Community Champion Award

2025 Nonprofit News Awards

Honors an INN member organization that made a significant contribution to the well-being of its community through a journalism-centered project or service.

Jump to:

Micro Division — Winner: The New Pine Plains Herald
Small Division — Winner: The Kansas City Defender
Medium Division — Winner: Injustice Watch
Large Division — Winner: Capital B

Community Champion Award – Micro division

The New Pine Plains Herald

The New Pine Plains Herald’s reporting on ADUs brings millions in funding to rural service area by Patrick Grego, Darrah Cloud

The New Pine Plains Herald exposed how county and city officials’ inaction cost households in New York’s rural Dutchess County their potential share of $85 million in state funds for building or improving secondary housing units on their properties. Local leaders did not apply for New York State’s Plus One ADU Program, which is part of a five-year plan to expand affordable housing options. For communities across the state, the funds could help provide rental income, caregiving space, or affordable housing solutions.

The Herald interviewed state and county housing officials, local planners, and residents. Journalists pushed for explanations for why leaders in Dutchess County, where affordable housing is “vanishing,” neglected to pursue the state funds while other counties applied.

The Herald’s reporting prompted county officials to regroup and apply for the program. In February, the state awarded the county $6 million.

The Herald’s reporting was “inspired journalism with real and true impact, the amplitude of which will be felt for (truly) generations,” one judge said.

Read the Winning Work

Pine Plains and Stanford Among Dutchess Towns to Secure $6 Million for Accessory Dwelling Units

Dutchess County Missed Opportunity to Address Housing Crisis

Finalists

Austin Free Press, Austin Free Press and Huston-Tillotson University Train Journalists of Color, Staff

Community Champion Award – Small division

The Kansas City Defender

BREAL Academy: Black Radical Education for Abolition and Liberation by Ryan Sorrell, Melissa Ferrer-Civil

The Kansas City Defender launched B-REAL (Black Radical Education for Abolition & Liberation) Academy, an abolitionist Freedom School, in February. The academy is a way to “go beyond simply reporting on the rising attacks on Black education in Missouri, but to respond — and to intervene,” according to the Defender’s content submission letter.

Twenty students ranging in age from 11 to 77 graduated from the 14-week intensive, writing- and organizing-centered political education program that included instruction on the history of the radical Black press, community organization, and black studies.

The academy is “an innovative yet historically and culturally-rooted journalism-centered project that makes it deserving of the INNY Community Champion Award,” one judge wrote.

Another judge said the academy is a “novel approach to community engagement.”

“B-REAL reimagines journalism as a tool for trust-building, healing, and collective power,” the judge continued. “The result is a replicable model that transforms students into storytellers and organizers, leaving a lasting impact on both the newsroom and the community it serves.”

Read the Winning Work

KC Defender starts Freedom School, training the next generation of Black activists

Finalist

Open Vallejo, The Secret Death of Darryl Dean Mefferd, Staff

Community Champion Award – Medium division

Injustice Watch

The Tenant Trap

This five-part series from Injustice Watch reveals how tenants in Chicago regularly face eviction and informal displacement at buildings with histories of serious safety violations amid a legal system that skews in favor of landlords. As part of a yearlong investigation, journalists surveyed housing organizations about building conditions, spent months observing court proceedings, and delved into relevant data: 1.9 million code violations, 60,000 administrative court dockets, 300,000 eviction court dockets, and 43,000 housing court dockets.

Senior reporters Alejandra Cancino and Maya Dukmasova found “2,654 buildings in the city with chronic serious building code violations and at least 328 buildings where landlords filed evictions at the same time the city was taking them to housing court over building conditions, including rat and roach infestations, lack of heat or water, and serious fire code violations.”

The reporting led a Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge to issue an order allowing tenants facing eviction quick access to records about their landlords’ building code violations.

“This series is a case study in thoughtful community outreach and tireless reporting with the goal of solving real problems in people’s lives,” a judge said. “The reporters who contributed to this project were able to identify a critical challenge facing residents of Cook County, and they produced an impressive package of investigations and explainers that provide their neighbors with vital information and led to meaningful change for local tenants. ‘Community Champion’ is the perfect title for these journalists.”

Read the Winning Work

The Tenant Trap

Chief judge issues new order aimed at helping tenants facing eviction in troubled buildings

Advocates push for at least $20M in city’s 2025 budget for housing measures

Answers to Chicago renters’ common questions

Finalist

Injustice Watch, Check Your Judges, Staff

Community Champion Award – Large division

Capital B

Reduced to Ash: The Eaton Fire’s Impact on Black Families by Adam Mahoney

In a four-part series for Capital B, Adam Mahoney chronicles the aftermath of the Eaton Fire, which devastated a historically Black neighborhood in Altadena, California, in January 2025. Mahoney’s reporting also examines how systemic failures — “decades of segregation, redlining, and underinvestment” — contribute to disproportionate vulnerability and displacement of Black families amid climate hazards.

Mahoney’s coverage helped garner donations for wildfire victims and drove subscriptions and giving for Capital B, which will help them continue to cover this community.

“In clear, beautiful writing, Mahoney is doing the difficult and necessary work of connecting the dots between climate change, racism, the housing crisis, and healthcare failures — all for a disaster that was still unfolding as he reported,” one judge said. “It’s incredible to read, as well as a huge gift to the community experiencing this trauma firsthand.”