaboration between the Tampa Bay Times and California-based Center for Investigative Reporting, the nation’s largest and longest serving nonprofit newsroom dedicated to watchdog journalism. CNN also participated the partnership. Leading the investigation were the Times’ Kris Hundley and Kendall Taggart from CIR. Bill Higgins of the Times led the development on a database on the 50 worst offenders, a database of state-by-state citations, and a tool for consumers to report suspicious charities.