PLATINUM2023

Center for Public Integrity

Investigating Inequality

Washington, DC   |  http://www.publicintegrity.org

Mission

Public Integrity seeks to counter the corrosive effects of inequality by holding powerful interests accountable and equipping the public with knowledge to drive change. We are an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigating systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in our country.

Ruling year info

1993

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Paul Cheung

Main address

910 17th Street, NW Suite 1030

Washington, DC 20006 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

54-1512177

NTEE code info

Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis (W05)

Censorship, Freedom of Speech and Press Issues (R63)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2022, 2021 and 2020.
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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Founded in 1989 by veteran journalist Charles Lewis, the Center for Public Integrity is one of the oldest and largest nonprofit news organizations in the country. Our Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom is comprised of reporters, editors and data journalists who dig deep and deliver national and international investigative journalism of enduring significance.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Federal Politics

What happens when you follow the money? We dig deep to reveal what drives power and influence in the U.S.

Population(s) Served
Adults

Harm to the environment has a vastly unequal impact on Americans depending on the color of their skin and how much money they have. Both climate change and toxic pollution are compounding the consequences of discriminatory housing, labor, and economic policies. Public Integrity’s investigative reporting confronts this type of inequality and illuminates the impact of efforts to address i

Population(s) Served
Adults

You hear the opinions on immigration, but we bring you the facts, faces and context behind immigration policy in the U.S. and its implications.

Population(s) Served
Immigrants and migrants
Families

Who’s calling the shots in your state? We uncover what drives decisions in statehouses across the U.S., and monitor lawmaker ethics and accountability.

Population(s) Served
Adults

How safe are America’s workers? We reveal the hazards employees face in their workplaces, and the protections that often fail them.

Population(s) Served
Adults

Education in the United States can be vastly unequal depending on who a student is and where they live. Our investigative journalists bring a diverse set of lived experiences and to report with and in service to the people most affected by our work. We use data-driven accountability reporting to expose discriminatory systems affecting public education and to bring attention to solutions, frequently through collaboration with local journalists.

Population(s) Served
Families
Adults
Parents

Where we work

Awards

The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, 2013

The Pulitzer Prizes

Edgar A. Poe Award 2013

White House Correspondents' Association

The Harvard Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting 2013

Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government

Investigative Reporting in a Medium Newsroom, First Place 2012

National Awards for Education Reporting

Thomas Stokes Award for Energy Reporting 2012

National Press Foundation

Winner, Feature Reporting Internet 2011

New York Press Foundation

James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism 2011

James Aronson Award

Excellence in Financial Journalism - Consumer Category - News 2011

New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants

Edward R Murrow Award for Overall Excellence 2023

Edward R Murrow Award

Best Beat Coverage 2022

National Headliner Award

Excellence in Financial Journalism 2020

Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA)

Dateline Award 2019

The Society of Professional Journalist

Crisis Coverage Award 2022

American Socieity of Journalists and Authors (ASJA)

Investigative Reporting 2020

Goldsmith Prize

Best Collaborative Investigative 2019

EPPY Award

Salute to Excellence Award 2023

National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)

Excellence 2023

Financial Journalist Award

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of stories successfully placed in the media

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of overall donors

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of issue mentions in policymaker speeches

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Another media outlet or a policymaker mentions or cites one of our investigations in their publication and/or public speeches.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

The Center for Public Integrity measures our impact using a variety of quantitative and qualitative assessments. These include web statistics, press citations, journalism awards, and references in congressional hearings and testimony. By facilitating regular and strategic interaction with peer and partner organizations (through regular meetings and other outreach) and with our audiences (through social networking technology, e-mail campaigns, surveys, conference calls, and other activities), we provide for more continuous feedback on the relevance and helpfulness of our work as well as a means to monitor the way advocates, citizens, and policymakers use it to promote social change.

The Center for Public Integrity measures our impact using a variety of quantitative and qualitative assessments. These include web statistics, press citations, journalism awards, and references in congressional hearings and testimony. By facilitating regular and strategic interaction with peer and partner organizations (through regular meetings and other outreach) and with our audiences (through social networking technology, e-mail campaigns, surveys, conference calls, and other activities), we provide for more continuous feedback on the relevance and helpfulness of our work as well as a means to monitor the way advocates, citizens, and policymakers use it to promote social change.

The Center for Public Integrity measures our impact using a variety of quantitative and qualitative assessments. These include web statistics, press citations, journalism awards, and references in congressional hearings and testimony. By facilitating regular and strategic interaction with peer and partner organizations (through regular meetings and other outreach) and with our audiences (through social networking technology, e-mail campaigns, surveys, conference calls, and other activities), we provide for more continuous feedback on the relevance and helpfulness of our work as well as a means to monitor the way advocates, citizens, and policymakers use it to promote social change.

The Center focuses its investigations on the following areas: money and politics, government waste/fraud/abuse, the environment, workers' rights, national security, immigration, and business. We have won more than 50 major journalism awards, including the George Polk Award and numerous honors from the Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Online News Association, Overseas Press Club, Society of Environmental Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists.

2018
Wireless Wars: The Fight Over 5G

Reported by Allan Holmes. Edited by Gordon Witkin.

Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards, Best Business Reporting with under 1 million unique monthly visitors
Swamp Watch

Reported by Dave Levinthal, Sarah Kleiner, Carrie Levine, Ashley Balcerzak, Ryan Barwick, Lateshia Beachum, Jared Bennett, Fatima Bhojani, John Dunbar, Susan Ferriss, Allan Holmes, Maryam Jameel, Rui Kaneya, Rachel Leven, Kristen Lombardi, Patrick Malone, Jim Morris, R. Jeffrey Smith, Jamie Smith Hopkins, Kytja Weir and Jie Jenny Zou. Designed by Chris Zubak-Skees and Sameea Kamal. Edited by Levinthal, Dunbar and Gordon Witkin.

Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards, Best News/Political Blog with under 1 million unique monthly visitors
Medicaid, Under the Influence

Reported by Liz Essley Whyte and Joe Yerardi from the Center for Public Integrity and Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak from NPR. Graphics by Julia Donheiser. Edited by the Center’s Kytja Weir and Chris Zubak-Skees and NPR’s Joe Neel, Scott Hensley and Meredith Rizzo.

Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards, Best Collaborative Investigative/Enterprise Feature with 1 million unique monthly visitors and over — Finalist
2017
Nuclear Negligence

Reported by Peter Cary, Patrick Malone and R. Jeffrey Smith. Designed by Chris Zubak-Skees. Edited by Smith.

National Headliner Award, Online Investigative Reporting
Associated Press Media Editors Awards, Public Service (medium newsroom)
Associated Press Media Editors Awards, Investigative Reporting (small newsroom)
Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards, Best News or Event Feature with under 1 million unique monthly visitors
Society of News Design Award of Excellence, Best of Digital Design, Features: Single subject project category
Online News Association Online Journalism Awards, Explanatory Reporting (Small) — Finalist
Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense — Honorable mention
Society of American Business Editors and Writers Health/Science Award (Small) — Finalist
Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Pro Chapter, Dateline Award, Investigative — Finalist
#CitizenSleuth

Reported and produced by Dave Levinthal, Christina Wilkie, Carrie Levine and Chris Zubak-Skees from the Center for Public Integrity and Amy Walters of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

National Headliner Award, Social Media
Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards, Best Use of Social Media/Crowd Sourcing with under 1 million unique monthly visitors
Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in S

Financials

Center for Public Integrity
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Center for Public Integrity

Board of directors
as of 11/09/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

James Kiernan

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Paul Cheung

Center for Public Integrity

Bruce Finzen

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi

Gilbert Omenn

Center for Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics and the Proteomics Alliance for Cancer Research at the University of Michigan

James A Kiernan

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Jennifer 8. Lee

Plympton

Richard Lobo

The Kennedy Center

Amit Paley

McKinsey & Company

George Alvarez-Correa

The World Bank

Jamal Glen

JG Holdings

Olivier Kamanda

Google

Wesley Lowery

Investigative Reporting Workshop

Sue Suh

TIME

Daniel Suleiman

Covington & Burling, LLP

Andres Torres

Robert R McCormick Foundation

Charles Whitaker

Medill School of Journalism

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 11/8/2023
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
Asian/Asian American
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender
Sexual orientation
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or other sexual orientations in the LGBTQIA+ community
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

Transgender Identity

Sexual orientation

Disability

Equity strategies

Last updated: 11/08/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
  • We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.