Our Policies

We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN).

The Investigative Project on Race and Equity (the Project) retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.

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.

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.

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.

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.