The Investigative News Network (INN) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a fiscal sponsor arrangement for four new member projects. Joining the roster of INN’s more than 70 nonprofit, non-partisan news organizations are the Global Center for Investigative Journalism, the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation, the Investigative Post, and the Ohio Center for Investigative Reporting.
INN received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit determination from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in March 2012, after a wait of 19 months. Organizations that educate the public through investigative and public-service journalism continue to face long delays in obtaining nonprofit determination from the IRS. By offering fiscal sponsorship to members that function in a manner consistent with INN’s mission and within 501(c)(3) regulations, INN is fulfilling its mission to foster and further sustainable nonprofit journalism in the public interest.
“We are as focused on nurturing new, start-up nonprofit newsrooms to help fill the void left by the pullback of commercial civic news as we are in assisting existing organizations,” said Kevin Davis, CEO & Executive Director of INN. “INN is uniquely qualified to provide fiscal sponsorship for newsrooms in their formative stages and help them through the process of becoming viable, independent nonprofit organizations.”
The Global Center for Investigative Journalism (GCIJ) is an international organization dedicated to advancing investigative journalism around the world through networking strategies, collaborations, and capacity-building among investigative reporting organizations.
GCIJ's major program is managing the secretariat for the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), an association of more than 70 nonprofit organizations in 35 countries. GIJN is a critical hub for the world’s investigative reporters, and it sponsors the biennial Global Investigative Journalism Conference, the next of which will be held this October in Rio de Janeiro.
“Linking up with INN is a natural move for us,” said GCIJ Executive Director David E. Kaplan. “INN’s expertise in smart business practices and innovative technology brings invaluable resources to our mission. At the same time, we can literally bring the world to INN and its members.”
The Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation (SIRF) seeks to provide in-depth financial investigative reporting on publicly listed companies and other capital markets participants. SIRF’s work, using publicly available legal and financial documents, is designed to fill in the massive information gap that afflicts readers and investors who have traditionally relied on media to investigate and hold accountable those people and institutions whom they entrust with their hard won capital.
“Joining the Investigative News Network was an obvious decision for SIRF because of the host of very real benefits they provide investigative news efforts like ours,” said SIRF’s Roddy Boyd. “From benefits in insurance coverage to fiscal sponsorship, we find that INN has consistently come up with an answer to the issues most likely to prevent us from doing the investigative reporting America needs us to do.”
Investigative Post is a nonprofit investigative reporting center focused on issues of importance to Buffalo and Western New York. Its dual mission is to promote a just and well-governed community and a healthy environment and economy by providing citizens with high-quality investigative reporting and analysis, and to develop young journalists, particularly those of color, through partnerships with local colleges and universities and by providing internships, apprenticeships and other opportunities to students and recent graduates wanting to learn the craft of investigative reporting.
In addition to the new members, INN has also become the fiscal sponsor for the Tucson Sentinel, a current member and local independent nonprofit news organization that offers professional reporting and community conversation on issues that affect Tucson.
INN was founded in 2009 to help the increasing number of nonprofit newsrooms pool resources, promote editorial collaborations and get wider distribution of their work. INN is composed of organizations that produce nonpartisan investigative and public service journalism of regional, national and international scope. INN members produce original, multi-media longform and ongoing stories and analyses of public data to better inform the communities they serve.
For additional information on INN’s fiscal sponsorship program, please contact us at info@inn.org.