Editorial Independence Policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services, or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $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.
Donor & Financial Transparency
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services, or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. As a fiscally sponsored project of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust, we do not pay certain taxes. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.
Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review, or edit content.
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our advisors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Corrections Policy
The Shoestring strives for accuracy and clarity in our reporting.
We address online errors and clarifications as well as substantial story updates directly in the story, by updating and adding an editor’s note that explains the error and what was corrected/clarified.
Smaller typos and grammatical errors will often be corrected without issuing a correction.
Conflict of interest policy
We disclose any conflicts of interest between our staff, writers and any story should they arise. We defer to the INN conflict of interest policy for guidance.
Donor Transparency
The Shoestring discloses any donors who give more than $5,000 in a one-year period. These donors are:
Ivan Oransky, Norbert Goldfield, and the Fund for Nonprofit News at The Miami Foundation.