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 directors (board members), officers, and employees. 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 director 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 reasonably 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 director or officer with whom the conflict pertains to is excluded from voting on the issue. He/she will leave the room and the other directors 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 director 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 director 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 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 ceo compensation. The board reviews proposed compensation increases for the ceos in relation to their performance, rates of inflation, compensation practices and plans for other propublica employees, and comparable data. Comparable data may include information about journalism outlets as well as other not for profit organizations. Approved salary changes are documented in human resources files and require the signature of both the employee and the hr director. The board's consideration of this matter is also documented in the minutes of the executive session. This process was last completed in 2019.”

“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).”

“Our work spurred significant impact, including the scrapping of industry-backed legislation that would have barred the irs from creating a free electronic tax filing system, major reforms to chicago's aggressive and unequal ticketing system, medical debt cleared for some of memphis', tennessee's poorest patients, hate group members sentenced to prison, an emergency ban on isolated seclusion in illinois schools, and millions of dollars allocated to improve public safety in alaska. Our journalism shined a light on three of the military's deadliest accidents in decades after senior officials ignored years of warnings, a student aid loophole in which wealthy parents gave up custody of their children to access need-based scholarships, how the intense deadline pressure that amazon puts on independent delivery drivers threatens public safety, a secret facebook page where current and former border patrol agents shared jokes about migrant deaths, the pervasive use of jailhouse informants and how the practice corrupts the justice system, politically connected billionaires benefiting from the opportunity zone tax break intended as an anti-poverty measure, and how carbon offsets have failed to deliver their promised climate benefits. In 2019, propublica expanded its local reporting network to 21 newsrooms around the country, with projects that exposed how california's efforts to reduce the population of state prisons have led to overcrowded and dangerous conditions in its county jails, the petrochemical industry's rapid growth in louisiana's most polluted communities, how the largest hospital system in memphis has sued and garnished the wages of thousands of poor patients for unpaid medical bills, and how a lack of public safety resources and generations of broken government promises have created a sexual assault and child-abuse crisis in alaska. We also announced a new partnership with the texas tribune for a jointly operated investigative reporting unit serving texas beginning in 2020 and launched collaborate, an open-source tool that makes it easier for reporters and newsrooms to work together on data collaborations. Propublica won the pulitzer prize - our fifth - for feature writing for a series on ms-13 co-published with new york magazine, newsday and the new york times magazine. Our series "zero tolerance" was a finalist for the pulitzer gold medal for public service, in addition to winning the first-ever peabody "catalyst" award and the george polk award for immigration reporting. The propublica and pbs frontline collaboration "documenting hate" won the news & documentary emmy award for outstanding investigative documentary and an alfred i. Dupont-columbia university award. Our publishing partnerships continued to grow, with 70 in 2019 alone. Partners over the past year included the new york times, the washington post, npr news, frontline, univision, the new yorker and the atlantic, as well as new national partners american banker, military times and the trace. Growing platform across all our distribution platforms, including third-party distributors such as apple news, microsoft news, google news and smartnews, many propublica stories this year recorded more than 1 million page views. Overall, traffic on our own site rose 42%, while newsletter subscriptions nearly doubled to more than 250,000. Impact the most important test of propublica is whether our work is making an impact. We measure our impact not in terms of audience size or honors but in real-world change. In 2019, our journalism spurred such change in a number of important areas. Irs reforms free tax filing program in april, propublica drew attention to a provision in the proposed taxpayer first act that would permanently bar the irs from creating a free electronic tax filing system, a move that intuit, the maker of turbotax;, h&r block;, and other tax software companies have spent millions of dollars in lobbying to ensure. Later that month, we showed how turbotax uses de”

“Local lawyer also published an independent report calling out more than me's american board for an "astonishing failure of oversight." later that month, more than me shuttered its operations, citing "severe financial pressure due to our inability to fundraise." nonprofit hospital stops suing its own employees mlk50, a member of our local reporting network, partnered with propublica for an investigation into methodist le bonheur healthcare, the largest hospital system in memphis, and how it has sued and garnished the wages of thousands of its poorest patients, including its own employees, for unpaid medical bills. As a nonprofit, methodist pays virtually no local, state or federal income tax and in return is supposed to provide community benefits. But its financial assistance policy all but ignored patients with any form of health insurance, no matter their out-of-pocket costs. Its health plan also didn't allow methodist employees to seek care at hospitals with more generous financial assistance policies. Prompted by our reporting, methodist's ceo promised a 30-day review of its collection policy and suspended court collection activities over unpaid medical bills during that period, immediately dropping more than two dozen cases that were set for initial hearings. Once the review was completed at the end of july, methodist announced a broad range of reforms, including that it would raise its minimum wage, dramatically expand its financial assistance policy for hospital care and stop suing its own employees for unpaid medical debts. In september, methodist forgave nearly $12 million in debts owed by more than 6,500 patients, including more than $30,000 from a woman featured in our story. Emergency ban on "isolated timeouts" enacted in november, propublica illinois partnered with the chicago tribune on an investigation into the use of "isolated timeout" rooms within illinois public schools. We found that children as young as five were sent to seclusion rooms, sometimes for hours on end, alone and often terrified, for infractions as minor as spilling milk. These isolated timeouts were routinely - and illegally - misused across the state. The day after our report was published, gov. J.b. Pritzker called the practice "appalling and vowed to work with legislators to enact a permanent ban. In addition, he directed the state board of education to make emergency rules to end isolated seclusion in illinois schools. Under these rules, children are now put in timeout only if a "trained adult" is in the room and the door is unlocked. Timeouts must also be used only for therapeutic reasons or to protect the safety of students and staff. Police charged with misconduct the south bend tribune, a member of our local reporting network, partnered with propublica for a 2018 investigation that revealed deep flaws and abuses of power in the criminal justice system in elkhart, indiana. Among other revelations, the series revealed video showing two elkhart police officers repeatedly punching a handcuffed man - an incident for which the officers had been issued only reprimands and which only became public after propublica and the tribune began investigating. In march, a federal grand jury indicted the two police officers on civil rights charges. An outside study of the elkhart police department ordered after our investigation found that the force lacks accountability, with officers viewed in the community as "cowboys" who engage in "rough treatment of civilians." the study also offered recommendations to make officer discipline more consistent, promotions less political, citizen complaints easier to file and the department's workings more transparent. Unsafe children's shelters closed propublica illinois reported extensively in 2018 on conditions inside the state's shelters for immigrant children, finding problems including sexual abuse, lax supervision and runaway children. In march, heartland human care services, which managed some of the shelters fea”

“Barr visited alaska to learn more about the problems highlighted in our report. In june, he declared an emergency for public safety in rural alaska and announced more than $10 million in funds as part of a sweeping plan to better support law enforcement in alaska native villages, including three new federal prosecutors to focus on rural alaska, the hiring of 20 more officers and upgrading public safety infrastructure for alaska villages. In october, barr announced an additional $42 million toward more village law enforcement and tribal victim services. Error-riddled immigration rule corrected in august, propublica revealed that a sweeping immigration policy rushed by the trump administration - intended to make it harder for low-income immigrants to come to or remain in the united states - included a provision treating the families of u.s. Citizens in the military more harshly than families of noncitizens in the military. Six weeks later, the administration announced that it would correct these substantive errors. Rhode island moves to certify 911 call takers in cpr propublica's local reporting network series with the public's radio examined rhode island's 911 system and how a lack of training and resources has left operators ill-prepared for the most urgent medical emergencies, including cardiac arrest, and is resulting in unnecessary deaths. Unlike every other new england state, rhode island doesn't require its 911 operators to be trained in how to provide cpr instructions by phone - a crucial step that can potentially prevent hundreds of unnecessary deaths each year. In response to our investigation, rhode island's legislature increased the training budget for 911 call takers to certify them in emergency medical dispatch and to collect data tracking their performance. The state police superintendent pledged to conduct a thorough review of procedures and training provided to 911 call takers, and in april, gov. Gina raimondo supported the superintendent's recommendation to have all of the state's 911 call takers trained to provide emergency medical instructions over the phone before first responders arrive. Biased police practice abandoned in 2018, propublica and the philadelphia inquirer reported on tactics used by state and local police officers in pennsylvania to help u.s. Immigration and customs enforcement round up immigrants for deportation. In february, the pennsylvania state police implemented a new policy that bans some of the most egregious behaviors profiled in our reporting, including questioning latino motorists about immigration issues during routine traffic stops. Under the new policy, state troopers are also prohibited from detaining or arresting foreign nationals simply for being in the country illegally. In addition, the aclu filed a federal lawsuit in june alleging that pennsylvania troopers were profiling people who appeared to be latinx, regardless of their citizenship status, and illegally stopping then without cause. Flawed "voter fraud" system suspended in 2017, propublica and gizmodo reported that a kansas system supposedly meant to identify voter fraud was riddled with errors and data security flaws that could imperil the safety of millions of people's records. In december, kansas secretary of state scott schwab announced that the state will abandon the use of the controversial technology. Violent vigilante sentenced to prison in one of propublica's early investigations from 2010, exploring new orleans police violence in the chaotic aftermath of hurricane katrina, we reported that white vigilantes organized an armed group to keep african americans from entering the neighborhood of algiers point. While the enclave was supposed to serve as an official evacuation zone for flood victims, vigilantes shot african americans who approached seeking transportation. In february 2019, a federal judge sentenced roland bourgeois jr., whom propublica identified as a participant in the incident, to 10 years in prison”

“Advocates and students called for a review of the university's sexual harassment policies. The university pledged to end the use of confidentiality clauses when professors are fired and is seeking to change policy to prevent faculty and administrators from arguing that academic freedom shields them in sexual misconduct cases. In addition, one of the professors who violated the sexual misconduct policy resigned from a newer position at the university of alabama a month after we requested documents about his hiring. Role of school-based police officers limited in a 2018 article co-published with the new york times magazine, propublica told the story of alex, a long island high school student who was accused of gang membership and deported to honduras for drawing a devil, his school mascot but also an ms-13 symbol. A school-based police officer reported the doodle, circumventing privacy protections. In response to the story, in january the huntington school district, which alex had attended, removed police from school buildings. Along with other long island districts, it also sought a formal agreement with the police limiting officers' roles in schools. Hospital reports child abuse skeptic to state medical board last september, propublica and the new yorker published an in-depth profile on dr. Michael holick, a renowned scientist turned expert witness who has helped alleged child abusers avoid prison and even regain custody of the babies they were accused of harming by attributing the infant's injuries to a rare genetic condition. Over the course of seven years, holick has consulted or testified in more than 300 child abuse cases and repeatedly pointed to hypermobile ehlers-danlos syndrome, even though the condition only occurs, at most, in 0.02% of the population. In the wake of the article, boston medical center, where holick practices, notified the massachusetts medical board of earlier disciplinary action it had taken against him. His profile page on the board's website now alerts members of the public of his restricted privileges. Huge medical charges cleared in november, propublica published a story about lauren bard, an emergency room nurse who was charged almost $900,000 for the birth of her premature baby after the hospital where she works rejected her application for insurance coverage for the newborn. The hospital falsely told her it was unable to reverse the decision because of federal regulations. As part of the reporting process, our reporter contacted the hospital to confirm the details and solicit its response. The hospital immediately reversed its decision and retroactively enrolled bard's daughter in the plan, removing the debt. Investigations into unethical hospital program launched in october, propublica published an investigation of the transplant team at newark beth israel medical center that revealed attempts to artificially increase the program's survival rate, an important indicator used by federal regulators. In one egregious case, for a full year it kept a patient alive in a vegetative coma who had no chance of recovery - without informing his family of his dire prognosis - apparently to boost its survival rate. Since our reporting, the federal agency responsible for transplant oversight announced that it would investigate the hospital, the hospital began an audit of its own and it placed the director of the heart transplant program on administrative leave. In november, the fbi opened its own investigation into the unit to determine if the hospital committed medicare or medicaid fraud by keeping patients in hospital beds to raise survival rates. Questionable tax breaks put on hold propublica partnered with wnyc as part of the local reporting network to investigate george norcross, an insurance broker widely regarded as the most powerful unelected official in new jersey. We found that a lucrative tax incentive bill led to at least $1.1 billion in tax breaks for his company, partners and clients of his br”

“Propublica reported on several examples of politically connected billionaires benefiting from the opportunity zone tax break, a 2017 anti-poverty measure meant to attract businesses to low-income communities. In november, sen. Ron wyden introduced a bill that would significantly narrow the scope of the program by removing hundreds of opportunity zones outside low-income areas, narrowing the kinds of eligible investments and requiring increased reporting for recipients of the tax break. Later in the month, rep. Rashida tlaib introduced a bill to repeal the opportunity zone tax break from the tax code. Unproven stem cell treatments put on notice in may, propublica partnered with the new yorker for an investigation into the virtually unregulated stem cell industry, which uses pseudoscience and, in many cases, disreputable medical staff to sell stem cell therapy as a miracle cure for everything from alzheimer's to arthritic knees. Weeks after our investigation, the fda notified the company r3 stem cell, a major distributor of unapproved birth tissue products, that their products are considered drugs and must have fda approval in order to be sold legally. Sexual harassment investigation launched following propublica's investigation with the new york times into philanthropist michael steinhardt's sexual harassment of women seeking his support, nyu hired a law firm to investigate whether steinhardt - the namesake of its steinhardt school of culture, education and human development - had engaged in inappropriate conduct with students, faculty or staff. Senators introduce bill to fix crumbling public housing in 2018 and early 2019, propublica partnered with the southern illinoisan as part of our local reporting network to investigate hud's flawed oversight of living conditions in federally subsidized housing in small and mid-sized cities, revealing crumbling buildings riddled with rats, cockroaches, mold and lead. Citing our reporting, in november sens. Dick durbin, tammy duckworth and kamala harris introduced the housing is infrastructure act, adding $70 billion to the public housing capital fund, which would aid in building, modernizing and rehabilitating the public housing stock throughout illinois. Lawmakers move to overhaul troubled judge selection system in november, propublica and the post and courier, a local reporting network partner, exposed how south carolina's system for selecting magistrate judges is rife with politics and flawed oversight, providing fertile ground for incompetence and corruption on the bench. The investigation found that magistrates, who handle hundreds of thousands of lower court cases a year, are often politically connected insiders, most of whom have never practiced law in their life. Following the report, state sen. Tom davis filed legislation that would bolster the required legal training for magistrates who aren't lawyers, increase protections for the many criminal defendants who appear before them, and add a layer of scrutiny to magistrate appointments. Transparency on political appointees championed in 2018, propublica launched trump town, a searchable database of the president's political appointees, along with their federal lobbying and financial records. In march 2019, the government accountability office urged congress to consider legislation that would require the federal government to make key information about political appointees - including their names, titles and financial disclosures - public. The gao cited trump town as the only place to currently find much of this data and argued that the information is crucial to holding appointees to high standards and ensuring the integrity of actions taken on the public's behalf. Recognition for our work propublica's work was honored in 2019 as follows: three articles in our "trapped in gangland" series on ms-13 by reporter hannah dreier - co-published with new york magazine, newsday and the new york times magazine - won the pulitzer prize for fea”

“Magazine, won the scripps howard award for human interest storytelling and received an honorable mention for the molly national journalism prize. Propublica's "flood thy neighbor" series in partnership with reveal and vox won the national academies of sciences, engineering and medicine's communications award in the online category and was a finalist for ona's online journalism award in excellence and innovation in visual digital storytelling. The interactive from the series, "to see how levees increase flooding, we built our own," was named a finalist for a gen data journalism award for data visualization of the year. "i don't want to shoot you, brother," propublica's multimedia report with frontline dispatch, won nabj's salute to excellence award in the digital media - single story: feature category and was a finalist for the news leaders association's deborah howell award for writing excellence. "stuck kids," a propublica illinois series on children held in psychiatric hospitals after they've been cleared for release, won the award for excellence in health care journalism for health policy and the society of professional journalists' sigma delta chi award for online non-deadline reporting. It was a finalist for ona's online journalism award in the feature, small newsroom category, the better government association's richard h. Driehaus foundation award for investigative reporting and the chicago headline club's peter lisagor award for best non-deadline reporting series. A local reporting network project with the charleston gazette-mail on the effects of the natural gas industry on communities won the online journalism award for explanatory reporting and was a finalist for the scripps howard national journalism award for environmental reporting. The project was also recognized with four awards from the west virginia press association's annual editorial contest. "health insurance hustle" won the society of american business editors and writers' best in business award for health/science, was a finalist for the gerald loeb award in explanatory reporting and received an honorable mention from the national press club awards in the consumer journalism - periodicals category. The propublica illinois and wbez series "driven into debt" won the society of professional journalists' sigma delta chi award for online investigative reporting (independent), as well as two of the chicago headline club's peter lisagor awards in best investigative reporting and best data journalism. The series received honorable mention in the society of american business editors and writers' best in business award in the investigative category, and was a finalist for the better government association's richard h. Driehaus foundation award for investigative reporting and the peter lisagor awards for best investigative/public service and best use of features video. "the billion-dollar loophole," propublica's report co-published with fortune on conservation easements, won the national press club's lee walczak award for political analysis and was a finalist for the deadline club award for business feature. Our collaboration with wnyc, "trump, inc.," won the society of the silurians excellence in journalism medallion for radio feature news and the public radio news directors incorporated's award for best collaborative effort. The joint podcast was also selected as a finalist for a gerald loeb award in the audio category. Our local reporting network collaboration with the santa fe new mexican on nuclear worker safety won the award for excellence in health care journalism for public health and the national headliner award in the television/environmental category. "inside trump's va" won the national press club's sandy hume award for excellence in political journalism and received honorable mention in the toner prize for excellence in political reporting. Electionland, our collaboration covering the 2018 midterms, won ona's online journalism awards for excellence in c”

“Insiders who have been appointed across the federal government, was a finalist for the news leaders association's first amendment award. Propublica's al shaw, claire perlman, alex mierjeski and derek kravitz were finalists for the livingston award in national reporting for their work on the project. Our collaboration with the new york times on the trump administration's pullback on civil rights in education was a finalist for the national award for education reporting in the single-topic news category. Our "miseducation" project examining racial disparities in educational opportunities and school discipline was a finalist for the national award for education reporting for public service, the gen data journalism award for investigation of the year, and nabj's salute to excellence award in the digital media online project: news category. Our reporting on the troubling way that police investigate the murders of trans women was a finalist for the glaad media award outstanding digital journalism. Propublica and the houston chronicle's "heart failure" investigation won a showcase silver award from the headliners foundation of texas, and was a finalist for the national institute for health care management foundation's health care print journalism award. Our local reporting network collaboration with wmfe-fm on ptsd in first responders was a finalist in the florida associated press professional broadcasters contest. Our news applications and data visualizations won 22 society for news design awards of excellence for features, coverage, multimedia, graphics, story page design, maps, new tools, use of data, national, local issues, social media and the individual portfolio of news applications developer al shaw; six malofiej awards for infographics; and propublica's news applications department as a whole was recognized as a finalist for the gen competition's best data journalism team portfolio (large newsroom). Shaw was also a finalist for the gen data journalism award for best individual portfolio.”

“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.”