Driehaus Foundation grants totaling $850,000 will bolster four local newsrooms' coverage of public schools, Chicago neighborhoods, and other critical city issues.
July’s grants are part of more than $6 million the Driehaus Foundation has awarded through its Investigative Journalism funding program over the last three years to newsrooms serving Illinois communities.
“Local news across the country is under unprecedented strain at a time when fact-based, trustworthy information could not be more important,” says Nicholas Burt, Senior Program Officer. “We are proud to strengthen our commitment to excellent, engaging local journalism that helps Chicagoans understand our city and is vital to a healthy democracy.”
Block Club Chicago will receive $250,000 for its investigations team, The Watch, to dig deeply into issues uncovered through Block Club’s award-winning neighborhood coverage. Block Club investigations have exposed fraudulent COVID testing centers, problems at the Chicago Transit Authority, and scandals at the Loretto Hospital in Austin, among others—leading to action and accountability.
Chalkbeat is a national nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering education in the United States. A $100,000 grant will support the organization’s four-person Chicago bureau. Chalkbeat Chicago’s in-depth, data-driven journalism will equip voters, parents, and educators with the knowledge they need to navigate a historic transition to an elected school board, as well as provide year-round coverage of Chicago Public Schools and the effects of major shifts in education policy.
City Bureau is a Bronzeville-based nonprofit organization reimagining local media and civic participation. A $250,000 grant will support the Civic Reporting Fellowship—a paid, intensive training opportunity for journalists who want to grow their reporting, engagement, and leadership skills reporting on under-covered South and West Side communities. Past fellows have tackled issues such as housing and jobs for young adults, migrant labor, and maternal and infant health.
The Invisible Institute is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom on Chicago’s South Side. A general operating grant of $250,000 will help the organization build on a legacy that includes acclaimed podcasts “Somebody” and “You Didn’t See Nothin’”, the Civic Police Data Project, and (with City Bureau) the series “Missing In Chicago” revealing the city’s failures in handling cases of missing Black women and girls.
The Driehaus Foundation’s investigative journalism funding supports more than a dozen local newsrooms in fostering greater transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in government institutions across Illinois. Read more about our investigative journalism program
