Capital City Fund For Investigative Journalism

Watchdog journalism is the beating heart of a healthy democracy. We need your support to keep investigative reporting alive in the DC region. 

IMPACT: With local journalism on life support, SpotlightDC provides direct funding to investigative reporters pursuing untold, groundbreaking stories that can prompt reform and hold the powerful to account.

HEAR DIRECTLY FROM AWARDEES:

OUR STORIES:

Recycling in DC Is A Myth – And It’s Going Down Hill

In hopes of aiding the environment, we separate trash our into bins: garbage and refuse in one; cardboard, newspaper, glass and plastic in another – and we feel better, expecting stuff in one bin destined for reuse, perhaps even wearing shoes one day re-manufactured from our plastic bottles. But an investigation funded by SpotlightDC shows that DC fails to recycle, from collection and separation to monitoring and enforcing rules.

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Dying in DC Heat Islands

DC’s poor reside in neighborhoods where temperatures can rise 20 degrees higher than more leafy, elite regions of the District. How much do they suffer in the heat islands?
Hola Cultura, a Latino-focused nonprofit, used maps supported by interviews and research to present a city divided not just by race and income but by climate that can affect health outcomes, education and crime. Its three-part series was published August 2021 by Washington City Paper.

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Murder In A Safe Place

Who Killed Sherry Crandell?
Threading together fresh evidence and interviews with family, detectives and DNA experts, veteran crime reporter Paul Wagner weaves a compelling narrative that drives his 8-part podcast about a nurse found dead in Prince Georges Hospital Center in 1998. WTOP presented Wagner’s podcast with Apple in its American Nightmare; the ninth segment might unveil the killer.

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Jury Suspension Strands DC Jail Defendants

The wheels of justice in DC’s Superior Court nearly ground to a halt during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving defendants in jail without charges or recourse.
In a four-part series published by Capital Community News and Hill Rag April-June 2021, Gavrielle Jacobovitz investigated and examined how DC’s criminal justice system was adjusting – or failing to adjust – to pressures caused by the pandemic.

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SpotlightDC Launches with Publication of its First Funded Investigative Project: “Waste Mismanagement”

Why are sweetheart deals costing DC taxpayers millions in subsidies to big trash haulers?

It required months of digging into documents and FOIA requests for Cuneyt Dil to piece together the narrative of how private trash collectors were reaping millions a year in overpayments by the District’s DPW. Published in July 2020, the investigation showed that it cost the District more to process trash brought in by private haulers than they paid to dispose of it in “tipping fees.” His work forced DPW to raise fees and prompted oversight by the DC council.

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OUR AWARDS:

SpotlightDC won the Institute for Nonprofit News Best Investigative Journalism Award. Projects funded by SpotlightDC are Finalists for the Livingston and Gerald Loeb Award and have been nominated for prizes by Institute for Nonprofit News, Alt-Weekly and IRE.