Pro Publica Inc.

“Beginning in 2012, the organization began using adp totalsource, a professional employer organization ("peo"). As a professional employer organization, totalsource provides professional employer services to pro publica. In the peo relationship totalsource and pro publica share certain responsibilities and allocate other employer responsibilities between each other. Pro publica remains an employer of the worksite employees and totalsource is a co-employer of pro publica's employees. Pro publica has: direction and control over employees as is necessary to conduct its business, discharge and fiduciary responsibility it may have, or comply with any applicable licensure, regulatory or statutory requirement of pro publica. Control over the day to day job duties of employees and over the job sites at which, or from which employees perform services responsibility over the professional and licensed activities of employees including ensuring that employees are supervised by licensed individuals as required by law and for determining whether an applicant or employee meets pro publica's hiring criteria and is qualified to safely and completely perform his or her job totalsource reserves a right of direction and control over employees as is necessary to fulfill its obligations and provide its services under an agreement between pro publica, inc. And totalsource. Totalsource and pro publica, inc. Have a right to hire, discipline, and terminate employees as to each one's employment relationship with employees.”

“Pro publica has its form 990 prepared by an outside accounting firm and has established the following review process to ensure that the information reported is complete and accurate. When the form 990 has been prepared, reviewed by management and is ready to be filed with the internal revenue service, it's submitted electronically to members of pro publica's governing body for any comments prior to its submission. The governing body is provided with at least one week to review the prepared form 990 and provide their comments. Any comments are then grouped, summarized and provided to the audit committee for their review. Each issue is documented and addressed until the return is finalized and approved for filing.”

“Pro publica has a conflict of interest policy, which applies to all board members, officers, and employees. Each of the board members and officers are required sign to a conflict of interest policy annually. An interested person must disclose as soon as practicable to the secretary the existence of a potential conflict of interest and all material facts related to the conflict. If a board member or officer is uncertain about whether a conflict exists, he/she should report the possible conflict in all cases in which a critical external observer might reasonable perceive a conflict to exist. The board committee will determine if a conflict of interest exists. In the event that a conflict of interest arises, the board member or officer with whom the conflict pertains to is excluded from voting on the issue. He/she will leave the room and the other board members vote on the issue pertaining to that specific transaction. With respect to any board committee's discussion, decision, or actions involving transactions in which a board member or officer has a conflict of interest, the minutes of the board committee meeting will reflect the board's deliberations and voting process. In case of an interest party who is not a board member or officer, the president monitors and enforces the organization's compliance with its conflict of interest policy. If an employee has a conflict of interest, he/she employee could not participate in the decision making the conflicted transaction.”

“Salaries for the ceos, officers and key employees are set by the board. The board uses the services of a law firm (caplin & drysdale, who specialize in not for profit issues) for guidance on all matters of compensation. In 2012 caplin & drysdale updated the compensation study for three key employees. Caplin & drysdale studied compensation of select national newspapers and relied on their understanding of pro publica's operations and status in the field of journalism. The board established compensation for the ceo, officers and key employees using comparable data and determined that the salary is reasonable. Comparable data includes variety of information from journalism outlets and other not for profit organizations. Minutes of the board meetings are kept in file. This process was last completed in 2014.”

“The organization makes its form 990 available for public inspection as required under section 6104 of the internal revenue code. The return is posted on guidestar.org and other similar types of websites. In addition, the financial statements, conflict of interest policy, articles of incorporation, form 990, form 1023, and by-laws are also available upon written request, and on the organization's website (www.propublica.org).”

“Innovative approaches are essential for propublica to succeed in our mission of producing stories that expose abuses of power and betrayals of public trust. Our newsroom's use of data - from analyzing and filtering raw records to creating cutting-edge visualizations and news applications that help readers make sense of it all - is one critical way we're expanding the frontiers of contemporary journalism. Our data research generated some of 2015's most game-changing investigations. Propublica's investigation of the nation's debt collection system is a powerful example. Reporter paul kiel had already been exploring this issue for more than a year, producing award-winning work that generated the first ever national study of wage garnishment rates. But he wanted to dig deeper into the data. Kiel suspected there was a difference in debt collection patterns between black and white communities. To test this theory, he and fellow annie waldman requested court records on civil judgments from the highly segregated cities of st. Louis, chicago and newark. They went through more than half a million cases, geocoded every address and assigned each to a census tract. In all three regions, the correlation was clear: the heaviest use of collection lawsuits consistently overlapped with majority black neighborhoods. Even when adjusting for income, the rate of lawsuits was nearly double in predominately black areas than that of mostly white communities. After judgments, debtors in black neighborhoods were significantly more likely to have their wages garnished. Our journalists put these findings in interactive databases of the three cities, illustrating the disparities. When kiel spoke with the african-american mayor of the st. Louis suburb of jennings (a single mother who had been sued over debt herself, and had her paycheck garnished), he showed her propublica's database. In mayor yolanda fountain henderson's small suburb, more than 4,500 collection lawsuits had been filed over the course of five years. Out of 16 homes on her own block, eight households had been sued. "they're just suing all of us," henderson said in disbelief. Propublica didn't only highlight the problem; we offered potential solutions. In an accompanying sidebar to the story and database, we identified six ways the debt collection system might be reformed. Two months later, missouri attorney general chris koster proposed a series of changes to state court rules, including a requirement for debt-buying companies to provide proof that they own a debt before they can sue a debtor, and measures to prevent companies from winning judgments when the statute of limitations on a debt has expired. "earlier this year, propublica released a report that confirms what many consumer protection advocates have long suspected," koster said in a letter to the missouri supreme court's commission on racial and ethnic fairness. "the scope of this problem is vast, and there is a growing consensus that reform is desperately needed for our state court system." propublica's data journalism in 2015 also ignited a national conversation on patient safety following our publication of surgeon scorecard in july. Spearheaded by reporter marshall allen and deputy data editor olga pierce, this groundbreaking tool compares the performance of nearly 17,000 surgeons by analyzing millions of medicare claims records. It lets patients, for the first time, weigh the past performance of surgeons on eight common elective procedures, allowing them to make better decisions about their healthcare. Our methodology, which accounts for factors such as patients' health and age, was carefully designed in close consultation with surgeons and other leading experts. As we created surgeon scorecard, they repeatedly told us that medical errors - identified by one recent study as the third-leading cause of death in the u.s. - can and should happen far less frequently. They also told us that greater transparency about surgeons' perfo”

“Another significant test is recognition from peers in journalism. Propublica was the first online news organization to win a pulitzer prize (2010) and the first to win a pulitzer for stories not published in print (2011). Our work was honored in 2015 as follows: propublica's project with pbs frontline, "firestone and the warlord," about the american tire company's activities in liberia during the country's civil war, won two news & documentary emmy awards in the categories of outstanding investigative journalism and outstanding research. T. Christian miller and jonathan jones' reporting on this story also received the robert f. Kennedy journalism award for new media, the investigative reporters and editors award for multiplatform projects for large organizations, and hunter college's aronson award for social justice journalism. Our article "segregation now," on the re-segregation of america's schools, published in partnership with the atlantic, received the hechinger grand prize for distinguished education reporting, the highest honor in education journalism; the national award for education reporting for beat reporting; the society of professional journalists' sigma delta chi award for public service in online journalism; the deadline club award for digital beat reporting; the society for news design award of excellence for features, single-subject project; honorable mention from the american bar association's silver gavel awards; and recognition as a finalist for the american society of magazine editors' national magazine award for public interest. The national association of black journalists named nikole hannah-jones, the reporter on this project, its journalist of the year. Jesse eisinger's column, "the trade," focused on wall street accountability, won the george loeb award for distinguished business and financial journalism for commentary and the society of american business editors and writers best in business award for digital commentary. Our reporting with the lens on the rapid loss of land on the louisiana coast won a gold medal from the society for news design; the investigative reporters and editors gannett award for innovation in watchdog journalism; the national headliner award for writing for a website; a national edward r. Murrow award in the website category; an edward r. Murrow regional award; and a silver medal in the environmental category of the malofiej international infographics awards. This project, reported for propublica by al shaw and brian jacobs, also received three awards of excellence from the society for news design for features, infographics and multimedia. Our coverage of the dismantling of workers' comp, published in partnership with npr news and reported for propublica by michael grabell, received the online news association's al neuharth innovation in investigative journalism award. Our coverage of the red cross and its mishandling of superstorm sandy, in collaboration with npr news and reported for propublica by jesse eisinger and justin elliot, won the society of silurians excellence in journalism award for public service and was selected as a finalist for the goldsmith prize for investigative reporting. Our article on gun violence in our cities and post-traumatic stress disorder, reported by lois beckett and published in partnership with essence, won the national association of black journalists salute to excellence award for magazine investigative journalism and the deadline club award for public service. A related infographic received a society for news design award of excellence. Our investigation on the u.s. Government's program to identify and repatriate the bodies of missing soldiers, reported by megan mccloskey with npr news, received the alliance for women in media "gracie" award for outstanding investigative program or feature and a society for news design award of excellence for features. Mccloskey was also chosen as a finalist for the livingston award for young journalists in”

“Pro publica has an audit committee that assumes responsibility for the oversight of the audit of its financial statements and for the selection of an independent accountant. The process has not changed from the prior year.”