Center for Investigative Reporting

The Center for Investigative Reporting's Teaching the Constitution Through Theater program at StoryWorks develops transformative educational theater experiences that provide students with the opportunity to examine our country’s civil rights history. The program engages students and educators in experiential learning that inspires deeper reflection and higher-order questions about the historical underpinnings behind contemporary issues, including racial and economic inequality. This grant will allow StoryWorks to expand access to Teaching the Constitution Through Theater to new schools and communities with increased racial and economic diversity. (Strategy: K-12 Teaching and Learning)

Founded in 1977, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) was the first nonprofit organization in the nation devoted to independent, high-quality investigative journalism. In 2012, CIR merged with The Bay Citizen, greatly enhancing its coverage of local and regional issues. Today, CIR is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative reporting organization in the country. It is also the only nonprofit journalism organization nationwide with the in-house ability to fully produce stories on multiple platforms: print/text, video, radio, and social media. This grant would accompany an organizational effectiveness grant to CIR on the November 2013 docket, supporting strategic planning.

Founded in 1977, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is the nations's longest-standing investigative journalism nonprofit. The Hewlett Foundation has supported CIR since 2009, when Hewlett helped to seed its California Watch program. Only in 2012 did Hewlett begin to provide general operating support. Around this time CIR merged with The Bay Citizen, a comparably sized Bay Area member-supported news organization. Today, CIR is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative reporting organization in the country, covering local, regional, national, and international stories. The organization has expanded rapidly, and done so during a time of massive disruptions in the field of journalism that have affected everything from distribution channels (with the rise of social media) to business models (with the rise and then rapid collapse of online ad revenues) to the competitive landscape (as the nonprofit journalism field has exploded in an attempt to fill the hole left by commercial news). In light of these many internal and external changes, CIR is seeking a strategic consultant to help clarify and codify the organization's mission and vision, and to develop a three year strategic and business plan to support these clarified goals.