The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

consortium of

nonprofit journalism Nonprofit journalism or philanthrojournalism is the practice of journalism funded largely by donations and foundations. The growth in this sector has been helped by funders seeing a need for public interest journalism like investigative reporting ...

organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism. INN facilitates collaborations between member organizations, provides training in best-practices and fundraising, and provides back-office services.

History

INN was founded as the Investigative News Network in 2009 at a summer conference held at the Pocantico Center in New York with journalists from the Center for Public Integrity and the

Center for Investigative Reporting The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in San Francisco, California. CIR was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization. It subsequently grew into a multi ...

, among other newer organizations. The result of that conference was the Pocantico Declaration with the intent to share resources and collaborate on projects. Two papers in 2010 described a trend in news media where

watchdog journalism Watchdog journalism is a form of investigative journalism where journalists, authors or publishers of a News, news publication fact-checking, fact-check and Interviewing, interview political figure, political and Public figure, public figures t ...

was being done increasingly outside of mainstream newsrooms. INN was granted 501(c)(3)

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

status by the IRS in March 2012, 19 months after applying. 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 mission 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. At the start of 2024, Karen Rundlet took over the top role from Cross; Rundlet had worked in the journalism program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for several years and was previously a multimedia business journalist.

Members

As of November 2024, INN has 475 members, up from 189 in March 2019 and 60 in 2011. In 2023, 48% of newsrooms that applied to become members were accepted, with others not meeting membership standards like editorial independence, quality of journalism and transparency around who funds their work. Most outlets, as of 2023, were focused at the state and local level. A growing number of outlets also reported having volunteers play a significant role. As of February 2024, the median member had 4 staffers and $271,000 in revenue.

Notable national or international members

* Coda Media *

Indian Country Today ''ICT'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a nonprofit, multimedia news platform that covers the Indigenous world, with a particular focus on American Indian, Alaska Native and First Nations communities across North America. Fo ...

Inside Climate News ''Inside Climate News'' is a non-profit news organization, focusing on environmental journalism about the climate crisis. The publication conducts watchdog journalism on climate policy, climate misinformation, and environmental injustice.

* ''Mother Jones'' *

PBS News Hour ''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations since October 20, 1975. It airs seven nights a week, and ...

PolitiFact PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. ProPublica's investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to ne ...

Religion News Service Religion News Service, branded as RNS, is a news agency founded in 1934. It covers religion, ethics, spirituality and moral issues, and publishes news, information, and commentaries on faiths and religious movements to newspapers, magazines, bro ...

* ''The Conversation'' * ''

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...

'' *

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying, including a revolving door database which documents the individuals who have worked in both the public sector an ...

* ''Chronicle of Philanthropy'' *

Pulitzer Center The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an American news media organization established in 2006 that sponsors independent reporting on global issues that other media outlets are less willing or able to undertake on their own. The center's goal ...

The Signals Network The Signals Network (TSN) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2017 by a coalition of journalists, lawyers, whistleblowers, technology entrepreneurs, and transparency activists. The organization supports whistleblowers who have sha ...

Regional or local

WNYC WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...

(New York) * WHYY (Philadelphia) * KQED (San Francisco Bay Area) * WABE (Atlanta) *

WFAE WFAE (90.7 MHz) is a non-commercial public radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the main NPR news and information member in the Charlotte region. The station's main studios and offices are at One University Place in the Universit ...

(Charlotte) *

KNPR KNPR (88.9 MHz, "News 88.9") is a non-commercial, listener-supported, public radio station in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by Nevada Public Radio and it airs news and talk programming from National Public Radio (NPR) and other public radio ...

(Nevada) * ''

CalMatters ''CalMatters'', a nonprofit news organization covering California state politics and policies, launched in 2015. Founders cited the decline in coverage of state politics in the decade leading up to the founding of ''CalMatters'' as a major moti ...

'' (California) * ''Texas Tribune'' (Texas) * ''

Honolulu Civil Beat ''Honolulu Civil Beat'' is a nonprofit online news organization covering the U.S. state of Hawaii. It specializes in investigative reporting, watchdog journalism and in-depth enterprise coverage. History Pierre Omidyar launched ''Civil Beat'' i ...

'' (Hawai'i) * ''

New York Focus ''New York Focus'' is a nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism covering New York State and City politics and policy. The organization was founded in October 2020 by Akash Mehta, who acts as editor-in-chief. ''New Yo ...

'' (New York) * ''

Mississippi Today Mississippi Today is a nonprofit online newsroom headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Launched in 2016, it was founded by former Netscape president Jim Barksdale and his wife Donna, alongside former NBC chairman Andrew Lack, to address the ...

'' (Mississippi) * ''

The Connecticut Mirror ''The Connecticut Mirror'' (also known as ''CT Mirror'') is a nonprofit, non-partisan, online-only news organization covering public policy, government, and politics in Connecticut. Based in Hartford, Connecticut, ''CT Mirror'' was founded in 200 ...

'' (Connecticut) *

Chalkbeat Chalkbeat is a non-profit news organization that covers education in several American communities. Its mission is to "inform the decisions and actions that lead to better outcomes for children and families by providing deep, local coverage of ed ...

Rural News Network

As of 2024, the network reported having 80 INN-member newsrooms across 47 states. In 2021, ''The Associated Press'' reported on how INN was helping to form The Rural News Network, a collaboration that started with 60 rural nonprofit news organizations before it reported growing to 70 in 2022.

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", In 2011, INN joined the Thomson Reuters media platform. In 2011, INN also launched the INNovation fund with the

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 ...

to support experimentalism in nonprofit journalism. In 2012, INN developed "Project Largo", a

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

theme and

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2, a programming language implemented for and used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum coll ...

platform for news websites based on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's Project Argo that is used by member organizations in New Orleans, Connecticut, Maine, Iowa, Oklahoma and elsewhere. In 2013, INN's CEO Kevin Davis consulted on a nonprofit media working group for the

Council on Foundations A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

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 Nonprofit journalism or philanthrojournalism is the practice of journalism funded largely by donations and foundations. The growth in this sector has been helped by funders seeing a need for public interest journalism like Investigative journalism ...

organizations. In 2013, INN member I-News merged with Rocky Mountain PBS and Denver-based NPR affiliate KUVO in what was a first of its kind merger between public broadcasters and INN members. Since 2016, INN has operated NewsMatch, an initiative supported by a collective of national and regional foundations that match donations from individuals to nonprofit news organizations and that also provides fundraising training and resources to help newsrooms become more sustainable. In 2021, ''The'' ''New York Times'' highlighted how communities where local newspapers were shuttering followed INN's playbook for how to start a nonprofit news organization, which it found were becoming more prevalent. In November 2024, the Institute for Nonprofit News secured press credentials for all of its 475 member organizations in a partnership with the

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that provides pro bono legal services and resources to and on behalf of journalists. The organization pursues litigation, offers direct ...

References

External links

* * {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer, 272614911 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