Dear friend of OpenSecrets,

OpenSecrets offers independent, original money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether we're covering the 2020 presidential campaigns, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce content using indisputable data, expert analysis and in-depth investigations. We dig deep to create unrivaled datasets that also fuel stories and reports by others on the issues you care about most, as evidenced by the millions of users we served throughout 2019.

If you’ve missed some of our reporting, we’ve compiled our best stories into a holiday reading list to bring you all the ways we followed the money during this turbulent non-election year. In 2019 OpenSecrets made a difference:

• Identifying bad actors: With CRP data, The Intercept found and wrote a major expose of contributions to Jeb Bush's super PAC, leading to a Campaign Legal Center complaint and ultimately a Federal Election Commission enforcement action and the third-largest FEC fine in history.
• Improving disclosure and platform accountability: Within a day of CRP nonprofits researcher Anna Massoglia demonstrating that a group was advertising in violation of Facebook's terms of service, the Facebook ads were corrected to include disclosure information.
• Used to substantiate proposed legislation: CRP's Foreign Lobby Watch work was used by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo as she promoted new legislation to improve lobbying disclosure. And a Senate group including Senator Amy Klobuchar used CRP data in its recent letter to IRS Commissioner Rettig calling to reverse the decision protecting the anonymity of "dark money" donors.