JOURNALISM & ENGAGEMENT FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD

Impact has been at the center of the Pulitzer Center’s mission of raising awareness and public understanding of underreported issues since our inception in 2006. Recent projects supported by the Pulitzer Center have struck down bad laws, helped end harmful government programs, and borne witness to events and atrocities that otherwise would be hidden from public scrutiny.

We believe in the power of journalism, education, and public outreach to create real-world change. Beyond the readers, listeners, and viewers of the journalism we support, our impact touches the professional and personal development of the news outlets, grantees, local organizations, students, and educators with whom we work.

WHAT IMPACT MEANS TO US

The Pulitzer Center supports a range of initiatives across many intersecting issues. There is no one simple way to define and measure our impact. We collect both quantitative and qualitative data through a variety of methods, including direct interaction with grantees, news partners, educators, and feedback at public events. 

We go beyond standard measures of journalism impact, whether audience reach, awards or policy change, to focus as well on evidence of impact that is less immediate but equally important:

  • Personal, transformative professional changes for our grantees and Fellows
  • Infrastructural improvements and resources created for the benefit of the public through the work of journalism
  • Engaged students who see themselves reflected in the media and understand how global issues relate to them personally 
  • Relationships driven by partnerships with and between educational institutions, community organizations, and the journalism outlets that serve them

The Pulitzer Center cares about long-term, often intangible, impact. We hope the journalism we support generates empathy among readers for communities that are less understood or whose voices are rarely heard—and that we can demonstrate that our reporting engages the broadest possible public in the big systemic issues that affect us all.

“Receiving the grant felt like a vote of confidence from an organization whose work I've admired for years, and that has done wonders for my willingness and ability to challenge myself as a reporter and as a writer."

M. G. ZIMETA
Pulitzer Center grantee

"As a reporter, you care not only about getting the story, by also about reaching people with it. Making an impact. The Pulitzer Center helps stories achieve this, and it's one of the reasons I value working with it."

NADJA DROST
Pulitzer Center grantee

FEATURED IMPACT

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HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT

Pulitzer Center Grantees Win SOPA Awards

The Pulitzer Center is proud to announce that multiple of its supported stories have won prestigious awards at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards for Editorial Excellence. These awards celebrate the highest standards in journalism across the Asia-Pacific region.


PEACE & CONFLICT IMPACT

Grantee's Drone Strike Investigation Ignites Calls for Somali Family's Compensation

Nick Turse’s Pulitzer-supported investigation into civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes in Somalia has catalyzed calls for compensation from international organizations and American legislators


HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT

Afghan Refugee Family from Pulitzer Center Report Resettles in Canada

On February 2, 2024, Pulitzer Center grantee Tanvi Misra received good news from the Nasiris, an Afghan refugee family living in immigration limbo in Qatar. The Nasiris hadn’t been able to live outside the U.S. Army base in Doha—converted into a refugee camp—since they arrived there nearly two years ago. Now, they’ve finally been admitted to Canada. 

Decorative graphic showing the faces of students who responded to environmental issues in the 2023 Local Letters for Global Change contest.

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT IMPACT

Student Voices: Youth Speak Out on Environmental Issues in the News

This year in the annual Pulitzer Center Fighting Words poetry contest, a remarkable 46.2 percent of contest entrants chose to address environmental concerns in their letters, indicating a widespread recognition of the importance of protecting our planet.


HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT

Pulitzer Center Journalist Challenges Caste Discrimination in India

Just over three years after The Wire published the original report in December 2020, Pulitzer Center grantee Sukanya Shantha’s findings on caste discrimination in Indian prisons have made their way to an India supreme court decision bench, which heard the case on January 3. 

“Not only were the funds provided by Pulitzer Center essential to making this youth-powered team reporting project possible, the Center’s reputation for supporting important investigative journalism bolstered our work. The fact that the Center would support a youth reporting project of this nature meant that experts, government officials, community members, and other stakeholders took us seriously, as well.”

CHRISTINE MACDONALD
Pulitzer Center grantee

“I am incredibly grateful that the chance and faith you all put in me in 2020 continues to pay forward. The Campus Consortium Reporting Fellowship had an outstanding impact on my career. Not only did it better prepare me for a career in international journalism, but it has also been the foundation for my relationship with the Pulitzer Center, which has now expanded to other reporting programs. I am incredibly grateful for my time reporting in Brazil."

ANTON L. DELGADO
2022/2023 Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Fellow & 2020 Elon University Reporting Fellow

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