Donations Instead Of Gifts: 12 Charities To Help This Holiday

PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 09: Miles O’Brien (L) and ProPublica managing editor Stephen Engelberg speak during the ‘Frontline: Are We Safer?’ panel at the PBS portion of the 2011 Winter TCA press tour held at the Langham Hotel on January 9, 2011 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

8. ProPublica

Cause: Independent reporting, first amendment rights

Why Choose This Charity: If you’re especially concerned about challenges to first amendment rights in the coming years, then there are a couple of different organizations on this list for you to consider. First up is ProPublica. This non-profit corporation was founded in 2007. On its website, ProPublica is described as “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.”

In 2010, it became the first online news source to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for “Deadly Choices”, an investigative report by Sheri Fink. ProPublica employs a staff of full time investigative reporters, who write articles that are often shared with other major news sources. ProPublica also often teams up with other news organizations to produce reports; to date, they have partnered with over 90 different news organizations.

ProPublica argues that investigative reporting is especially at risk. Thanks to modern appetites for fast news and an increasingly unfriendly political climate, they argue that we all need a more rigorous, independent journalism source. As stated on their website, “New models are, therefore, necessary to carry forward some of the great work of journalism in the public interest that is such an integral part of self-government, and thus an important bulwark of our democracy.”

Links to Send Gift Givers: ProPublica’s donation page here.