Link of the Week: Feb. 24 - Feb. 30
Follow the Money
Information about federal candidates' campaign finances has long been available through the Federal Election Commission. Until the creation of www.followthemoney.org, however, information about state-level candidates was hard to obtain.

That's why the site, which is easy to use and tracks contributions in all 50 states, is this week's featured link. Money plays a key role in shaping public policy in North Carolina and other states, and this site provides an easy way to follow the money trail.

The site was created by The Institute on Money in State Politics, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to accurate, comprehensive and unbiased documentation and research on campaign finance at the state level. The Institute develops searchable databases, makes them available to the public online, and analyzes the information to determine the role campaign money plays in public policy debates in the states. The Institute also publishes studies and provides technical assistance and resources to reporters, academic researchers and state groups that work on campaign-finance issues.

Nonprofits Online
View our latest links page for nonprofits here.

Media Forum Links
The handouts that were distributed by journalists at our media forum are online. Journalist contact information is posted also, if you want to follow up with any of the people you met at the forum (or if you live in the Asheville area and want to see what you missed!).

Link/Article of the Week Archives
For your convenience, we've begun archiving past weeks' featured links and articles.

The Missing Link
Have any suggestions for us regarding next week’s link? Or is there information you seek, but you can’t find a helpful link? Let us know! If others would benefit from the information, we just may track down a link for you, or use your suggestion as Link of the Week.

Contribute Online!
It is now possible to contribute to FIRE online using your credit card. Please help us out, we can't be effective without your financial support! In the future, we will also be using similar technology, provided by PayPal, to enable you to pay for our upcoming events from our website with ease.

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Are you enjoying our "link of the week" and "article spotlight" features? Please let us know.

Welcome to FIRE, a non-profit organization which provides community media resources to the Appalachian region. You can use the search box on this page to search our online archive of media outlets throughout the area. If you are a local journalist (or want to be), visit the "Resources for Journalists" section. You'll find resources that will improve your community reporting skills and will enable area residents to easily locate your published articles online.

FIRE's purpose is to promote citizen participation and community-based media. Please contact us if you would like to participate in our programs or if you have any feedback that will improve this Web site.