Support Our Work
Public access to information is vital for creating and maintaining accountability and effectiveness in local government, yet local newsrooms like ours work under considerable financial strain. The fund will support our immersive approach to journalism across the organization by providing early-stage capital or bridge funding for vital projects. Our investigations and narrative productions are often years long, relying on a sustained quality of attention and careful relationship cultivation. In response, we are building a revolving fund that will be replenished by grants, donations, and earned income. While we have a demonstrated ability to attract earned revenue, we understand creative autonomy as vital to our methodology, and these kinds of revenue usually arise from years of consistent work by our team.
The creation of our groundbreaking and widely-used data project, CPDP.co, for example, took years of investing in legal work, public records requests, and web development. That sustained commitment paid off. Today, seven years after its launch, the site remains a national model for the power of data transparency and a launching point for our reporting work, including our ongoing efforts to expand the site and accompanying reporting on the police to more cities in Illinois. Because of the resources we commit, many of our projects build from prior projects, or the project itself lives on in new iterations. This revenue model allows us to invest in the practices that have led to our continued success: sharing obscure stories we have dedicated the time to carefully investigate in the medium that best suits the content independent of news trends and market pressures.
Checks can be mailed to:
Invisible Institute
P.O. Box 15459
Chicago, IL 60615
EIN: 47-3551981
The Invisible Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Chicago, IL.
Donor Transparency
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.
We will not accept donations from sources who present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.
The Invisible Institute has received support upward of $5,000 from the following people and organizations:
The Jonathan Logan Foundation | The Reva and David Logan Foundation | The McCormick Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation | The Field Foundation | The Alphawood Foundation | Vital Projects Fund
The Chicago Community Foundation | The Morrison Family Foundation | The W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation
The Polk Brothers Foundation | Leonard Goodman | The Feinberg Foundation | Oatly Inc.
Anonymous Individuals | The Cloudera Foundation | Data-Driven Reporting Project | Catalyst Grant Program
Square One Foundation | US Small Business Administration (Payroll Protection Program) | The Local South Foundation
Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
