The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) enthusiastically welcomes a promising new partnership with Luminate, the global philanthropic organization focused on empowering people and institutions to work together to build just and fair societies. Luminate’s investment of up to $800,000 over two years comes at a pivotal time for OCCRP as we work to expand our investigative reporting globally and bolster our in-house tech tools and organizational capacity. This critical core support will help OCCRP to strengthen the platform of editorial, technical, legal, and security services we provide to our network of 45 member centers around the world and to advance our wider mission of building greater accountability by exposing the abuse of power at the expense of the people.
Photo: Luminate
“Funding for investigative reporting and its global development is vital to both journalism and democracy. We thank Luminate for their support and look forward to working together as we take the next step,” said OCCRP Editor-in-Chief Drew Sullivan. “Corrupt officials and the globalized criminal services industry have tens of billions of dollars at their disposal. Those working to turn the tables operate on much less. We must all be smarter, more committed, and more innovative in our efforts to make a difference and this kind of core support helps OCCRP to do that at a critical time.”
“Today’s world needs journalistic watchdogs that transcend borders to expose organized crime and corruption and to hold those in power to account,” said Nishant Lalwani, Director at Luminate. “OCCRP has proven to be especially effective at bringing analytical power to detecting corruption and crime patterns not easily visible to the human eye. We’re excited to see OCCRP grow as an organization capable of supporting an increasingly global network and independent media at a time of unrelenting threats.”
Formerly the Government & Citizen Engagement initiative at Omidyar Network, Luminate launched this month as a global philanthropic organization whose investees and grantees deliver impact in four critical and connected areas that underpin strong societies – Civic Empowerment, Data & Digital Rights, Financial Transparency and Independent Media. The focus of Luminate’s work on independent media is to support and defend a vibrant, free press that uncovers the truth and holds power to account.
Luminate was established in October 2018 by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay and is part of The Omidyar Group.
For more information please contact Stella Roque, Chief Communications Officer at stella@occrp.org