Institute for Nonprofit News

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a non-profit consortium of nonprofit journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism by supporting its members and the nonprofit news industry as a whole. Examples of services offered by INN includes helping news organizations with collaborations, training in best-practices and fundraising, and providing affordable 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, 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 was being done increasingly outside of mainstream newsrooms.

INN was granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit 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 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.

Membership
INN says its membership is open to independent, nonprofit news organizations that:


 * 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

Members
As of June 2024, INN listed 'about 450' members, up from 189 in March 2019 and 60 in 2011.

As of February 2024, the median member had 4 staffers and $271,000 in revenue.

Notable National or International members

 * Coda Story
 * Mother Jones
 * PolitiFact
 * ProPublica
 * Religion News Service
 * The Conversation
 * The Intercept
 * OpenSecrets
 * Chronicle of Philanthropy
 * Pulitzer Center

Regional or Local

 * WNYC (New York)
 * WHYY (Philadelphia)
 * KQED (San Francisco Bay Area)
 * WABE (Atlanta)
 * WFAE (Charlotte)
 * KNPR (Nevada)
 * CalMatters (California)
 * Texas Tribune (Texas)

Rural News Network
As of 2024, the network boasts around 75 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 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", and regular articles by experts in the fields of business and journalism.

In 2011, INN joined the Thomson Reuters media platform.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.