In 2022, INN received 407 entries from 129 news organizations and gave out 28 awards across 11 categories. Panels drawn from a total of 41 judges — including journalists from INN member newsrooms and academia, as well as respected retired journalists — evaluated the entries.
Read on to see descriptions of the winning entries, links to original stories, judges’ comments and the list of honorable mentions.
Honors a story or series that uncovered significant and impactful news and which advances and serves the public interest.
Small Newsroom
We awarded two winners in this category.
WINNER: Asheville Watchdog – Equity Erased by Sally Kestin
With just two years of operation and no paid employees, the Asheville Watchdog produced a series investigating how numerous vulnerable homeowners – many of them Black and/or elderly – lost their homes to a local attorney/investor and his associates. The work led to the arrest of a central figure in the scheme, along with her lawyer, on felony charges, and the return of some of the properties.
WINNER: Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism – 13 Deaths at the Allegheny County Jail by Brittany Hailer.
The organization was praised by judges for the scope and gravity of their two-year investigation into the deaths of 13 men incarcerated in the Allegheny County Jail.
Medium Newsroom
WINNER: The Appeal – How the NYPD’s Troubled Sex Crimes Unit is Set Up to Fail Victims by Meg O’Connor.
The investigation found that structural problems identified in a 2018 report have grown worse at the unit since then, sometimes with deadly consequences for the sex crime and child abuse victims the unit is supposed to serve. The investigation led to the replacement of the unit’s commander, a new policy to reduce turnover, and a U.S. Justice Department probe.
Honorable Mentions:
Large Newsroom
WINNER: Spotlight PA – A Hidden Error by Rebecca Moss and Angela Couloumbis
Spotlight PA’s tremendous reporting compelled a state agency to admit it overcharged thousands of people millions of dollars in unemployment interest payments.
Honorable Mentions:
Super Newsroom
WINNER: Honolulu Civil Beat – Red Hill Fuel Leak by Christina Jedra and April Estrellon.
Civil Beat produced a series of insightful and revelatory stories on the Navy’s handling of its underground World War II-era fuel storage facility near Pearl Harbor that leaked thousands of gallons of petroleum, sickening military families, putting Oahu’s civilian water supply at risk and forcing the Pentagon to agree to shut down the facility.
Honorable Mentions:
Honors a single story or a series of explanatory reporting that provides insight and understanding of a significant and complex subject.
Small Newsroom
WINNER: Feet in 2 Worlds – A Better Life? Season 2
The podcast series offered a personal portrait of the changing immigration landscape that was beautifully told and passionately executed.
Honorable Mentions:
Medium Newsroom
WINNER: Mission Local – Garbage Odyssey by Lydia Chávez
The story gained national attention for this in-depth take on the process of city government around San Francisco’s decision to pay upwards of $20,000 apiece to produce prototypes of garbage cans.
Honorable Mentions:
Large Newsroom
WINNER: Food and Environment Reporting Network – Hot Farm by Eve Abrams, Dana Cronin, Rachel Yang and Travis Lux
The podcast takes listeners inside the lives of farmers who are trying new things to address climate change with great reporting and front-line storytelling.
Honorable Mentions:
Super Newsroom
WINNER: Center for Public Integrity – How the lack of Medicaid expansion fuels rural poverty in the Deep South by April Simpson, Janeen Jones and Mc Nelly Torres
Public Integrity’s examination of how states that refuse Medicaid expansion fuel rural poverty, produced in collaboration with The Guardian, earned the judges’ praise for the treasure trove of information contained in its resource guide and the audience engagement strategy to help spread the word.
Honorable Mentions:
Recognizes reporting that brought new understanding to an issue affecting people who are historically underrepresented, disadvantaged or marginalized, resulting in impactful change.
Small Newsroom
WINNER: California Health Report – Water Justice in the Central Valley by Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Martin do Nascimento and Hannah Hough
As part of INN’s Tapped Out collaboration, the California Health Report reported on water contamination and infrastructure challenges confronting small towns in California. They partnered with the South Kern Sol, a Spanish-language news site, to translate and publish the story. As a result of this reporting, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation aimed at expediting water repairs.
Honorable Mention:
Medium Newsroom
WINNER: Springfield Daily Citizen – Humanizing, and helping, the homeless by Steve Pokin, Jackie Rehwald and Rance Burger.
The Springfield Daily Citizen, which launched its website in February of this year, has devoted significant, ongoing coverage to the issue of homelessness in their southwest Missouri community. After these stories were published, the City Council, in separate actions, allocated $6.5 million in funding to help address the issue of homelessness.
Large Newsroom
WINNER: Injustice Watch – Aging in the Shadows by Carlos Ballesteros and Laura Rodriguez Presa
The collaborative series in English and Spanish, produced in partnership with the Chicago Tribune on Illinois’ burgeoning crisis of undocumented seniors, earned this praise from our judges highlighting how journalists earned trust from being fully embedded in the community and got stories from the most vulnerable. The judges said this is “what all journalists in this country should strive for. When people say journalism is dying, this example of journalism is what all should look for to save it and do better.”
Honorable Mentions:
Super Newsroom
WINNER: Grist – Ghosts of Polluters Past by Yvette Cabrera and Clayton Aldern
Grist’s thorough, human-centered reporting on a cumulative legacy of lead contamination in neighborhoods highlights underserved communities while also showing how the impacts affect the population at large.
Honorable Mention:
Honors an INN member organization that made a significant contribution to the well-being of its community.
Small Newsroom
WINNER: Prison Journalism Project – PJPxInside by Kate McQueen, Cait Palmiter and Staff
A first-of-its-kind teaching newspaper for and by incarcerated people. Our judges called this “a model for other marginalized communities.” A 27-year-old man who has been incarcerated in Michigan since the age of 15 sent the project a letter with a $1,000 donation – a full year’s salary for an incarcerated person in Michigan – saying the newspaper inspired him.
Honorable Mentions:
Medium Newsroom
WINNER: Enlace Latino NC – El Jornalero newsletter and guide for farmworkers by Paola Jaramillo, Walter Gómez and Nicolás Baintrub
The first Spanish newsletter for agricultural workers in North Carolina, delivered to meet them where they are. El Jornalero is shared in various formats such as email, WhatsApp, text message and social networks. Our judges called this “a breathtaking service journalism project, which is clearly filling the needs of a community that isn’t served by elsewhere” and noted the promising partnerships with aligned organizations to amplify the work.
Honorable Mentions:
Large Newsroom
WINNER: Muckrock – Uncounted: The hidden death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic by Dillon Bergin, Betsy Ladyzhets, Jake Kincaid and Derek Kravitz
This collaboration among five newsrooms revealed stark disparities in the way medical examiners reported cause of death during the pandemic and introduced a new method of analyzing mortality data. Publicly sharing the data led to new stories about COVID death tolls by newsrooms across the country, and the Centers for Disease Control said the resulting rich data could help the CDC improve its data.
Honorable Mentions:
Super Newsroom
WINNER: The Marshall Project – Testify by Rachel Dissell, Ilica Mahajan, Anna Flagg and Wesley Lowery
This painstaking, first-of-its-kind analysis of voting patterns highlighted the fact that mostly white, suburban voters were electing the judges presiding over the cases of mostly Black Cleveland residents. Our judges found particularly impressive their collaboration with community partners and how they took hard-to-get data directly to readers who otherwise might not have seen the reporting. Easy-to-grasp graphics flipped the narrative on voting for judges, from one of indifference to understanding a disparity over which they could have some control.
Honorable Mentions:
Recognizes an organization that produced an innovative idea or practice that led to success in revenue, audience growth or sustainable financial support.
Small Newsroom
WINNER: The Oglethorpe Echo, Alex Anteau and Amanda Bright
Two undergraduate journalism majors at the University of Georgia added seven digital products to the newspaper, and their audience engagement strategy using social media best practices helped to more than double subscriptions in nine months.
Medium Newsroom
WINNER: Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism
The organization won for their work funding and supporting journalists across the globe and helping find audiences through relationships with news outlets in countries like South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Mali and the U.S. Our judges commend CCIJ for connecting this community of international journalists with bigger platforms and tools to make their work more powerful while expanding its own newsletter audience and boosting fundraising.
Large Newsroom
WINNER: Spotlight PA – Redistricting Initiative
Spotlight PA was one of the only newsrooms in the country that dedicated an entire reporting position to redistricting. Judges praised their “strategy to expand simultaneously both audience and financial support by owning a topic of high interest and importance.”
Honorable Mention:
(No Super Newsroom)
Honors a single story or a series of stories that uses photography and/or other visual media to more accurately portray a community that has traditionally been under-represented or mis-represented in news media.
Small Newsroom
WINNER: SJV Water – On the Brink by Jesse Vad
SJV Water shared the perspective of what living with the constant threat of water scarcity is like for the disadvantaged residents of a remote California town.
Honorable Mentions:
Medium Newsroom
WINNER: Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism – An encroaching desert intensifies Nigeria’s farmer-herder crisis by Murtala Abdulahi, Scott Lewis, ‘Kunle Adebajo, Yuxi Wang and Jillian Dudziak
The compelling package included virtual training on visual reporting.
Honorable Mentions:
Large Newsroom
WINNER: PublicSource – The City of Prayer by Quinn Glabicki
A photo essay on the lives of residents in a Pennsylvania town with some of the worst air quality in the nation. Our judges praised The City of Prayer for “strong, emotional storytelling images that take the reader into the issue and the lives of the people impacted.”
Honorable Mention:
Super Newsroom
WINNER: High Country News – Images from the first-known Native American female photographer by Will Chavez and Jennie Ross Cobb
The photo essay featured images from the first-known Native American female photographer, Jennie Ross Cobb, a Cherokee Nation citizen who was born in 1881. Her work carried out a simple but powerful task: to show Native people living their lives, not posing for a white man’s camera. Our judges said “seeing Ross’ photographs is like discovering a new world across time. Granting an award to the work of a photographer long gone (and who should have been recognized in her own time) is an opportunity to repair and revisit what we think we know about Indigenous history and culture during Ross’ time.”
Honorable Mentions:
Honors a young organization (operating for less than 3 years) for establishing strong journalism and the revenue, reader and community support to sustain it. (One award across size tiers)
WINNER: El Paso Matters
The organization is recognized for quickly establishing consistent, strong reporting for its community, from school board problems to local voters disenfranchised by voting practices and national issues along the border. El Paso Matters advocates for residents’ rights to public information and has worked to diversify its revenue streams and is discovering new audience patterns and growth through experimentation. (Watch our conversation with Robert More of El Paso Matters)
Honorable Mention:
Honors a news-oriented project or ongoing partnership that exemplifies the culture of sharing and cooperation in nonprofit news and expands the impact of its journalism.
WINNER: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – the Pandora Papers
This reporting partnership triggered more than 20 government probes, brought down governments in Honduras and the Czech Republic and spurred landmark U.S. anti-money laundering legislation. More than 600 journalists at 151 news organizations in 117 countries joined forces for the largest collaboration in journalism history, beginning with a trove of more than 11.9 million secret offshore financial files obtained by ICIJ and shared with its partners.
One U.S. senator called the investigation a “wake-up call to all who care about the future of democracy.” Our judges noted that this project sets a high bar for all collaborations in the future, calling it breathtaking for both its reach and impact. “ICIJ deserves high praise for its tenacity and skill in turning document leaks into a blinding public spotlight on tax dodging and financial crimes at the highest levels of power.”
Honorable Mentions:
WINNER: Shane Pekny, Grant Writer & Development Consultant, Flatwater Free Press
In less than a year since starting, the Flatwater Free Press has raised significant funding and is set to double its staff size, amassed a board of Nebraska royalty and built and converted a newsletter audience and has been republished by national outlets and regularly across the state.
A former journalist with 20 years of experience writing grants, Shane is described in his nomination letter as “the secret sauce that makes Flatwater Free Press go. He is the Oz behind the curtain for every fundraising drive; the adult in the room for every business decision. He is the reason for our fundraising success with large foundations and recurring donors. He is the visionary behind our unique content mix.”
Honorable Mentions:
Honors an individual with fewer than five years in executive leadership whose approach to sustainability, equity and inclusion and community service makes them a luminary in the field.
WINNER: Kimberly Griffin, Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer, Mississippi Free Press
Our judges noted “Developing a nonprofit newsroom, especially in a state with such diverse audiences, can be incredibly challenging, but Kimberly’s leadership has helped this startup become a national leader in nonprofit newsrooms.”
Her co-founder wrote in her nomination letter that Kimberly “believes intensely that our model of growing and network-mapping a radically diverse audience for our work based on our systemic-reporting approach can be an industry model. There is no better leader to build and promote this model of inclusion.”
Honorable Mention
Honors individuals for making significant, innovative and lasting contributions to the field of independent, nonprofit news, reflecting the spirit of INN’s creation.
WINNERS: Mark Trahant and Karen Lincoln Michel of ICT, who designed and led one of the most successful transformations of a nonprofit news organization in saving Indian Country Today, now ICT. Founded in 1981 as a print publication, it nearly went under in 2017 before the pair engineered its rebirth and then rapid growth. It’s now a daily digital news platform covering the Indigenous world of American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nation people reaching some 800,000 readers a month, with a television presence in 30 markets, and includes the first comprehensive database of American Indians and Alaska Natives running for office.
Beyond their own work, Trahant and Michel are leaders within the INN Network, extending the impact of their expertise and journalism to many smaller publications and individual journalists. Michel has also contributed to nonprofit news through university teaching, and serves on the board of directors of nonprofit news pioneer Wisconsin Watch.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to our judges:
Know what’s new in nonprofit news.
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