Pro Publica Inc.

“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 the president and vice president of finance & administration 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 to sign a conflict of interest disclosure statement 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 interested 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 cannot participate in the decision making of the conflicted transaction.”

“Salaries for the ceos 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 2017, caplin & drysdale updated the compensation study for ceos. Caplin & drysdale studies compensation of select national newspapers and relied on their understanding of propublica's operations and status in the field of journalism. The board established compensation for the ceos using comparable data and determined that the salaries are reasonable. Comparable data includes variety of information from journalism outlets and other not for profit organizations. Approved salary changes are documented in human resources files and require the signature of both the employee and the executive chairman. The board's consideration of this matter are also documented in the minutes of the executive session. This process was last completed in 2017.”

“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).”

“When propublica began publishing in 2008, we were driven by a mission to fill some of the gaps left by the business crisis of the press and the hollowing out of investigative journalism. We sought to build a new, sustainable model to carry forward this vital work. Nearly ten years later, propublica has investigated a wide range of national and local issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust wherever we find them. In a time of heightened disinformation and attacks on the press, our work has never been more important. Yet it has not been lost on us that the greatest diminution of accountability reporting is occurring at the local and regional level. In 2017, propublica worked aggressively to address this problem. We launched two new initiatives - propublica illinois and the propublica local reporting network - to support local accountability journalism by and for the communities it covers. Local reporters are uniquely positioned to tackle issues that are important to the communities they serve. To bring such sustained attention to illinois - a state with a wealth of subjects for investigative journalism, but with more stories to uncover than there are reporters to dig into them - we started propublica illinois, our first regional publishing operation with, we hope, more to come. In february, we named louise kiernan as the editor-in-chief of propublica illinois. Today, with a dedicated staff of 12, the chicago-based newsroom investigates wrongdoing across the city and state. Propublica illinois also collaborates with other news organizations to build a broader community of investigative journalists, from partnerships with a diverse group of local newsrooms to a grant project with the illinois humanities council focused on reaching underserved audiences. One of propublica illinois' first stories, published in partnership with the chicago tribune, shed light on a complex, specialized issue, but one of deep concern for many chicago residents: property taxes. For decades, cook county residents had suspected their property taxes were based on inaccurate assessments, overvaluing many low-priced homes while under-valuing many higher priced ones. Propublica illinois reporters jason grotto and sandhya kambhampati dug into the story, exposing widespread inequities and egregious errors in assessments which give the wealthy unsanctioned tax breaks and line the pockets of politically connected tax attorneys. Thanks to this tenacious reporting, cook county's broken assessment system may be held to account. Within weeks of publication of the first stories, the county's inspector general launched an investigation of the assessor's office. The cook county board required assessor joseph berrios to testify at a public hearing, and state and local lawmakers introduced legislation to limit campaign contributions to the assessor. Citing our reporting, three prominent public interest law offices sued berrios and the county in december, alleging violations of state and federal civil rights and housing laws. Fairness in the property tax system has become a major issue in statewide elections for 2018, with multiple candidates calling on the assessor to resign following the series. Another propublica illinois story, by reporter duaa eldeib, exposed a youth facility in southern illinois where minor offenses, such as spitting at or shoving a guard, led to lengthy adult sentences for juvenile offenders. Understanding the importance of talking with inmates face to face, eldeib pursued the illinois department of corrections for weeks to win permission to do so. She put nearly 1,500 miles on her car to make multiple trips to a state prison and a county jail. Reporter mick dumke, in partnership with wbez (chicago public radio) and the chicago sun-times, took on one of the underlying issues of gun violence in chicago: how illegal guns move through the city. The story focused on the troubling case of a young man named john thomas who”

“Network, an initiative to support seven local investigative projects in newsrooms that serve communities with populations below 1 million. In 2018, we will fund one year's salary for each of the seven participating reporters, who will collaborate with propublica senior editor charles ornstein as they embark on investigative reporting within their local communities. Propublica's expertise with data, research and engagement will also be made available in support of the work. Announced in december, our local reporting network selected its initial partners from a pool of 239 applications from 45 states, plus washington, d.c., and puerto rico. Editors chose projects on topics including conflicts of interest, housing, mental health care, criminal justice and workplace safety. The newsrooms selected are the advocate (baton rouge, louisiana), charleston gazette-mail (west virginia), malheur enterprise (vale, oregon), santa fe new mexican, south bend tribune (indiana), the southern illinoisan (carbondale, illinois), and wmfe (orlando, florida). Investigations from the propublica local reporting network will be published or broadcast by these local news organizations and propublica. We look forward to working with them in 2018. Over the past year propublica has also continued to focus on national stories, ranging from maternal mortality to algorithmic discrimination to enormous waste in medical costs. One big emphasis was our coverage of the dramatic policy changes implemented by the trump administration. We have examined regulatory rollbacks, cutbacks and the departure of scientists at the environmental protection agency. We spotlighted calamitous mismanagement at the department of housing development, and how immigration and customs enforcement is looking to electronically track visa-holders. We've devoted constant resources to identifying appointees who were quietly installed across the federal agencies, with an emphasis on revealing their deep ties to industry and interest groups. These stories remain crucial, and in 2018 we will continue our efforts. In the coming year, our newsroom is excited to produce more rigorous, meaningful journalism that engages communities we haven't yet reached in ways we believe can resonate nationwide. Impact the most important test of propublica is whether our work is having impact. By this, we mean not audience size or prizes, but real-world change. Our growth over the past year has also fueled more of this kind of impact, including changes in behaviors, policies and legislation. Learn more about our impact and track the results of our reporting at propublica.org/impact. Facebook policies on hate speech and discrimination rewritten after our 2016 investigation revealed that facebook advertisers could target housing ads to whites only, the company announced that it had built a system to spot and reject discriminatory ads. In 2017, we retested - and found that facebook still allows housing advertisers to exclude african americans, jews, spanish speakers and other groups, which is a violation of federal law. Facebook said it would temporarily stop advertisers from being able to bar viewers by race while it further studies its ad targeting system. We also reported on the secret guidelines that facebook's censors use to distinguish between hate speech and legitimate political expression, revealing internal documents that lay out facebook's rationale behind seemingly inconsistent decisions on the user posts it deletes. We disclosed a paradox in the social network's rules. White men fall under protected categories of people - based on gender, race or religious affiliation - but black children do not. Following the story, facebook changed its rules to add age as a protected category, an adjustment that will now lead to the deletion of some slurs. In september, we further investigated facebook's ad-buying platform. We found that advertisers were able to tailor their pitches to people who had expressed interest”

“Anonymously, and is more selective about sharing with its clients the personal information of people who report objections. The service provider later ended its relationship with the daily stormer, taking the site off the mainstream u.s. Internet. Workers' rights protected propublica investigated how case farms, a chicken processing firm in ohio, has for decades relied on undocumented immigrant workers to staff its dangerous factories. When workers fought for better conditions or were seriously injured on the job, the company used their immigration status to quash dissent and evade paying worker's compensation. Citing our reporting, the ohio legislature removed from a bill a provision that would have barred unauthorized immigrants from getting workers' comp benefits. Trump administration conflicts of interest exposed we reported on gavin clarkson, a bureau of indian affairs official in charge of a program that provides loan guarantees to indian businesses. Our story revealed that prior to his appointment, clarkson had arranged a $20 million guarantee under the same program - in a deal that failed, creating disastrous financial outcomes for the tribe involved and embroiling the bureau of indian affairs in an ongoing legal battle. Less than a week after the propublica story, clarkson resigned from his position. We also reported that the trump administration hired taylor hansen, a lobbyist for the largest trade group of for-profit colleges who had pushed to weaken their regulation. Three days after we revealed his role, sen. Elizabeth warren sent a letter to education secretary betsy devos, citing propublica's reporting and requesting more information. That same day, hansen resigned from the education department. After our reporting in february that ivanka trump had not ceded control of her businesses - as she had pledged to do before her father became president - she quickly signed and filed the necessary paperwork to resign from her companies. Maternal health crisis detected - and a woman's life saved our reporting with npr about maternal mortality in the u.s. Spotlighted preeclampsia, a dangerous type of hypertension that can emerge after a baby is delivered. Having recently read the story and four days after delivering her first child, marie mccausland, a 27-year-old scientist in ohio, recognized that her painful symptoms might be preeclampsia and raced to the nearest emergency room. Although the er doctor claimed nothing was wrong, she stayed until another doctor was consulted - and her severe preeclampsia was treated, likely saving her life. Tech company relationships with extremist sites severed in august, we reported how leading tech companies were helping extremist sites capitalize on their online traffic. Paypal facilitated donations to the anti-immigration site vdare, for example, despite paypal's announced policies against doing business with hate groups. After the story, payment processors paypal and plasso discontinued services to at least five sites identified by propublica. Harmful police practice abandoned a 2016 propublica investigation published with the new york times magazine spotlighted how the houston police department used roadside drug tests to secure guilty pleas, sending hundreds of people to jail in recent years -despite widespread evidence that the tests routinely produce false positives. In july, the police department ended its longstanding practice of using the faulty tests, following an order from the then-district attorney of harris county to require that any positive field tests be confirmed in a crime lab before a guilty plea could be won. Spying tv's stopped we reported in 2015 that vizio smart tvs tracked users' viewing habits and shared them with advertisers, who could then find users on their phones and other devices. In february, the federal trade commission fined vizio $2.2 million for surreptitiously collecting details on viewers' watching habits. Vizio also agreed to delete data collecte”

“A 2015 propublica investigation, published with california sunday magazine, spotlighted how california's network of dangerous group homes are failing many of the state's most vulnerable children including a boy who was sexually assaulted by a peer at one group home. In april, a jury awarded more than $11 million to the boy's family, ruling that the operators of the home, familiesfirst, neglected the boy as the facility descended into violence and chaos. Alternative schools investigation opened in partnership with usa today, propublica exposed how officials in orlando, florida were quietly removing low-achieving students from regular high schools, and funneling them into substandard alternative schools to boost the graduation rates of traditional schools and hide the number of dropouts. In response, florida's department of education opened an investigation into how alternative schools classify students who leave without graduating. Patient privacy defended in december 2015, with the new york times, propublica reported on patients who had details of their mental health diagnoses and treatments exposed by a new jersey psychology practice suing them over unpaid bills. In april, the state attorney general's office and the new jersey state board of psychological examiners filed a complaint against the psychologist, barry helfmann, for failing to protect patients' confidentiality, a move that could revoke or suspend his license. Our work was honored in 2017 as follows: our collaboration with the new york daily news, on widespread misuse of new york city's nuisance abatement law, won the pulitzer prize for public service. The stories also won a james aronson award for social justice journalism, and were finalists for the deadline club awards for local news reporting and minority focus, and the investigative reporters and editors award in the print/online category. "machine bias," our series exploring the hidden power of computer-generated algorithms across society, was a finalist for the pulitzer prize for explanatory reporting. The series won the scripps howard award for digital innovation, a society for news design award of excellence in the graphics category and a silver medal from the malofiej international graphics awards. Our prescient project with texas tribune, "hell and high water," on how a major hurricane could devastate the houston region, won the peabody award in the web category, the edward r. Murrow national award in the category of investigative reporting, the society of american business editors and writers' best in business award for innovation, the editor & publisher eppy award for best use of data/infographics, the knight-risser prize for western environmental journalism, the aaas kavli science journalism award in the online category, the radio and television digital news association's regional edward r. Murrow award for investigative reporting and a society for news design award of excellence for features. The series was also a finalist for the national magazine award for multimedia, the online journalism award for excellence and innovation in visual digital storytelling, the deadline club award for digital innovation, the university of florida award for investigative data journalism, the north american digital media award for best data visualization, the national academies communications award in the online category, and received the headliners foundation of texas' showcase silver award. For his portfolio of stories on the roots of the 2016 political season, reporter alec macgillis won the george polk award for national reporting and the scripps howard award for topic of the year. Macgillis was also recognized for his deep reporting on a range of policy issues with the elijah parish lovejoy award. "anatomy of doubt," in collaboration with this american life and the marshall project, won the peabody award for radio/podcast. "busted," which exposed how police use error-prone drug kits to convict thousands of people”

“Campaign that overwhelmed the defenses of europe in 2015 and 2016, was a finalist for the investigative reporters and editors award for broadcast/video. Our news applications and data visualizations won a host of awards, including society of news design awards of excellence for organizational portfolio, social media strategy, product design for the propublica data store, breaking news and special events for electionland, features for "gunfight in guatemala and our stories on who trump is putting in power. The malofiej international infographics awards also bestowed a bronze medal for our twitter graphics explaining tor.”

“Loss on disposal of asset -17.”

“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.”