Who: “Spot.Us is an open source project to pioneer ‘community powered reporting.’ Through Spot.Us the public can commission and participate with journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics.”
How: Crowdfunding via Spot.Us made possible a wide variety of .org raised more than $5,000 for independent reporting projects from individuals donating via Spot.Us, and was the Spot.Us roll-out partner for the San Francisco Election Truthiness Report. Other Newsdesk.org projects funded via Spot.Us include “The Bay Area Toxic Tour: West Oakland,” which won the SPJ SDX award, and “Prisons & Public Health,” a news blog by Bernice Yeung.
Who: “SF Public Press is a startup nonprofit news organization in San Francisco. We publish public-interest news reporting with the help of more than 50 professional and volunteer journalists and nonprofit specialists striving to fill the void of hard-hitting accountability reporting that’s been lost with the downsizing of the commercial press.”
How: Newsdesk.org and The San Francisco Public Press teamed up to produce the San Francisco Election Truthiness Report. The project fact-checked political advertisements for San Francisco’s municipal elections, and produced 13 distinct reports, plus interactive graphics, and radio interviews on KALW News.
Who: “Crosscurrents is the daily news magazine from KALW Public Radio, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. We are part of KALW’s Public Interest Reporting Project, with the goal of expanding local depth reporting, at a time when most news organizations were cutting back on public interest journalism.”
How: KALW News partnered with Newsdesk.org during the 2008 elections to broadcast interviews with reporters from San Francisco Election Truthiness Report.
Who: “Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation’s mission is to invest in the future of journalism by building the ethics, skills and opportunities needed to advance principled, probing news and information.”
How: In 2010 Newsdesk.org received a $25,000 grant from EEJF.
Who: “Changemakers is a community of action where we all collaborate on solutions. We know we have the power to solve the world’s most pressing social problems. We’re already doing it, one project, one idea at a time.”
How: Newsdesk.org was a 2009 Ashoka Changemakers finalist in The Power of Us: Re-Imagine Media competition.
Donated nonprofit services:
- Salesforce Foundation
- Vertical Response