The need for independent, fearless journalism is stronger than ever.
The past few years have taught us that truthful and unbiased journalism is vital to our health, our democracies and our communities, not just in the United States, but around the world too.
Our Report for America corps members show up for their communities every day. They lift up stories that would otherwise go overlooked and hold power to account.
They’re a force for good.
In 2021, we adapted our hyper-local model to India, Nigeria and Brazil and launched Report for the World.




On The Ground
The national obsession with Big Brother Brazil has become an opportunity for the country to look at itself in the mirror. In this season the presence of Linn da Quebrada, a black trans woman who identifies herself as a transvestite and has tattooed on her forehead the word “she,” has contributed to amplify the national debate over language, body, and gender violence. While watching Linn and the other participants interacting in the house monitored 24h with cameras and microphones, Brazilians have witnessed how prejudice challenges the everyday lives of all those who defy the traditional gender norms. Report for the World corps member Giovanna Carneiro with Marco Zero reports.
While the federal government has reduced the fees for registering marriages in Nigeria, corrupt officials of marriage registries have continued to extort prospective couples by charging above the official rate — diverting millions of naira into their personal bank accounts, and shortchanging the federal government. For TheCable, Report for the World corps member Taiwo Adebulu investigated the corrupt practices and loopholes through which a system frustrates its own online registration portal and forces citizens to pay mandatory bribes.
Kristen Mueller was in the final stages of her emergency medicine residency at Washington University when a patient who had attempted suicide with a gun was brought in. That patient survived, but was left blind and with severe facial injuries. That was seven years ago. Mueller, who now researches firearm violence and injury prevention at Washington University, has treated hundreds, if not thousands, of St. Louis gun violence victims. “Every now and then you get those cases that just stick with you, and you roll over at 3 in the morning and you’re awake thinking about it,” Mueller said. Those types of cases have only become more common over time. This reporting by Report for America corps member Humera Lodhi with The Kansas City Star is part of the Missouri Gun Violence Project, a two-year, statewide journalism effort supported the Missouri Foundation for Health and three Report for America corps members.
If a child has to leave home and enter the foster care system, the hope is they will stay with a loving family or in a nearby group home. But in West Virginia, hundreds of foster kids end up in out-of-state group homes far from the watchful eye of the state agency that’s supposed to take care of them. Even more worrisome is the fact that some of those kids end up in facilities accused of abuse and neglect. The investigation, in partnership with Mountain State Spotlight, found 22 serious accounts of abuse and neglect at many of the out-of-state facilities West Virginia has paid to care for its foster kids.
A sea of protestors, about several thousand strong, flooded the streets of Chicago’s LGBTQ neighborhood one chilly afternoon in June 2020. With each step up North Halsted Street, their chants of “Justice for George Floyd” and “Black Trans Lives Matter” echoed more loudly off the gay bars and LGBTQ centers that line the strip. They waved rainbow and blue-and-pink Pride flags, along with protest signs demanding justice for Floyd, Breonna Taylor and transgender man Tony McDade. Their leader was Jo Mama, a six-foot-one drag queen in a baby blue pantsuit and afro hairstyle.
When Lake Powell is filled or near capacity, as was the case through much of the 1980s and 1990s, the river current stopped just downstream of the drops, its muddy waters becoming a limpid blue reservoir as hundreds of millions of tons of sediment settled to the river bottom. Scouting the Big Drops today, that scene is almost impossible to picture.
With $140,000 in funding from the City of San Bernardino, the Highland Senior Center provides lunches for 40 individuals and dinner for another 40 individuals — seniors can sign up for one or the other. Donations come from Walmart and include poultry, vegetables, dairy products and if they’re lucky, beef. Located along Highland Avenue near the unincorporated community of Patton, the center borders the vicinity of the City of San Bernardino where fast food restaurants and liquor stores exist in abundance. A sizable portion of residents in the area have low access to grocery stores — a “food desert,” according to the federal government. This reporting by Report for America corps member Breanna Reeves with Black Voice News is part of Barren Mile, a historic reporting collaboration among four Black-owned Report for America newsroom partners.
Jail officials in Maine promised jailed defendants that the phone calls between defendants and their attorneys would be private, but Report for America corps member with The Maine Monitor Samantha Hogan found that county jails routinely recorded attorney-client calls, and state police used these calls to investigate cases — potentially using them to build the prosecution’s case.
Despite an expert panel's recommended closure of a diamond mine in Panna Tiger Reserve, Report for the World corps member Ishan Kukreti with Scroll.in found evidence raising concern the government favors corporate interests over the local forest and community.
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Rampant disinformation continues to tear at the fabric of our democracy, but our corps members have been on the frontlines of our mission, delivering reliable, trustworthy local news across the country. And most importantly, their communities have come out to support them and the work they do.
Supporting Local Fundraising
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Local public service journalism is at risk globally. The dramatic economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted news organizations that were already under great stress. We launched Report for the World to support trusted local journalism where it’s needed most.
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Coalition
In 2021, Report for America President and Co-Founder Steven Waldman formed the Rebuild Local News Coalition to advocate public policies that will strengthen communities by creating a more robust, more inclusive local news system, without endangering editorial independence.

In 2021, our staff of 42 spanned 20 states across the United States and Washington, D.C. bringing a range of nonprofit, operations, and journalism experience. Meet the people who make all this work possible here.


Simultaneously, we refined, deepened and improved our flagship program, Report for America, with an even greater focus of building a more sustainable journalism ecosystem—at the local level.
And, my co-founder of Report for America, Steve Waldman, launched a new policy initiative called the Rebuild Local News Coalition, a bold venture to enact more support for local news at the state and federal level.
Our mission—to restore journalism from the ground up—matters now more than ever, and we strive to innovate and expand our work 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
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Photo credits (in order of appearance): 1. KT Kanazawich / Flint Beat, Report for America 2. Tash Kimmell / KCAW, Report for America 3. KT Kanazawich / Flint Beat, Report for America 4. Ivan Armando Flores / Texas Observer, Report for America 5. Silas Walker / Lexington Herald Leader, Report for America 6. Silas Walker / Lexington Herald Leader, Report for America