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Thank you! 

For this year’s #GivingTuesday, we set a one-day goal of $5,000 for the first time in the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s history. We hoped that we could reach it by midnight to meet an inspiring match offered by donor Barbara Johnson.

By 5 o’clock, your gifts exceeded our goal and by the end of the day, the grand total reached $6,848! On top of that, over a third of you who donated were first-time supporters of the Center and Wisconsin Watch, our newsroom.

We are deeply moved by the outpouring of support in making yesterday’s #GivingTuesday campaign a success and, most of all, for support throughout the year that makes everything we do possible.

The increase in giving is remarkable. Yesterday, as I prepped to speak virtually with a journalism entrepreneurship class, I came across a document that listed the Center’s top goals for 2014. It included a goal to raise $4,000 by the end of the year.

Counting Barbara Johnson’s $5,000 contribution, in a single day you helped us raise nearly three times as much as we sought to raise from individuals in the entire year of 2014.

Yesterday’s success is more than just a fundraising number. 

Public support — including generous gifts from members of our Watchdog Cluband Leadership Circle — makes it possible for all of us to carry out our mission of increasing the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative journalism to foster an informed citizenry and strengthen democracy.

You are why we exist. You are why we produce investigative reports on issues that aren’t covered by other newsrooms. You are why we are able to execute on our guiding principles: Protect the vulnerable. Expose wrongdoing. Explore solutions. 

Thank you!

The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

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Andy Hall, a co-founder of Wisconsin Watch and a former Investigative Reporters and Editors board member, won dozens of awards for his reporting in 26 years at the Wisconsin State Journal and The Arizona Republic. Since the Wisconsin Watch's launch in 2009, he has been responsible for the journalistic and financial operations.

Hall began his career in 1982 as a copyboy at The New York Times. At The Republic, Hall helped break the “Keating Five” scandal involving Sen. John McCain. At the State Journal, Hall’s stories held government and the powerful accountable and protected the vulnerable through coverage that addressed the racial achievement gap in public schools and helped spark the creation of the nationally noted Schools of Hope volunteer tutoring program, revealed NCAA violations by University of Wisconsin athletes, and exposed appalling conditions in neglected neighborhoods such as Allied Drive and Worthington Park. Hall won a first-place award in 2008 for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association. He also has received National Headliner, Gerald Loeb, James K. Batten and Inland Press Association awards for investigative, financial, deadline and civic journalism coverage. Hall has served as a mentor to the staff of La Comunidad, a Spanish-language newspaper in Madison, and has taught numerous courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication. He serves on the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council Board of Directors, Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism Board of Directors, and Indiana University Media School’s Journalism Alumni Board, of which he is president. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and, in 2016, received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU Media School. He also serves as a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News membership task force to create and uphold high industry standards.