Nonprofits step up to hold officials accountable

The day after the election, ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg published a detailed article telling readers what to expect from the seven-time Pulitzer Prize-winner during the new administration.

“At ProPublica, our mantra is that we bring the receipts to every story we publish,” he wrote. “We are journalists, not leaders of the resistance…As we have done for each presidential administration since 2008, our reporters will begin with basic questions about new government policies: Who is benefiting? Who is suffering? What are the unintended consequences?”

ProPublica is not alone in carrying the torch of accountability journalism at a time of doubt about the capacity of longtime legacy stalwarts to do as much of this work. The Marshall Project, Mother Jones/Center for Investigative Reporting, The 19th, Capital B, Grist, and others have demonstrated that national, mission-driven watchdogs can sustain and grow in difficult conditions — and how partnering with local and regional outlets strengthens all involved.

Meanwhile local, state and regional nonprofits like CalMatters, Oklahoma Watch, Texas Tribune, Investigate Midwest, Block Club Chicago, and Deep South Today are avid partners themselves as they serve their communities’ needs, no matter which party is in charge.

The perils are real, too. Mississippi Today continues to battle a defamation lawsuit filed by the state’s former governor, a response to the outlet’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into a massive welfare scandal. “Ours may be a Mississippi case, but the ramifications absolutely could impact every American journalist who has long been granted constitutional protections to dutifully hold powerful leaders to account,” said editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau.

And journalists already do this work on a tightrope, as the bottom can still fall out on a nonprofit news organization with a strong track record of public service, as it did for the Center for Public Integrity.

As CJR reported, “María Inés Zamudio, a Chicago-based investigative journalist, lost her job in CPI’s mass layoff in May…she’s had 36 interviews and informational meetings and was in the running for five different jobs that included multiple rounds of interviews and writing tests. But none resulted in a hire — despite her Peabody, Murrow, and other awards, and a history of reporting that exposed wrongdoing and led to institutional change.”

And the nonprofit sector more broadly now looks with concern about a bill passed by the House that would allow the Treasury Department to remove the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be supporting terrorism, a power that scholars and industry leaders fear would be abused.

But there is reason for hope as well.

The American public, for all of the doubts around trust in the news media, still believes that journalistic scrutiny leads to public officials behaving better, according to new Pew polling.

As new research from the Institute for Nonprofit News indicates, mission-driven nonprofits are built to do this. “The nonprofit model allows news outlets to primarily focus on public service and impact first — letting these organizations spend time and resources on the costly, time-intensive work of uncovering corruption, producing deep explanatory reporting, and connecting people to community services,” INN published as part of a new study on audience in October.

Amid lingering concerns that nonprofits aren’t winning enough audience to make up for the losses sustained by legacy media, it’s clear that local-national partnerships continue to offer an excellent way forward.

From ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network to The Marshall Project’s Investigate This! initiative, the resources and reach of national combined with the expertise and connections of local is a powerful formula.

And indeed, we at the Allbritton Journalism Institute and NOTUS will launch a State Delegations Initiative in early 2025, partnering with local, state and regional outlets who seek to better hold their elected officials accountable.

As ProPublica senior editor Jesse Eisinger told the staff last month, according to Engelberg: “We face the biggest test of our professional lives. Now we get to see if we really meant it when we said we will hold power to account. Will we do so when our subjects have true power on their side and a willingness to use it? We may be harassed. We may be sued. We may be threatened with violence. We may be ignored. Are we just sunshine journalists or are we ready?”

Yes, we are ready.