Institute for Nonprofit News

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a non-profit consortium of journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism through its association of member entities.

Institute for Nonprofit News
Formation2009
Type501(c)(3)
27-2614911
Registration no.C3250040
Membership (2023)
425+
Executive Director and CEO
Sue Cross[1]
Staff
20-30 [1]
Websiteinn.org

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, among other newer organizations. The result of that conference was the Pocantico Declaration with the intent to share resources and collaborate on projects.[2]

Two papers in 2010 described a trend in news media where watchdog journalism was being done increasingly outside of mainstream newsrooms.[3][4]

INN was granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status by the IRS in March 2012, 19 months after applying.[5]

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.[6] 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.[7]

Membership

As of July 2023, INN had over 425 members,[8] up from 189 in March 2019.[9] ProPublica joined in 2011 when there were 60 members.[10]

INN says its membership is open to independent, nonprofit news organizations that:[11]

  • Produce high-quality and original journalism that serves their communities through trustworthy information and encouraging civic engagement
  • Maintain editorial and operational independence
  • Are transparent in their sources of funding
  • Follow INN’s membership standards for ethics and best practices in nonprofit journalism

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",[12] and regular articles by experts in the fields of business and journalism.

In 2011, INN joined the Thomson Reuters media platform.[13]

In 2011, INN also launched the INNovation fund with the Knight Foundation to support experimentalism in nonprofit journalism.[14]

In 2012, INN developed "Project Largo", a WordPress theme and CMS platform for news websites based on NPR's Project Argo that is used by member organizations in New Orleans, Connecticut, Maine, Iowa, Oklahoma and elsewhere.[15][16]

In 2013, INN's CEO Kevin Davis consulted on a nonprofit media working group for the Council on Foundations 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 organizations.[17]

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.[18]

Since 2016, INN has partnered with NewsMatch, an initiative supported by several national foundations that match donations from individuals to nonprofit news organizations.[19]

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.[20]

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[21] and has grown to 70 in 2022.[22]

Editorial collaborations

INN has facilitated multiple editorial collaborations including:

Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice – Starting in February 2009, the Center for Public Integrity fielded a team of reporters and researchers to lift the curtain on how colleges and universities respond to reports of sexual assault.[23]

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.[24]

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 – This 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, 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 – This 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 to 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 the Investigative Reporters and Editors and Google Ideas Data Journalism Fund and led by INN and InvestigateWest, an award-winning journalism studio in Seattle.[25]

Hazardous materials transportation – Members including IowaWatch and MinnPost analyzed U.S. Department of Transportation data for their state to show how often there are accidents and spills involving hazardous materials.

See also

References
  1. "Institute for Nonprofit News » Staff". Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  2. Houston, Brant (2015-02-20). "21st Century Muckraking: Investigative Reporting Unleashed". Global Investigative Journalism Network. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  3. Hunter, Mark Lee; Van Wassenhove, Luk N. (2010). "Disruptive News Technologies: Stakeholder Media and the Future of Watchdog Journalism Business Models". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1582324. ISSN 1556-5068.
  4. Houston, Brant (April 2010). "The future of investigative journalism". Daedalus. 139 (2): 45–56. doi:10.1162/daed.2010.139.2.45. ISSN 0011-5266.
  5. Myers, Steve (March 20, 2012). "Investigative News Network gets IRS nonprofit status". Poynter. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012.
  6. Lichterman, Joseph (April 9, 2015). "INN splits with CEO Davis as it refocuses its efforts to promote nonprofit journalism". Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  7. "The Institute for Nonprofit News hires Sue Cross, formerly at the AP, as its new CEO". niemanlab.org. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  8. "Institute for Nonprofit News » About INN". inn.org. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  9. "Spirited Media is selling its three local newsrooms". Current. Poynter. March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  10. Cho, Minhee (2011-08-30). "ProPublica Joins the Investigative News Network". ProPublica. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  11. "Explore Membership". Institute for Nonprofit News. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  12. "More recipes for success of nonprofit news ventures" Knight Blog, 14 March 2012.
  13. "Investigative News Network joins the Reuters Media Platform | Reuters". 2011-06-17. Archived from the original on 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  14. "Investigative News Network » Encyclo » Nieman Journalism Lab". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  15. Beatty, Steve (2013-02-15). "Now in our fourth year, The Lens has new website, office, funding". The Lens. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  16. "Project Argo, meet Project Largo: Open source code finds new use in the sites of nonprofit news orgs". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  17. "IRS should allow news to evolve: Column". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  18. Albert, Sarah (25 March 2013). "A Perfect Marriage?". American Journalism Review. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  19. "NewsMatch | Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018". www.newsmatch.org. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  20. Seelye, Katharine Q. (2021-06-20). "When the Local Paper Shrank, These Journalists Started an Alternative". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  21. "Independent websites team up to boost rural journalism". AP News. 2021-11-18. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  22. "The State of Nonprofit News". Institute for Nonprofit News. 2022. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  23. "About this project". Center for Public Integrity. 2010-02-24. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  24. Aviation Database Reveals Frequent Safety Problems at Airports Archived 2013-04-15 at archive.today "Investigative News Network" 5 March 2013
  25. Alcorn, Jason (2013-10-01). "Exhausted at School - InvestigateWest". Retrieved 2023-07-26.
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