Frequently Asked Questions on OCCRP’s Funding and Editorial Policies

Where does OCCRP get its money?

We are a donor-funded nonprofit organization. The breakdown of our donors changes every year, but typically we received funding from governmental donors, including from the UK, Sweden, Denmark, and New Zealand, as well as a number of private foundations that support investigative journalism and private individuals. In total, we have around 50 separate grants from these donors. 

We are always working on diversifying our sources of funding in order to remain financially stable. A few years ago, we launched the “Accomplice” membership program as part of this effort. 

Transparency is important to us, and our annual reports, audits, and 990 nonprofit tax forms are all available online. We have a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, which ranks U.S.-based nonprofits on their financial accountability and transparency, and a platinum seal of transparency from Candid/Guide Star, a similar organization. 

If you’d like to learn more, here are some publicly available sources of information on our donors and finances:

• Our recent annual reports and financial statements

• Our 990 forms and audits on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer

• A list of our donors

What does OCCRP do with this funding? 

In addition to our editorial work, which includes collaborating with local journalists to produce and publish investigations, we also provide our network with research and data support. This includes access to a team of experienced cross-border researchers who can help journalists anywhere in the world track down corporate records or land titles half a world away. We also provide our network, and other journalists in need, with digital and physical security support.

Over the years, we’ve also helped independent investigative journalists in countries like Russia, Serbia, Romania, Solomon Islands, Georgia, and Slovenia set up their own media organizations. We provide support, resources, experience, and encouragement, but our partners are independent of OCCRP and make their own editorial decisions.

A large proportion of the money we received from donors is also “passed through” OCCRP and distributed to local media organizations that might have trouble getting larger grants on their own.

How does OCCRP decide what stories to publish?

OCCRP is a network of journalists who live in every corner of the world. Compared to traditional media outlets, we are very decentralized, and most of our investigations come from local partners who bring us the stories they feel are important to tell. Their ideas are then developed in collaboration with a team of editors who work globally. 

Some of our stories also come from large data leaks, which we are well-equipped to work with thanks to our investigative data platform Aleph, or from human sources who come to us with tips and information about wrongdoing. Sometimes our central editorial team also decides to pursue stories or projects on topics we have special expertise in.

When a reporter in our network wants us to publish a story, we assess it along several lines. We look at whether the story uncovers wrongdoing, breaks new ground, matters to citizens and is in the public interest, and has the potential to be impactful or important, either locally or internationally. We prioritize stories that uncover significant wrongdoing, particularly related to corruption, organized crime, and their nexus with political power. Because our investigations cover very serious issues, we also need to make sure that we can prove our claims — through documentary evidence whenever possible. Our editors strive to ensure that every story we publish meets high standards of proof, fairness, and clarity. 

What OCCRP does not do is tell partners what to publish.  Even though OCCRP may provide money for a story, our partners always have the right to run their own stories from their own perspective.  This diversity of viewpoints makes the content of our network stronger. 

Can you run a story if you don’t have a donation for it?

Absolutely — and, in fact, we do not accept donations to do specific stories or projects. The process works the other way around: Our editorial team comes up with projects and story ideas, and after they are published, administrative staff members determine how to charge these stories against grants we have received. Since stories are assigned to grants retrospectively, journalists working on them do not know who paid for the work. 

Does OCCRP accept US government money?

In the past we have, but as of mid-2025, OCCRP has minimal U.S. government money. A decision by the current U.S. administration ended most foreign assistance in early 2025, including funding for almost all media work. This included the closure of all but one of our U.S. grants, which we expect will close soon. 

OCCRP has sued the U.S. Department of State and the Trump administration for the illegal closure of the grants. We did not do this in order to maintain our funding — we understood the current U.S. administration would not continue to support the important work we do — but because we saw this decision as illegal. Under the U.S. Constitution, what the government spends is decided by Congress and not the executive branch. We are obligated by ethical practices to speak out when illegal actions occur. The case is ongoing. 

Do OCCRP’s donors have any influence over editorial policy?

No. Just like a traditional newspaper, which maintains a strict “firewall” between its advertising and editorial departments, we have a division between staff who handle donations and those who produce the journalism. Donors never have access to editorial meetings or any aspect of our editorial process, nor do they have input into what stories we publish. 

We also guarantee our editorial independence by adding written language into relevant grant agreements that explicitly states we will retain complete editorial control over our work. Here is what that looks like:

How can I find out more about your funding?

OCCRP discloses all of our donors publicly. Here are some ways in which we do it.

Do donations come with conditions for what you can and cannot write about?

No. OCCRP only takes funding on the condition that we exercise complete editorial independence. You can read our donation acceptance policy here. We do apply for some geographically or thematically focused grants, meaning that the work must be completed in a specific country or region or broad theme. We pursue these grants only when their terms align with our mission, and when we are already trying to expand our work in these areas.   

All donors, both governmental and private, have areas of interest, and this will always be a limitation of grant-supported organizations. This is why OCCRP also raises what is known as “core funding,” which gives us funds we can use for any purpose, including reporting on countries not specifically funded by a major donor. Because of this, our journalists can follow the money wherever it takes them, and are not limited in any way by the geographical focus of a specific grant. 

When a government provides funding to OCCRP, can you still write about that country?

We can and do. We follow stories wherever they take us, and have reported in dozens of countries around the world, including the U.S., U.K., and almost every EU country. In order to minimize conflicts of interest, we don’t report in a given country with money donated by that country, and instead draw on other sources of funding. 

All reporters and editors working for OCCRP understand that they are free to report on whatever governments, policies, or corporate interests they want to. If wrongdoing is uncovered, we will publish that information, no matter who is responsible.

Does OCCRP write about the U.S.?

Yes, but the U.S. hasn’t been a historic area of focus for us. We were founded in the Balkans and slowly expanded — first to more countries in that region, where the need for independent watchdog journalism was very high, and then to neighboring regions. We focused our resources on supporting journalists and doing reporting in countries that didn’t have a lot of funding or support for journalism. The U.S., on the other hand, has a vigorous and highly competitive media sphere, with many legacy players doing excellent investigative work. It’s not an easy market to break into. We’re doing our best to catch up — we’ve now got a U.S.-based editor in place to help our journalists follow the money into the Americas, and we are building partnerships with U.S. media outlets. This year, we worked with the Boston Globe for a series on the American healthcare firm Steward. We’ve also reported on Hunter Biden’s dealings abroad and Rudy Giuliani's courting of organized crime in Ukraine. If you have a story tip about crime or corruption in the U.S., we’d like to hear it — please get in touch. 

OCCRP recently received funding to support more U.S. focused investigations. We will continue to report everywhere where we are needed and there are stories to tell. 

Who started OCCRP, and why?

In 2007, journalists Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu were working at investigative media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania, respectively. Drew and Paul wanted to work together on stories that cut across borders, but realized it was necessary to build a network of like-minded media to do so.

They approached some grant-giving bodies to get a sense of whether it would be possible to find funding for their idea, and ultimately received two grants, first from the U.N. and then from the U.S. government, enabling them to launch the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. 

At the time, and for a few years afterwards, OCCRP was literally a “project” — a collaborative framework that investigative reporters in different countries could use to work together more effectively. Later, it grew into a more formal organization, as well as a media outlet that published its own stories.   

Does OCCRP have a political stance? 

No. OCCRP is non-partisan and focuses on writing about crime and corruption, issues that are severely undercovered in the media. We write about governments and political figures when corruption leads us to them. We have also heavily covered the governments of highly corrupt regimes. OCCRP rarely publishes editorials, except on matters that affect the media industry itself. 

A recent story about OCCRP implied it was controlled by the U.S. government. Are you?

No, we are not. The U.S. government was an early donor of ours and supported us with funds over the years, a fact that we have always been open about. The proportion of U.S. funding we received fluctuated over the years. We do not have any kind of special relationship with the U.S. or any other government. Instead, we apply to openly advertised grant tenders for media funding. OCCRP does not expect to have US funds going forward. 

Why does OCCRP accept governmental funding at all?

We are aware that some journalists disagree on principle with accepting money from governments, especially in the U.S., where this is not the norm. But unlike many other global media outlets, we work primarily in regions without a strong tradition of independent journalism, including post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as parts of Oceania, Africa, and the Middle East. 

In these parts of the world, there is also very little funding for independent media from private institutional donors. We decided we would accept governmental funding so that we could grow, while creating robust guardrails to protect our journalism from donor influence. We also diversified our donor base as much as possible, applying for grants from multiple governments, as well as private foundations. We believed that if we were successful, our nonprofit media setup could become a model for others — which has turned out to be the case.

This grant money also gave us the opportunity to offer subgrants to journalists in over a dozen countries that allowed them to set up their own investigative centers, with their own independent local voices. As recipients of subgrants, these centers do not make agreements with our donors directly.

Can I submit a story to OCCRP? 

Yes.  OCCRP will consider pitches from investigative journalists and tips from members of the public. Ideas for stories must be original, of significance, and achievable with reasonable resources. They must also focus on our coverage area of crimes and corruption.  We can never guarantee we will run a story.  Journalists will be paid for doing stories with OCCRP commensurate with the time and effort needed to successfully complete a story.  

OCCRP requires high standards of proof, rarely uses anonymous sources and requires detailed fact checking that reviews all notes, interviews and gathered information and documents. 

This FAQ was updated on July 15, 2025.