There are many wonderful and well established non-profit news publishers that work with freelance writers. Many of them have clear missions and good funding. The below list is by no means comprehensive. However, it does include 19 such organizations, many of which pay $1 per word, or more, to freelance writers and journalists.
The list is in no particular order.
— Jacob Jans
The Fuller Project is a global nonprofit newsroom that reports on issues affecting women in the US and abroad. They raise awareness, expose injustices, and spur accountability. They are always seeking stories on issues that affect women in the US and globally. According to payment reports, they pay $1 per word. If interested, send your pitches to pitch@fullerproject.org. To learn more, refer to their pitch guide.
The Real News Network is an independent, nonprofit news network that is focused on providing uncompromising and fact-based journalism. They cover politics, prisons and policing, racial justice, climate crisis, and economy and inequality. According to payment reports, they pay about $1 per word. If interested, contact them at contact@therealnews.com. To learn more about them, refer to this page.
High Country News is a non-profit magazine covering the American West. They pay between $.50 and $1.50 a word. Their feature articles can be more than 2,400 words. They accept article pitches on an ongoing basis. They do not generally accept pre-written articles. To learn more and to pitch them an article, be sure to read their submission guidelines.
The Sierra is the magazine of the Sierra club, the non-profit environmental activist organization. Their readers are “are environmentally concerned, politically diverse, and actively enjoy the outdoors.” They pay up to $1.50 a word for feature articles, $350 for online stories, and $250 for reviews and opinion pieces. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
New York Focus is a nonprofit investigative newsroom covering New York’s state and local politics. They accept pitches for stories. Their standard rate for a story is $800. They may pay more for big, intensive investigative projects and may pay less for short and newsy pieces. If interested, send your pitches to editor@nysfocus.com. For details, refer to this page.
Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN) is a non-profit news organization that produces explanatory and investigative journalism on food, agriculture, and environmental health. They pay $1.00 to $2.00 per word plus travel. To learn more, refer to this page.
The Intercept is a nonprofit news organization that is devoted to holding the powerful accountable through its fearless, adversarial journalism. According to payment reports, they pay up to $1.00 per word. To contact them, refer to this page.
Long Now is a non-profit organization that fosters long-term thinking. Their pitch guide says, “Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.” They want stories that explore the ‘long now’ of climate change, the rise and fall of civilizations, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, economics, architecture, and more. They accept pitches for essays (800 to 1,800 words), reported features (1,200 to 2,500 words), interviews (1,200 to 2,000 words), book reviews, shorter articles, fiction, and poems for Ideas, their living archive of long-term thinking. Rates begin at $600 for features and range between $300 and $600 for essays, interviews, reviews, science journalism, and news articles. Rates are $100 for science fiction and $25 for poems. For more information, refer to their pitch guide.
Nexus Media News is a nonprofit news service dedicated to climate change. They are always seeking pieces on how communities across the United States are responding to the climate crisis. They are especially interested in solutions-oriented stories centering frontline and BIPOC communities. They pay $500 for reported features (1,000 to 1,200 words) and $350 for single-subject profiles. For details, read their pitch guide.
The Objective is a nonprofit newsroom that publishes articles on communities journalism in the United States has typically ignored. They pay $200 to $600 per article to freelancers. If interested, send your pitches to submissions@objectivejournalism.org. For more information, read their pitch guide.
Type Investigations is a nonprofit investigative newsroom. They cover the “most urgent issues of our time, including racial and economic justice, climate and environmental health, and civil and human rights.” Their written features are generally 4,000-6,000 words and they typically pay $3,000-$6,000 (including travel and reporting expenses). For more information, refer to their pitch guide.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization that reports on education in poor communities across America. They elevate the “voices of educators, students, parents, advocates, and others on the front lines of trying to improve public education.” They are looking for personal essays (around 800 words) centered around a personal experience or observation. They publish these essays in a series called First Person. According to their story editor, they pay $100 per personal essay. If interested, send your pitches or drafts to firstperson@chalkbeat.org. For more information, read their first person guidelines. For other story pitches, you can contact them here.
Current is “the nonprofit news service for and about public media in the U.S.” Their primary audience consists of people who work at public radio and TV stations, networks and production companies. They “aim to provide public media professionals with valuable insights and information that helps them and their institutions reach new levels of success.” They accept story pitches from freelance journalists. According to their digital editor, they pay $0.75 per word. Pitches should be sent to pitch@current.org. To learn more, read their writing guidelines.
The New Humanitarian is “an independent, non-profit newsroom reporting from the heart of conflicts, disaster, and other crises.” According to their senior editor, their base rate is $0.40 per word. To contact them, refer to this page.
The Vietnamese is an independent, non-profit online magazine that aims to raise awareness about Vietnam’s human rights situation and politics among international community. They are seeking pitches on “what concerns Vietnamese people the most in terms of human rights, democracy, and political concerns.” They pay $200 for text (about 1,500 words for written pieces). They pay $200 for 7 to 10 minute video clips with English subtitles and $150 for a recorded op-ed or interview. Details here.
Prism is a nonprofit that is working in tandem with Daily Kos. They elevate “stories, ideas, and solutions from leaders, thinkers, and activists whose voices are critical to a reflective democracy.” They are seeking pitches for articles, essays, and op-eds. They pay 50 cents per word. To learn more, refer to this Twitter post and their call for pitches.
Documented is a non-profit news website dedicated to covering New York’s immigrants and the different policies that affect their lives. According to one payment report, they paid $0.13 per word. To contact them, visit this page.
Waging Nonviolence is a non-profit media platform that offers news and analysis on social movements around the world. In general, they are looking for stories that offer their “readers an inside look at movements and how they organize to build power.” They pay $200 for reported features and $100 Q&As, reviews, and analysis. For details, visit this page.
The War Horse is a nonprofit newsroom that educates people on war and national security. They publish “stories that are engaging and insightful to veterans and civilians.” They pay a flat rate of $300 for first-person reflections of 800 to 1,300 words. To learn more, refer to this page.
