The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

consortium of journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism through its association of member entities.

History

INN was founded as the Investigative News Network in 2009 at a summer conference held at the Pocantico Center in New York funded by the

Rockefeller Brothers Fund The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) is a philanthropic foundation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was founded in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle for the five third-generation Rockefeller brothe ...

, the

Surdna Foundation The Surdna Foundation was established as a charitable foundation in 1917 by John Emory Andrus to pursue a range of philanthropic purposes. History A devoted family man with nine children, Andrus founded the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial in 1928 ...

and the

William Penn Foundation The William Penn Foundation is a grant-making foundation established in 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by businessman Otto Haas and his wife Phoebe, and initially called the Phoebe Waterman Foundation. It strives to improve "the quality of ...

and organized by the

Center for Public Integrity The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to ...

and the Center for Investigative Reporting. The result of that conference was the Pocantico Declaration, which begins:

Resolved, that we, representatives of nonprofit news organizations, gather at a time when investigative reporting, so crucial to a functioning democracy, is under threat. There is an urgent need to nourish and sustain the emerging investigative journalism ecosystem to better serve the public.

INN was granted 501(c)(3)

status by the IRS in March 2012, 19 months after applying. As of March 2019, INN had 189 members. The nonprofit members are part of a growing movement in news media to provide watchdog journalism that is not covered in mainstream media. INN operating and project budgets are underwritten through a combination of grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation (EEJF) is a grant-making foundation based in Oklahoma that provides grants to journalism institutions throughout the United States. In 2011, the foundation's assets were $91.1 million and $4 million ...

and other charitable foundations. In November 2014, the board of INN met to conduct a strategic review of the organization. During that meeting the board decided to refine the organization's and to change its name from "Investigative News Network" to the "Institute for Nonprofit News". In March 2015, the board voted to terminate the organization's first CEO, Kevin Davis, and appoint data reporter Denise Malan as the interim CEO while a search was conducted to find a permanent replacement. In September 2015, Sue Cross, formerly a consultant and before that a long-time employee of AP was hired as the new Executive Director and CEO.

Activities

As a 501(c)3 non-profit education organization, INN provides coordination, training, support services and financial sponsorship to its membership. It has published educational resources and training materials, including a whitepaper, "Audience Development and Distribution Strategies", and regular articles by experts in the fields of business and journalism. In 2011, INN joined the Thomson Reuters media platform. In 2012, INN developed "Project Largo", a

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theme and

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platform for news websites based on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's Project Argo that is used by member organizations in New Orleans, Connecticut, Maine, Iowa, Oklahoma and elsewhere. The Community Journalism Executive Training (CJET) program was started by INN in 2012 to provide business training to members. In 2013, INN's CEO Kevin Davis consulted on a nonprofit media working group for the

Council on Foundations The Council on Foundations, founded in 1949, is a nonprofit leadership association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. The Council's mission is to provide the opportunity, leadership, and tools needed by philanthropic organizations to exp ...

to produce a report titled "The IRS and Nonprofit Media". The report urges the IRS to update its approach to granting charity status to

non-profit journalism Non-profit journalism (abbreviated as NPJ, also known as a not-for-profit journalism or think tank journalism) is the practice of journalism as a non-profit organization instead of a for-profit business. NPJ groups are able to operate and serve t ...

organizations. Since 2016, INN has partnered with NewsMatch, an initiative supported by several national foundations that match donations from individuals to nonprofit news organizations.

Organizational structure

Funding

INN is supported by individual contributions and grants awarded by charitable foundations. A list of INN's funders may be found on the organization's official website. INN's filings with the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory t ...

and a progress report are also available on the organization's website. In 2009, INN raised $212,701. In 2011, INN reported $649,300 in revenues and $633,590 in expenses. INN reports receiving foundation support from a number of foundations, including the

, the

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and ...

, the John S. and James L.

Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

, the

Atlantic Philanthropies The Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) was a private foundation created in 1982 by Irish-American businessman Chuck Feeney. The Atlantic Philanthropies focused its giving on health, social, and politically left-leaning public policy causes in Australi ...

, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the

Hewlett Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, commonly known as the Hewlett Foundation, is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder William Redington Hewlett and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1966. The Hewlett Foundation aw ...

, the Democracy Fund and the

Board of directors

INN's board of directors includes Laura Frank (chair), Brant Houston (secretary), Reginald Chua (treasurer), Anne Galloway, Sheila Krumholz, Marcia Parker, Norberto Santana Jr., Nancy West,

Neal Shapiro Neal B. Shapiro (born March 9, 1958) is the President and CEO of WNET. He worked previously as the President of NBC News and the executive producer for ''Dateline NBC''. Prior to this Shapiro spent 13 years as a news producer at ABC News. Early ...

, Bruce Theriault, and Hsiu Mei Wong.

Awards

INN was the winner of the 2011 Manship Prize at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 n ...

, and was honored at the 1913 Dinner Friday, Sept. 9, 2011.

Editorial collaborations

INN has facilitated multiple editorial collaborations including: ''Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice'' – Starting in February 2009, the

fielded a team of reporters and researchers to lift the curtain on how colleges and universities respond to reports of sexual assault. ''Aviation Database Reveals Frequent Safety Problems at Airports'' – A six-month examination of more than 150,000 reports filed by pilots and others in the aviation industry over the past 20 years reveals surprising and sometimes shocking safety breaches and close calls at local, regional and major airports throughout the country. ''Deadly Patrols: Abuses of Civilians by U.S. Border Patrol Agents'' This series is the result of a months-long collaboration among the newsrooms, which shared documents, reporting and interviews. The multi-platform collaborative project, coordinated by INN, documented allegations of mistreatment and investigated every death involving border agents. Reporters found that the number of fatal incidents is growing even as both assaults on Border Patrol agents and the number of immigrants attempting to cross the border illegally is in decline. ''Wasted Places: EPA Program Falls Short in Toxic Site Cleanups'' is a collaborative investigation by six nonprofit newsrooms into federal and state programs designed to clean up and redevelop polluted tracts known as " brownfields". The project was reported and written by the Connecticut Health Investigative Team,

City Limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate li ...

, Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and INN. ''Big Political Donors Give Far and Wide, Influence Out-of-State Races and Issues'' is an analysis of contributions by wealthy individuals in seven states shows that their giving is greater than any one cause or race reveals—with millions flowing into state, federal and even local campaigns, parties and committees far and wide. "Exhausted at School" – Several INN members used mapping software t
pinpoint schools
that are located very close to major highways, potentially putting schoolchildren at risk of asthma and higher absenteeism rates caused by pollution. The project was supported by th
Investigative Reporters and Editors
and Google Ideas Data Journalism Fund and led by INN an
InvestigateWest
an award-winning journalism studio in Seattle. "Hazardous materials transportation" Members includin
IowaWatch
an
MinnPost
analyzed U.S. Department of Transportation data for their state to show how often there are accidents and spills involving hazardous materials.

Sustainability of nonprofit newsrooms

INN's mission is focused on helping nonprofit newsrooms achieve sustainability as self-sustaining, mission-driven nonprofit newsrooms focused on meeting the information needs of citizens and communities. To that end, in 2012 INN released the white paper entitled "Audience Development and Distribution Strategies" authored by Elizabeth Osder with assistance from Kaizar Campwala. Printed in limited run and available for download for free from both the INN website and from iTunes, the paper focuses on documenting best-practices from both within the network as well as for-profit media partners. In 2013, INN member I-News merged with Rocky Mountain PBS and Denver-based NPR affiliate KUVO in what is a first of its kind merger between public broadcasters and INN members. Mergers of this type are expected to continue as nonprofit newsrooms look to create efficiencies in serving communities across media and platforms.

References

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External links

* IN
Home page
* INN i
Nieman Journalism Lab's Encyclopedia
* INN i
Rockefeller Brothers Fund description of INN and founding at The Pocantico Center
American journalism organizations Investigative journalism News agencies based in the United States Charities based in California American news websites Organizations established in 2009 Trade associations based in the United States Journalism-related professional associations Non-profit organizations based in California 2009 establishments in California