Craigslist founder gives $1 million to ProPublica

Craig Newmark, the entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Craigslist, announced on Wednesday a $1 million gift to ProPublica.

The gift will “allow ProPublica to deploy resources and address opportunities, including adding staff, where they are most needed over a wide range of issues in the public interest,” according to an announcement from the investigative nonprofit.

“A trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy,” Newmark said in a press release. “As citizens we can only make informed decisions when we have news we can trust. Independent investigative reporting is essential to shoot down false claims and expose bad actors.”

Newmark, who donated $1 million to Poynter in December to create a faculty position promoting journalism ethics and trustworthy news, recently made public his intent to give away an additional $3.5 million to journalism causes he believes in.

“It’s incumbent on me as an ultra-patriot to spend like a sailor on shore leave,” Newmark told Nieman Lab’s Ken Doctor.

ProPublica, like some nonprofit news organizations, has been on a funding kick since Donald Trump was elected president. In 2016, ProPublica ended the year with $2.9 million in individual contributions, up 544 percent over the previous year. They’re now opening up a newsroom in Illinois and recently hired their first editor in chief.

Benjamin Mullin is the managing editor of Poynter.org. He previously reported for Poynter as a staff writer, Google Journalism Fellow and Naughton Fellow, covering journalism innovation, business practices and ethics. He’s also reported for USA TODAY College and The Sacramento Bee, and he was editor in chief of The Orion, Chico State’s student-run newspaper. An Air Force brat who grew up around Northern California, he’s still adjusting to the Florida sunshine.