The BGA was established in 1923 to increase voter participation in Chicago elections, and was originally intended to serve as a non-partisan guide to better government.

[1] One of the BGA's most famous investigations took place in 1977 when it worked with the Chicago Sun-Times to open and operate a fake bar called Mirage Tavern.

The database separates bonus pay and overtime from base salaries, and also allows users to track the work histories for individual employees.

The investigation documented the human and financial toll of alleged government and police misconduct that led to 85 people wrongfully incarcerated for violent crimes they did not commit.

[8] In 2018, BGA reporters won the Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing from the National Press Foundation for a series on lax nuclear oversight.