Open Vallejo is an award-winning, independent, non-partisan, nonprofit newsroom serving the public interest. We seek to illuminate a small city long burdened by police violence, corruption, and neglect.
As the first project of the Informed California Foundation, Open Vallejo is also a permanent design laboratory for open source, high-impact, broadly-accessible frameworks for ensuring local transparency, accountability, and information justice.
Editorial Independence
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 $1,000 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.
Ethics
At Open Vallejo, integrity is foundational. The community has entrusted us to tell the truth in the public interest, and we take this responsibility seriously. We expect all employees, board members, contractors, volunteers and publishing partners to adhere to the highest standards of ethics, fairness and honesty. Each person affiliated with this newsroom, whether permanently or on a freelance basis, is expected to uphold these standards, as well as to help us build a work environment that is respectful, collegial and just.
Our work is guided at all times by the principles set forth in the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Equity and Inclusion
This news organization aims to reflect the diversity of the communities it serves in its staff and contributors, its editorial choices and priorities.
Donor 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. Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
We will make public all donors who give $1,000 or more per year. As a nonprofit, we will avoid accepting donations from anonymous sources, and we will not accept donations from government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates actively seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Donors over $1,000
Individual donors
2020
- Tamara Brandstater
- Eliot Brown
- Kirsten Moy
- Dan Rubins
Grantors
2020
- The Fund for Investigative Journalism
2021
- ProPublica
- John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship, Stanford University
