The Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation (SIRF) has won 501(c)3 status after a 13 month wait from the IRS. "I probably called their 800 number half a dozen times" in the intervening months, said Roddy Boyd of SIRF. "It felt like some sort of test from above -- how bad do we want it?" The eventual determination by the IRS felt equally divine in nature, says Boyd: "And after 13 months, the Lord said, 'Let there be a tax exemption.'"
Boyd credits INN with helping SIRF keep moving forward with their work during this time, particularly with benefits like insurance. "Nobody gets more crap than a business reporter," says Boyd. "The people we report on have a lot of time, energy, and money and can make your life supremely uncomfortable if they want to."
SIRF's latest piece, "The Erstwhile Hedge Fund King of Akron, Ohio's Very Bad Summer," covers the rise and fall of a tweeting hedge fund operator whose profits looked too good to be true -- and were. You can read it here.