Just about anyone who has tuned in "American Idol" this season has seen video clips of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell touring slums in Africa or working with victims of poverty in the United States as part of the program's "Idol Gives Back" charity. Ryan Seacrest, the show's host, has repeatedly extolled the charity for the $76 million it raised last year.

But even as "American Idol" and Fox Broadcasting prepare for their second annual star-studded "Idol Gives Back" appeal on Wednesday, officials at the charity have declined to release a formal accounting of last year's effort. A spokesman for the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund, the organization that oversaw the fund-raising and distribution, said its financial statements were being audited and would be released by the federal financial reporting deadline for charities in May.

That does little, however, to help individuals and corporations that, while considering further contributions, might wonder what happened to the money they gave last year. But interviews with officials involved in the charities that received money as well as people associated with the fund-raising effort show that most of what was raised last year has been given or pledged to organizations fighting poverty in the United States and Africa. Some $5 million of last year's proceeds and interest remains undistributed.

About $55 million was contributed by individuals who called in during last year's "Idol Gives Back" program, and corporations contributed roughly $14 million more, according to interviews with officials involved in the effort. An additional $7 million came from corporations and foundations that made direct or matching grants to the charities designated to receive money.

Read the whole story here.