Nataline Sarkisyan might be alive today had I not been such a team player when she was so sick.

Had I not been so focused on helping my company “win in the marketplace” and “enhance shareholder value,” had health insurance companies been held more accountable by lawmakers, the media and the public, Nataline, who died at the age of 17 nine years and 310 days ago, might have received the liver transplant she needed.

I know about Nataline because of the role I played in her struggle to live—I was writing talking points to try to justify a colleague’s decision to deny coverage for the surgery her doctors were pleading for—but there are an untold number of other Americans who are no longer with us because big corporations, in their unrelenting goal to meet Wall Street’s profit expectations, put profits before the needs of the rest of us.

Nothing I can ever do will bring Nataline back, but I can do something to help others who find out, often when it’s too late as it was in her case, just how powerless they’ve become. I can use my knowledge of how profit-obsessed special interests, whether in health care or any number of other big businesses, have rigged the system in their favor.

That’s why I’m starting Tarbell.org, a new reader-funded investigative journalism nonprofit with the mission of holding corporations and other moneyed interests more accountable. Our goal is to help average Americans take back their power and drive needed change. We want average Americans to own us and hold us accountable, which is why Tarbell.org will be reader-funded. We’re seeking to raise awareness and support among thousands of Americans passionate about changing the state of journalism and the political status quo.

Tarbell.org will do more than investigate wrong-doing. We’ll explain how and why the wrong-doers get away with it, and we’ll connect the dots to show readers how political corruption financed by moneyed interests affects their lives. We’ll also go the additional and essential mile of spotlighting solutions and helping our community of readers figure out how they can make a difference. You can learn more about how we’re different at Tarbell.org.