A year when on-the-ground journalism mattered more than ever.
Journalism is vital to our health, our democracies, and our communities.
Since our inception, The GroundTruth Project, home to Report for America, has worked to restore journalism from the ground up. And 2020 demanded more of us and our partners in every way.
Faced with a global pandemic and a reckoning on racial justice in the U.S., our reporters were on the frontlines showing up for their communities every day. We met the moment, growing our programs and operations by 400% in 2020 to train and support more emerging journalists than ever before.
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COVID-19 cases were spiking nationwide, George Floyd had just been murdered, and concerns about the security of our election were in question. Our 226 Report for America corps members were on the ground and ready to serve.
A Rapidly Growing Corps
Leah Willingham
The city of Itta Bena, Mississippi, doesn’t have a newspaper. It doesn’t have a grocery store, or a bank. Because of Leah’s reporting, the world knew that it soon wouldn’t even have power. She surfaced stories of people who couldn’t pay—and as a result, the city was going to lose their lights once and for all. Leah’s reporting got the lights back on.
Monique John
In July, Monique wrote how children in Over-the-Rhine are losing more and more outdoor spaces for activities and play time. Less than two weeks after her report, and almost two years after Findlay Park had been closed, city officials announced they will reopen the playground. John nuances the reopening with an insightful follow-up on how the shutting down of the park impacted the community.
Alejandra Martinez
Alejandra’s investigation into a 100,000 ton “mountain” of shingles and waste in one of Dallas’s poorest communities brought statewide attention to the problem. After a years-long battle with city government, and within weeks of her story, the county began hauling away hazardous and environmentally-harmful waste.
Brandon Block and Laurel Demkovich
In a free after-school program, Report for America corps members Brandon Block and Laurel Demkovich mentor middle and high school students who express an interest in journalism. Participants develop and publish articles and videos about their choice of topics while also developing skills in interviewing, research and writing, journalistic techniques, ethics, and story crafting.
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We all had different plans for 2020, including our global reporting fellows. They shifted gears, reporting on how the pandemic was affecting migrant communities, the U.S. election, and more.
Through it all, GroundTruth is proud that our journalists stayed resilient, resourceful and committed to elevating voices of local communities to global conversations.
16 Global Editorial Partners
Mario Mendoza and Beth Murphy
In this video featured in the New York Times’s Opinion section, Dr. Mendoza explains how, despite the vaccine being readily available, it is not being given to children.
Iliana Hagenah
It is estimated that 400,000 people in Tennessee are disenfranchised from voting due to felony convictions. Tennessee’s ever-growing list of voter ID requirements are in line with nationwide trends that began in the 1950s and accelerated after the 2013 gutting of Shelby County v. Holder. Those regulations have barred hundreds of thousands of Tennessee citizens from voting, most of whom are young and Black.
Soumya Shankar
Shankar received the Daniel Pearl Award from the South Asian Journalists’ Association for her work on the GroundTruth podcast, Democracy Undone, detailing the situation in Kashmir in the aftermath of the controversial citizenship law.
Webby Awards
The GroundTruth Project was recognized as a 25th Webby Award Honoree in the News & Politics category for its 2020 podcast season, On the Ground with Report for America. It’s a playlist of stories from across America, amid a pandemic and nationwide demands for criminal justice and police reform, told by our very own Report for America corps members.
2020 Donor Recognition
$250,000 - $2.5M
Anonymous
Bake Family Trust
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Craig Newmark Philanthropies
Facebook Journalism Project
Joyce Foundation
Knight Foundation
Lumina Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
Natasha and Dirk Ziff
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Spring Point Partners
$100,000 - $249,999
Heising-Simons Foundation
Henry Kimelman Family Foundation
Jesse and Betsy Fink
Jonathan Logan Family Foundation
The Hearthland Foundation
The Henry Luce Foundation
The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation
Tow Foundation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
$50,000 - $99,999
Anonymous
Bildner Charitable Trust
Democracy Fund
Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation
Inasmuch Foundation
Jim and Susan Swartz
Leon Levy Foundation
Maurice and Carol Feinberg Family Foundation
Newman’s Own Foundation
Robin D’Alessandro
Select Equity Group Foundation
Susie Trees
Val A. Browning Charitable Foundation
$5,000 - $49,999
Ann Davis Vaughan
Annie E Casey Foundation
Anonymous
Anonymous
Barinaga Goodman Fund
Battery Foundation
Bloomberg LP
BRELL Fund of the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund
David Fialkow
Further Forward Foundation
Iger Bay Foundation
Janet Clark
Listgarten Family Fund
LOR Foundation
Park Foundation
Richard Weintraub
Robert and Susan Sennott
Solutions Journalism Network
Susan Karp and Paul Haahr
The Miami Foundation
The Newhouse Family
The Ramsey Family Fund
The Steven M and Joyce E. Tadler Charitable Trust
Report for America local newsroom supporters ($5,000+)
Alexis and James Pugh
Ameren Corporation
American Journalism Project
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Ann Flannigan
Audrey and Courtney Moe Charitable Fund
Berks County Community Foundation
Blue Grass Community Foundation
Brian Glasser Household
Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation
Charter Communications
Community Foundation of Chattahoochee Valley
Community Foundation of Louisville
Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
Dan and Christine Quinn Family Foundation
Dogwood Health Trust
Ellen Bernstein Household
Foundation for the Carolinas
Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
Harold Matzner
Henry Kimelman Family Foundation
Julia Ardery and Bill Bishop
Kenneth O'Keefe
Lenfest Institute for Journalism
Long Beach Community Foundation
Miller-Wehrle Foundation
Minneapolis Foundation
Mississippi Power
Missouri Foundation for Health
Nancy Fleming Shelton
National Geographic Partners
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Newman's Own Foundation
New Mexico Local News Fund
North Carolina Local News Lab Fund
North Texas Community Foundation
Pamela Ann Wickham
Phyllis Keller
Robert W. Deutsch Foundation
Stanislaus Community Foundation
The Calwell Practice, LC
The McConnell Foundation
White Family Trust
William Carter
Youngstown Area Jewish Federation
Youngstown Foundation
WHAT YOU SUPPORT
Here’s what your unrestricted gift to GroundTruth can make possible:
Thank you
Year Over Year Growth
Revenue and expenses
In 2020, our staff grew by 66% from 24 to 40, and our Board of Directors grew by 33% from 12 to 16. Meet the people behind it all here.
All eyes turned to our journalists, as communities, neighbors, and families sought out trusted local news sources in a time of deep division when sometimes it feels truth itself is under attack. And all of us were made starkly aware of how fragile the local news ecosystem is, and how important it is to a functioning democracy.
The GroundTruth Project, home to Report for America, met the moment, head on.
Our mission—to restore journalism from the ground up—matters now more than ever. And in 2021, we are aiming for even higher heights, with programs that focus on building a more sustainable journalism ecosystem, especially one that puts communities first.
We’re leading a global movement—and launching Report for the World in 2021—to rejuvenate news deserts, restore reporting gaps decimated by COVID-19 and lift up stories that matter most. This is a movement to not only restore journalism, but really to restore and protect democracy in the U.S. and around the world.
And for those of you who already have joined, we extend heart-felt gratitude. Your support means the world to us.
Charles M. Sennott
Founder, CEO And Editor-in-Chief
The GroundTruth Project
Home of Report for America
Photo credits (in order of appearance): 1. KT Kanazawich / Flint Beat, Report for America 2. Silas Walker / Lexington Herald-Leader 3. Brittany Greeson / GroundTruth 4. Eric Shelton / Mississippi Today, Report for America 5. Jaida Grey Eagle / Sahan Journal, Report for America 6. Mao Siscar Banyuls / GroundTruth 7. Dee Dwyer / The DCist, Report for America