Winners of the fifth annual Nonprofit News Awards (INNYs), announced today, exposed corruption, inequality and injustice — and centered communities in their work.
One example is “Unsolved,” a series from The Marshall Project, St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports that investigates how and why most homicides go unsolved in St. Louis, Missouri. The project, which won Journalism Collaboration of the Year, explored racial disparities in the number of homicides police solve. The reporting also captured how victims’ families and other survivors managed unresolved quests for justice.
Other INNYs winners reported on topics such as affordable housing, environmental health and safety, government spending, tenants’ rights and social justice. Contest judges raved about the winners’ strong storytelling, thorough reporting and, in some cases, the impact of their work for the communities those outlets serve.
The Institute for Nonprofit News presented 30 awards across 11 categories at a ceremony in New Orleans on Sept. 10. Contest judges selected the winners from a pool of nearly 600 entries.
“What we see among this year’s INNYs winners is reporting that draws attention to challenging issues and painful realities that many news organizations, particularly those owned by corporate giants, overlook.”
Karen Rundlet, CEO, INN
“What we see among this year’s INNYs winners is reporting that draws attention to challenging issues and painful realities that many news organizations, particularly those owned by corporate giants, overlook,” said Karen Rundlet, executive director and CEO of INN. “Whether the focus is hyperlocal, national or somewhere in between, journalists at these independent outlets reported the news and found innovative ways to engage with their audiences. The resulting stories empower residents, hold decision-makers accountable and remind us that the nonprofit news difference is all about public service reporting.”
Created by the Institute for Nonprofit News to honor excellence in journalism, leadership, innovation and public service across the field of nonprofit news, the INNYs often showcase stories of people and places not featured in traditional news reporting.
When viewed online, the main image of the first story in the “Unsolved” series zooms in as the viewer scrolls, eventually focusing on a house in St. Louis where three Black women were killed in 2017. The project from The Marshall Project, St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports features a strong narrative and other elements such as photos and maps that capture the communities where the homicides occurred, the lives lost, and those who are fighting for change. One judge said they “love” that the project brought together local and national news organizations “for such a compelling purpose.”
“And make no mistake,” the judge continued, “the organizations involved had to fight hard to get this information out, committing resources to increasing transparency.”
Some judges noted how winning news outlets informed and engaged their communities.
Charlottesville Tomorrow’s series “Giving More People a Say in Affordable Housing in Central Virginia” included a resource guide with information about affordable housing and programs that can help with issues such as leaky roofs and eviction programs. The project, which won in the small division of the Breaking Barriers Award, covered residents who are likely to be displaced once their mobile home park in Charlottesville, Virginia, is sold. Reporter Erin O’Hare frames this instance against the broader national trend of a rapid decline in the numbers of mobile home parks — and the affordable housing they provide.
“The depth of this coverage, and the way the community came together in response, shows that Charlottesville Tomorrow is embedded in place and with people in a way that’s changing the city,” a judge wrote.
Other winning entries also put a local spotlight on national issues related to environmental safety, health and housing. In “EQT’s Gas Play: There is Something Wrong Under New Freeport,” PublicSource exposed how residents in northern Appalachia are being harmed by the fracking operations of EQT, a corporation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that had also pledged to tackle climate change. Reporter Quinn Glabicki interviewed residents who had observed foul-smelling, discolored water that had a chemical aftertaste. Some experienced seemingly related health concerns such as painful skin rashes. “Chemicals EQT uses in fracking can cause those symptoms,” Glabicki wrote. The company denied responsibility.
Glabicki’s reporting, the medium division winner of the Best Investigative Journalism Award, also earned kudos from contest judges for how well it addressed complex subject matter.
“This story has it all — the human impact, a smoking-gun video obtained from a records request, and a class-action lawsuit that cites this reporter’s coverage,” one judge wrote. “It was handled well, and it’s clear the effort that went into the story.”
The PublicSource stories are “a brilliant example of the power of local reporting.”
Across the country in California’s San Francisco Bay area, El Tímpano exposed safety, housing and health concerns tied to the prevalence of lead-based paint in Oakland homes. The series “Poisoned Pipes and Painted Walls: Oakland’s Pervasive Lead Problem,” examined why most rental houses in Oakland — about 80 percent — may contain lead-based paint 6 years after the city and county governments were allocated about $24 million in combined settlement money that could be used for remediation.
Journalists dug deep into the issue, not only investigating the negligence of local government but also uncovering how the issue disproportionately harmed Latino immigrant neighborhoods, compromising the residents’ health. As noted in one part of the series, officials compromise children’s health by waiting for a child to test positive for lead exposure before investigating possible sources of contamination.
A contest judge lauded El Tímpano for its watchdog reporting and for “building community engagement, education, and therefore, impact into this project.”
Injustice Watch’s five-part series “The Tenant Trap” focused on a different aspect of housing. Senior reporters Alejandra Cancino and Maya Dukmasova investigated how the legal system in Chicago favors landlords, including those with histories of serious safety violations. According to Injustice Watch, journalists found that “tenants are regularly facing eviction and informal displacement at buildings with histories of serious safety violations.” Tenants struggled to successfully advocate for better living conditions and to hold their landlords accountable within the existing system, the outlet reported.
“The Tenant Trap,” which won the medium division Community Champion Award, provided vital information for tenants and “led to meaningful change for local tenants,” a judge noted. “‘Community Champion’ is the perfect title for these journalists.” Another judge called the series “a case study in thoughtful community outreach and tireless reporting with the goal of solving real problems in people’s lives.”
This year’s winner of the Service to Nonprofit News Award, Laura Frank, embodies the INNYs’ celebration of community-centered reporting. Frank, executive director of the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), is being recognized for accomplishments that include pioneering collaborative journalism in Colorado as the founder of I-News, serving as a co-founder and chair emerita of INN, and leading nonprofit investigative reporting teams to journalism awards and fellowships.
Frank “has chronicled the dramatic changes in journalism, co-founded INN, and created and directed investigative and community nonprofit newsrooms, and played a crucial role as a board member and board chair of INN,” said Brant Houston, an INN co-founder and a longtime colleague. “Recognition of her achievements in the field is richly deserved.”
