Our Policies

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.

Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

We will make public all donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a nonprofit, we will accept donations from anonymous sources only under certain conditions (see our Editorial Independence Policy), and we will not accept donations from government entities or political parties. We will not accept donations from sources who present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

The Investigative Project on Race and Equity reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement or sponsorship it is offered.

The Project will decline to accept advertising that it knows or believes to be misleading, inaccurate, fraudulent or illegal, or that fails to comply, in the The Investigative Project on Race and Equity’s sole discretion, with its standards of decency, taste or dignity. Advertising for industries that are not accepted include, but are not limited to, the following:

• For-profit colleges

• Stand-alone check-cashing businesses

• Predatory lenders

• Alcohol and tobacco marketers

• Student loan or bankruptcy recovery companies

• Sex-related businesses such as gentlemen’s clubs

• Pornography

The Investigative Project on Race and Equity, like all quality publishers of original journalism, maintains a clear separation between news and advertising content. Advertising that attempts to blur this distinction in a manner that, in the Investigative Project on Race and Equity’s sole judgment, may confuse readers will be rejected.

We will make every effort to ensure that our news coverage and the operation of the Investigative Project on Race and Equity as an entity will be free of conflicts of interest. All the Project’s editorial contributors, including employees, volunteers, independent contractors, freelancers and interns, are obliged to report to the Board of Directors any potential conflicts of interest they may have when they report or write stories. In the event of a conflict or potential conflict, the board shall decide whether to remove an individual from an assignment, and whether to publicly note areas of potential conflict.

Everyone involved with the Project owes a duty to the news organization to advance its legitimate interests, to be faithful to its nonprofit mission and to act in ways that are consistent with the central goals of the organization and its nonprofit status.

No one involved with The Project shall personally accept gifts or favors that could compromise The Project’s ability to fairly report a story.

The Investigative Project on Race and Equity does not record personal information about its users, other than names and contact information. Users may submit personal information through our site to third parties, such as PayPal, which are responsible for storing and securing such information.

We will not release the name or contact information to anyone outside the Project without their consent, unless we are under a legal order to do so, or there is an emergency involving danger to a person or property.

Any information readers share in public areas, such as comments to a Project story, becomes public. We encourage readers of content created by the Project to be cautious about what they disclose and not to post any information that they expect to be kept private.

Any staff member who violates our privacy and security policies is subject to disciplinary action.

The Project commits to correcting errors and clarifying potentially unclear statements as soon as it becomes aware of the need for a correction or clarification. Corrections and clarifications will be highlighted with an Editor’s Note, except when the change is a small typo or punctuation error.

Angell Foundation
Angell Foundation invests in transformative opportunities, cultivates compassionate leaders and partners with organizations committed to creating a more equitable world. It funds high-impact efforts that effect change in three main issue areas: Education As Opportunity, Food Equity and Transformational Leadership.

The Chicago Community Trust
The Chicago Community Trust is a community foundation dedicated to strengthening the Chicago region by creating equity, opportunity, and prosperity for all people who call it home. For more than 100 years, the Trust has united generous donors, committed nonprofits, and caring residents to effect lasting change. In 2019, The Chicago Community Trust embarked on a 10-year strategic plan to address one of the most critical challenges of our times — closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap for the Chicago region while responding to our most vulnerable residents’ critical needs. Thanks to its generous donors, in the fiscal year 2021, more than 7,000 organizations received more than $1.4 billion in funding from the Trust, and affiliated donor advised funds. To learn more, visit www.cct.org.

Chicago Headline Club Foundation
The Chicago Headline Club Foundation is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing education and related services to Chicago-area journalism. The foundation's mission is to provide funding to professional, student and citizen journalists for the enhancement of responsible and ethical media practices.

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
The Driehaus Foundation is committed to enriching the lives of all Chicagoans by improving the built environment, cultivating a robust and diverse arts and culture ecosystem, and supporting investigative journalism that fosters transparency, accountability, and effective government.

The Field Foundation
The Field Foundation of Illinois is a private and independent foundation which, along with its strategic funding partners, helps fund the work of organizations and leaders to address systemic issues in Chicago’s most divested communities. The Field Foundation’s leadership, board, and staff remain committed to measuring the foundation’s impact, especially within divested communities most in need of financial resources. Racial equity is central to our mission to achieve community empowerment through Art, Justice, Media & Storytelling, and Leadership Investment.

Fund for Investigative Journalism
The Fund for Investigative Journalism provides grants and other support to independent journalists and news organizations to produce high-quality, unbiased, nonpartisan investigative stories that have an impact. The Fund provides support directly to investigative journalists for news stories, books, documentaries and podcasts that uncover wrongdoing by powerful people or institutions.

Glen Nelson Center
Launched in 2018, Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media Group identifies, elevates, and invests in the best and brightest media ventures led by a diverse group of visionary founders.

The Howard S Dubin Family Foundation
The Howard S. Dubin Family Foundation mainly supports journalism groups, animal protection and religious organizations.

Joyce Foundation
The Joyce Foundation is a private, nonpartisan philanthropy that invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region. Joyce supports policy research, development, and advocacy in six program areas: Culture, Democracy, Education & Economic Mobility, Environment, Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform, and Journalism. The Foundation, based in Chicago, focuses its grant making primarily in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, while also exploring promising, evidence-informed policy solutions nationally and at the federal level.

Local Media Association and Foundation
Local Media Foundation serves as the innovation and transformation affiliate of Local Media Association. More than 2,000 local media executives have participated in progressive and innovative LMF programs. Incorporating our four strategic pillars — business transformation, journalism funded by philanthropy, industry collaboration, and sustainability for publishers of color — LMF helps provide local media companies the strategies and resources for meaningful innovation and impactful journalism projects.

Loevy + Loevy
Loevy + Loevy is an award-winning civil rights law firm working for justice, accountability, and transparency. It takes on the nation’s most difficult public interest cases to hold officials, governments, and corporations accountable.

MacArthur Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation is committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. we maintain enduring commitments. The Chicago-based foundation invests in people, places and partnerships to build a more inclusive Chicago and in journalism and media, where we invest in more just and inclusive news and narratives.

Polk Bros. Foundation
The Polk Bros. Foundation is a private independent foundation dedicated to building and strengthening Chicago's families and communities, especially those most affected by poverty and inequity. The Foundation focuses its work at the intersection of Chicago's most pressing issues to address the complex roots and devastating effects of poverty, challenge inequity, and ensure that all Chicagoans have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Press Forward Chicago
Press Forward Chicago is a collaborative, philanthropy-led initiative to raise unprecedented resources to revitalize local news, supercharge proven solutions to the local news crises, and close longstanding inequities in journalism coverage and practice.

Square One Foundation
Square One Foundation’s mission is to realize equitable access to educational opportunity, democratic processes, and economic justice for all Chicagoans.