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.

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Quarterly & Annual Reports

“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

Representatives of the Chad chapter of the African Women's Entrepreneurial Network attend the 1st Women's Fair in N'Djamena, Chad. Image courtesy of REFA International-Chad.

HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT

Inspired by Pulitzer Center Reporting, Businesswomen in Chad Continue Push for Support

The Pulitzer Center-supported story "In Pictures: Making a Living on the World's Largest Desert Lake," written by grantee Kang-Chun Cheng as part of the Center's Our Work/Environment initiative, inspired the Chad chapter of the African Women's Entrepreneurial Network (REFA International-Chad) to advocate on behalf of women affected by floods in N'Djamena, Chad.

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Sharks in the coral reefs of Jardines de la Reina, Cuba. Image by Philip Hamilton/Ocean Image Bank.

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT IMPACT

Brazil Cities Vow To Stop Buying Threatened Shark Meat After Pulitzer Center-Supported Probe

Several government agencies in southern Brazil have said they will stop ordering angelshark meat for public meal programs, in response to a Pulitzer Center-supported Mongabay investigation that highlighted the widespread consumption of the threatened species.

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a soldier exits a room in Iraq

PEACE & CONFLICT IMPACT

"Relentless" Investigation of Haditha Massacre Wins Pulitzer Prize, Peabody Award

Grantee Madeleine Baran’s project revisits the November 2005 Haditha massacre, a story once believed to have been a closed case. A group of Marines had killed 25 Iraqis without clear cause; but what happened when the spotlight moved on? The project won both a Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting and a Peabody Award in Podcast & Radio.

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GLOBAL HEALTH IMPACT

Ohio EPA Issues Water Advisory for Luckey After Testing Funded by Pulitzer Center

Hours after The Blade published a Pulitzer Center-supported investigation detailing how testing by the newspaper found high levels of radioactivity in the groundwater of the village of Luckey, the Ohio EPA issued a special “citizen advisory,” saying that the agency and the Ohio Department of Health would start sampling in the community next week.

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Quilombolas open a road illegally built by farmers in Marajó (PA), Brazil

HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT

Law Group References Center-Supported Project in Demand for Brazilian Officials To Investigate Abrace o Marajó Program

A law group in Brazil has requested a formal investigation into Brazilian Senator Damares Alves' actions during her former position as the Minister of Human Rights. The request references a Pulitzer Center-supported report by UOL, which revealed how a regional development program used fake news about the Marajó archipelago to justify irregular documentation of the land and unfair advantages for evangelical churches in Pará.

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Bags of synthetic fertilizer are scattered across the ground among banana trees

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT IMPACT

Pulitzer Center Reporting Sweeps 2025 SOPA Awards

The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) has announced the winners of the 2025 awards. Among the 106 winners are four projects supported by the Pulitzer Center. This year’s Pulitzer Center-supported winners focused on underreported stories from across Asia. Their investigations involved intrepid on-the-ground reporting, collaboration with scientists and health professionals, cross-border collaborations, and immersive storytelling.

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“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

BROWSE ALL IMPACT


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