A woman stands up in a crowd emphatically giving a speech
As we look back on a year that was exceptionally dark, and brace ourselves for a 2024 that many fear will be bleaker still, it’s a pleasure to share that our work in 2023 included a report by The Christian Science Monitor that Apple News picked as the best “feel-good” story of the year.

The Climate Generation featured in-depth portraits of young activists from across the globe, each inspiring in their determination to forge a better future, from the northernmost Indigenous community in Canada and the flood-prone streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to communities in Montana where young people sued for the right to a more stable climate—and won.

The journalist who wrote the “feel-good” Montana story, Stephanie Hanes, is the recipient of multiple Pulitzer Center grants and for more than a decade our lead in the for-credit journalism course with our Campus Consortium partner William & Mary. Before all that, Stephanie was an intern in the Washington bureau of the St. Louis Post–Dispatch, the newspaper where all three of us got our first exposure to Pulitzer-style journalism.

That Pulitzer Center-style journalism was evident in the projects we supported in 2023, from exposés of gang-style corruption in Serbia and underreported violence in Ethiopia to the unspeakable brutality of a self-styled “goon squad” in a Mississippi sheriff’s department and the health impacts of plastic chemicals in the Global South. Reporting by our grantees was featured in The New York Times, Native News Online, Le Monde, PennLive, Repórter Brasil—and in the 38 video reports we funded for PBS NewsHour, on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine and floods in Pakistan to the crises in rural health and nursing in the United States.

Our colleagues and grantees shared the Pulitzer Center approach in K-12 classrooms, college campuses, and journalism conferences around the world, from São Paulo and Perugia to Stockholm, Johannesburg, Birmingham, Alabama, and Abu Dhabi.

More highlights below, and meanwhile, exciting changes to the website that feature our new strategic framework, one that champions the power of stories to make complex issues relevant and inspire action. You’ll see that we’re emphasizing five broad focus areas—human rights, global health, environment, peace and conflict, and information and artificial intelligence. In each of these focus areas, we’re combining collaborative enterprise journalism with communities of learning and audience-centered engagement.

With Pulitzer Center staff now based in 14 countries, collaboration across borders is easier than ever, and so, too, your opportunities to engage with our work, as journalists and educators and as donors, readers, and active citizens. Here’s to making constructive engagement with issues that matter the “feel-good” story of 2024.

Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Board Chair
Jon Sawyer, CEO and President

Above: Image by Hugh Kinsella Cunningham. Democratic Republic of Congo, 2022.

Video by Daniel Vasta. 2024.

An older woman combs hair back from the face of a younger woman sitting down.

Image by Ángela Ponce. Peru, 2023.

Breakthrough Journalism

In 2023, we supported
240 projects • 367 journalists • in 103 countries • resulting in 1,100+ stories

The Pulitzer Center empowers a global community of journalists and media outlets to deepen engagement with critical underreported issues, bridging divides and spurring change. 

In 2023, we launched our third cross-border reporting network, focusing on ocean investigations, and hosted new cohorts of rainforest and AI accountability Fellows. The stories produced by our grantees and Fellows triggered official investigations, helped change business practices by major corporations, and created blueprints for innovative reporting and storytelling.

An illustration of a woman's face through bars

Illustration by Pariplab Chakraborty/The Wire. India, 2021.

The Indian Supreme Court issued notices to 11 states that allow caste-based segregation and labor rules in prisons. The court action was in response to a public interest litigation filed by The Wire reporter Sukanya Shantha, who in a five-part series supported by the Pulitzer Center had revealed the prevalence of the discriminatory practice across Indian prisons.

A mother and daughter sit on a couch holding a framed photo in their hands.

Image by Alessandro Cosmelli. Russia, 2023.

Russia’s imprisonment of American journalist Evan Gershkovich has made reporting from that country a fraught proposition, but Pulitzer Center grantee Marzio Mian found a way around the obstacles. His cover story for Harper’s offers rare insight into the mindset of ordinary Russians in the time of Vladimir Putin.

An illustration of various medical objects and people.

Illustration by Lighthouse Reports. Spain, 2023.

AI Accountability Fellow Gabriel Geiger’s investigation for WIRED, which revealed how Rotterdam’s risk-scoring system on welfare fraud discriminates based on ethnicity and gender, led the city to announce that it abandoned plans to build a new algorithm. The unprecedented reconstruction of the risk-scoring system for this project has been recognized as “a new milestone in algorithmic accountability reporting.”

A line of men face the camera sitting against a white wall.

Image by Omar Abdisalan/The Intercept. Somalia, 2023.

Nick Turse’s reporting for The Intercept documented that a 2018 U.S. drone attack in Somalia killed innocent civilians, including a mother and her 4-year-old daughter—yet there has been no official apology, explanation, or compensation to the victims’ families. Turse’s story prompted a demand from more than two dozen human rights organizations for the U.S. government to comply with its stated policy and make amends to the survivors and their families.

An illustration of a medical needle in the middle of two factions pulling for control of it.

Illustration by Rodrigo Damati/SAÚDE é Vital. Brazil, 2023.

Chloé Pinheiro investigated forces behind an antivax movement that’s dramatically driven down Brazil’s once relatively high vaccine rates. The office of Brazil’s new president contacted Pinheiro, and the Health Ministry used her work for training, vaccine campaigns, and a new working group to fight misinformation. Prosecutors took action against doctors spreading falsehoods.

An aerial shot of agricultural land that houses cows.

Image by Cícero Pedrosa Neto. Brazil, 2022.

Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) Fellow Elisângela Mendonça’s reporting on the collagen supply chain, a collaboration between The Guardian and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, exposed links to deforestation and the invasion of Indigenous territories. Nestlé, producer of the main collagen brand Vital Proteins announced that it would break supply contracts with cattle producers in the rainforest.

“The lack of western media attention to Ethiopian politics, including one of the most deadly wars in 30 years, with more than half a million civilians dead, was our concern. With the help and direction of the Center, we were able to bring this story to an audience with detail, on-the-ground knowledge, and much needed nuance.”

Ann Neumann, PULITZER CENTER grantee
Falling Like Leaves: The War in Ethiopia and its Crimes Against Civilians

Two young women stand behind a podium and hold microphones while they speak to the crowd.

Image by Grace Jensen. United States, 2023.

STUDENT REPORTING FELLOWS

Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellowships empower college and university students and recent graduates ​to tell stories that impact the world around them. The Fellowships also help launch careers by creating networks and developing journalism skills that will serve Fellows well, no matter the field they pursue.

Forty-four Campus Consortium Reporting Fellows and 12 Post-Grad Fellows from Columbia and Medill journalism schools reported from around the world on topics ranging from radioactive waste and food insecurity to challenges facing migrants. Stories appeared in The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Grist, Politico, Teen Vogue, The Athletic, Scientific American, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other outlets.

A line of people pose for the camera.

Image by Daniel Vasta. United States, 2023.

Reporting Fellows met virtually in June for an orientation with Pulitzer Center editors and the Campus Consortium Advisory Council—and later in person for Washington Weekend. They presented their reporting, explored D.C., and took part in a scavenger hunt. Journalists from Politico, NPR, THE CITY, and PBS NewsHour shared reporting tips.

A family gathers laughing at night.

Image by Sahiba Chawdhary. India, 2022.

Jean Chapiro was named a Student Academy Award winner for Hasta Encontrarlos (Till We Find Them). Madeleine Long won an SPJ regional Mark of Excellence Award for reporting on religious identity in Ukraine. Long and Catherine Cartier were both selected as 2024 Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholars. Ankita Mukhopadhyay won the Professional Excellence Award from the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents USA.

“The project was my most formative experience as a young reporter. The experience broadened my view of the world and the effects of the environmental crisis, and forever changed how I think about water and urban infrastructure.”

Claire Potter, University of Chicago Reporting Fellow

In the midst of yellow grasses, a line of two children and an older woman walking.

Image by Justin Maxon. United States, 2023.

Audience-Centered Engagement

Reaching audiences in 2023 with
2 million website visitors • 325,000 social media followers • 70,000+ newsletter subscribers

Our engagement programming reaches audiences through public forums, secondary and higher education schools, exhibits, and performances. This work seeks to amplify Pulitzer Center-supported stories, build public awareness and understanding of complex issues, inspire journalism-informed action, create networks, and bridge divides.

A young woman leans her head against a young man's shoulder as they view a photography exhibit.

Image by Daniel Vasta. United States, 2023.

PUBLIC OUTREACH

54 events • reaching 3,250+ attendees

A Zoom screenshot of a webinar with four attendees.

Image by Ethan Widlansky. 2023.

Pulitzer Center virtual outreach programming brought together journalists, experts, and students to take part in webinar series on LGBTQ+ rights, Indigenous solutions to climate crises, and public health. Follow-up newsletters, blogs, and recordings sustained and deepened audience engagement.

A drag queen hugs another person in a gallery.

Image by Daniel Vasta. United States, 2023.

The Pulitzer Center connected local reporting projects with communities most affected: In Hampton Roads, Virginia, a town hall on housing affordability; in Los Angeles, a photo exhibition for communities living in the largest urban oil field in the United States; in Allegany County, Maryland, an exhibition of photographs documenting drag culture in Appalachia.

A woman holds a microphone and speaks to a crowd.

Image by Grace Jensen. United States, 2023.

Visual media by Pulitzer Center grantees were featured at the Environmental Film Festival, at the annual Consortium of University Global Health-Pulitzer Center Annual Film Festival, and at Photoville in New York City.

A woman holds a microphone and speaks to a crowd.

Image by Verónica Urdaneta. Venezuela, 2023.

Amazonía Lab reached nearly 1 million young people in Latin America through newsletters, webinars, digital content promotion, and the letter-writing contest, #NuestraAmazonía. This initiative involved influencers, ads promotion, 23 workshops, and 14 events; receiving more than 700 letters.

A person wearing a backpack views photographs on a wall.

Image courtesy of Vijitra Duangdee. Thailand, 2023.

The #ShowMeYourTree campaign reached over 1.6 million people in Cambodia and Myanmar. Pulitzer Center stories inspired partnerships with festivals in Cambodia and an art exhibition in Bali. In Thailand, we connected content creators with communities living on the front line of forest decay.

A woman stands in front of a screen and microphone as she talks to the crowd.

Image courtesy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. United Arab Emirates, 2023.

At the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, the Pulitzer Center showcased our new framework of journalism and engagement in six side events. Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, the Norwegian minister of climate and the environment, spoke at one of the events, highlighting our role: “The Pulitzer model of cross-country and cross-continent collaboration contributes to mitigating the risk of those on the front line. We need your journalistic eyes and ears to investigate and expose.”

“The Pulitzer Center's support allowed us to fully integrate housing coverage into our newsroom and since the last report, helped us hold a community event that sparked great conversation.”

Mechelle Hankerson, PULITZER CENTER GRANTEE

A group of children pose while holding cameras pointing in different directions.

Image by Allison Shelley. United States, 2023.

University and K-12 education

700+ events • 59 lesson and unit plans • reaching more than 39,000 students and 3,000 teachers

A man stands in front of a podium and a screen while on stage talking.

Image by Jazmyn Gray. United States, 2023.

Virtual and in-person workshops connected over 14,000 students from 200+ schools directly with more than 80 journalists to explore their reporting on an estimated 100 Center-supported reporting projects. 80% of teachers said the visits broadened students’ horizons about potential college and career paths.

A young student points and smiles at something on a laptop screen.

Image courtesy of Jonatan Rodríguez. 2023.

We received nearly 2,500 contest entries from students in 23 countries, 39 U.S. states, and D.C., the largest and most geographically diverse group to date. Students' letters and poems used over 400 Center reporting projects as their inspiration for globally-minded civic action and artistic expression.

A multicolored quilt viewed from the side.

Image courtesy of Lowell Community Public Charter School. United States, 2023.

The 1619 Education Network and teacher fellowship programs engaged over 200 educators from 20+ states in ongoing professional development that produced 58 unit plans. Over 3,500 students engaged with these units, creating original photo stories, podcasts, community events, and more.

An aerial shot agricultural land with a road and trucks.

Image by Cícero Pedrosa Neto. Brazil, 2023.

The Amazon Education initiative engaged over 4,000 students from 15 universities across Brazil. To reach people in remote areas, we implemented radio programs in the Santarem region, a hotspot for mining and deforestation.

“You have facilitated one of the most rewarding and career-altering professional learning experiences of my career. In a time when educators are leaving the profession at alarming rates, The 1619 Project is a source of inspiration that fuels my desire to remain in the classroom for years to come.”

1619 Education Network Cohort Member

Two people stand in front of a wall with post it notes.

Image by Indra Pradana. Indonesia, 2023.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, 2,240 students from 19 universities joined meaningful conversations on deforestation. Six Impact Seed Fund projects used Pulitzer Center stories for creative engagement including dialogues, exhibitions, and film screenings, connecting academia, government, and communities.

A group of students sit in an auditorium in a session.

Image courtesy of Eric Selemani. Democratic Republic of Congo, 2023.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, 126 active members of the Congo Basin Teachers' Network led 9,716 students in workshops, reading sessions, and student club meetings across 53 schools. The use of comics proved highly engaging, making complex Pulitzer Center stories digestible for students.

A man stands in front of a podium and screen on a stage.

Image by Mikaela Schmitt. United States, 2023.

Venezuelan journalist Ricardo Barbar visited four Campus Consortium partners and seven K-12 classrooms in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. In English and Spanish, he spoke with students about Venezuela’s failing healthcare system and reporting under the context of authoritarianism.

A group of people attend a panel in a room.

Image by Ethan Widlansky. United States, 2023.

The University of California Berkeley School of Journalism hosted a Gender Forum, attended by 245 students and community members. The day included a panel conversation about systems that enable sex trafficking and a conversation on trends in American society and politics between Dean Geeta Anand and Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times Opinion columnist and a former Pulitzer Center grantee.

A group of students pose for a group shot.

Image by Justin Catanoso. United States, 2023.

Pulitzer Center Grantee Justin Cook led five for-credit photojournalism seminar workshops at Wake Forest University, with a focus on interdisciplinary instruction. Read more about our Campus Consortium programming from 2023.

"Students like pictures. Comic books are a great idea. It helps us explain the lessons better. Before this comic book, I didn't know anything about the peatland. Now we know how important they are in the fight against global warming. Now, even my pupils are talking about it like experts."

Serge Mapesa, teacher at Ecole Moderne de Ngaliema in Kinshasa

a close-up of particles erupting from underwater coral.

Image by Jennifer Adler. United States, 2023.

Awards and Recognition

over 34 awards and citations received in 2023

In 2023, reporting supported by the Pulitzer Center received more than 34 awards and citations, including a Peabody, two Environmental Impact Awards, a World Press Photo Award, Sanlam Financial Journalism Award, Anthem Award, two DuPont Awards, a Sigma Award, a Cabot Prize, and the Association of Health Care Journalists Award, as well as Investigative Reporters and Editors and SPJ Mark of Excellence finalist recognitions. Grantees were honored for their reporting on issues such as health equity, gender, racial justice, climate change, Indigenous rights, and migration.

An illustration of a monkey inside a net.

Image by Carolina Moscoso/NBC News. 2022.

Rainforest Investigations Network Fellows Andy Lehren and Anton Delgado's collaborative investigation won the National Press Club’s Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award (broadcast) for their story "How the Race for a COVID Vaccine Enriched Monkey Poachers and Endangered Macaques."

A line of people sit inside a bus on their commute.

Image by Matilde Campodónico. Uruguay, 2023.

Grantees Miguel Ángel Dobrich and Gabriel Farías won the Data Visualization Contest at Festival de Datos in Uruguay in November 2023. Their project, “From Drought to Floods: The Impact on Labor in the Coastal Zones of Uruguay, From East to West” uses data to examine how climate change reshapes the lives of workers in Uruguay.

Two medical workers wearing masks, gloves, hair nets, and gowns.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) awarded Pulitzer Center grantee Jane Qiu second place in the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Qiu was recognized for her report in the MIT Technology Review, “Meet the Scientist at the Center of the Covid Lab Leak Controversy.”

A group shot of people of varying sizes stand in a line for a photo.

Image by Yao-Hua Law. Malaysia, 2022.

Rainforest Investigations Network Fellow Yao-Hua Law won the prestigious Sigma Award for data journalism in March 2023. Law celebrated the competition’s first win for a Malaysian entry. Wong Siew Lyn and Yao-Hua Law succeeded in taking data journalism in Malaysia to new heights, according to the prize committee.

“This past year in Cambodia has been exceedingly difficult for the free press, with a series of government-caused newsroom closures, including my own. The editors and reporters of the Rainforest Investigations Network were critical to me surviving this heartbreaking period of history in the Kingdom. As I always say, I am ‘Proudly Pulitzer Center!’”

Anton Delgado, 2022 Reporting Fellow and 2023 RIN Fellow

A large group of people pose for a photo with a bridge in the background.

Image by Ben Taub. Portugal, 2023.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Over the past three years, we have expanded the diversity of the journalists we support, strengthened diversity and inclusion for our partners and staff, and committed to ongoing evaluation of our efforts. For more impact and reflections on the Pulitzer Center’s DEI work over the past three years, click here—and explore highlights below.

  • Engagement teams created intentional programming, partnerships, and evaluation methods that expanded DEI for programs and resources. Tools and systems that increased accessibility and inclusion include live translation and captions for webinars, multilingual events, updates to our Pulitzer Center Style Guide, and implementing DeepL Pro.
  • We’ve made significant strides to cultivate diversity among our staff and board. From 34 employees by the end of 2020, with 80% based in the U.S., we have grown to over 60 employees in 14 countries by the end of 2023, with 61% based in the U.S. Staff feedback we receive from biannual engagement surveys have driven our approaches to salary compensation, performance coaching, and 30+ staff engagement and training activities each year.
In our past two engagement surveys, over 90% of staff responded favorably to the statement, “I would recommend the Pulitzer Center as a great place to work.”
A world map with some countries highlighted to indicate locations.

Map of where 2023 Pulitzer Center staff are based

An fossil lies on a surface next to a penny for scale

Image by Justin Cook. United States, 2023.

Financials

In addition to the operating revenue of $11.6 million, the Pulitzer Center received endowment gifts and pledges of $2.99 million in 2023.

A close-up of piled tote bags that say Pulitzer Center in bright colors.

Image by Grace Jensen. United States, 2023.

Thank you to our donors

Support for the Pulitzer Center this year came from Art for Justice Fund, Ar­nold Ventures, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Facebook Journalism Project, Fore River Foundation, Golden Globe Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Hartfield Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Humanity United, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Julian Grace Foundation, Laudes Foundation, Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Luminate Group, Norad, Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), One Earth Fund, Open Society Foundations, PIMCO Foundation, Poklon Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Trellis Charitable Fund, Walton Family Foundation, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and our Campus Consortium partner schools.

This broad mix of foundation funding, along with continued core support from members of the Pulitzer family, board members, and many other generous individuals, ensures the independent journal­ism and education that is essential to our mission in these times. We are grateful to all who continue to sustain our work. We hope that others will join.

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