As a charitable, non-profit European Cooperative Society, owned by its team and registered in Berlin (since September 2020), IE firmly believes that investigative journalism is a public good. Whilst commercial logic dictates competition, our approach is based on cooperation and sharing – within the team and within the broader ecosystem of public interest media in Europe.
Our model is unique in many ways. We are a cooperative and we act as one. We are proud that our organisational set-up is based on a cooperative mode in which people, not capital, are the main protagonists and stakeholders – independent from advertising money.
We are a permanent cross-border collaborative team from currently 12 countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. IE is publishing its stories with renowned media partners from all over Europe and via its own multilingual website (English, French, German and Italian), social media channels and podcasts. This unique approach is also reflected in our financial model consisting of the following elements:
- Institutional Support: we rely on donations from foundations and philanthropists who recognise the value of investigative journalism in empowering citizens and protecting democracy. They enable our work without editorial interference.
- Private Donations: with large and small donations and regular monthly contributions, our readers and supporters make our work possible. This financial basis strengthens us in the long term.*
- Own Earnings: we sell parts of our investigations to media partners across Europe, which helps us not only financially but also increases our reach and helps the readers at national level understand Europe better.**
*When it comes to financial data, we share names of all entities that donate over 1000 EUR per year. Donations from private individuals are shown as a total, unless a person’s annual payments would reach more than 10% of the total annual budget.
**The selling of articles and other types of own generated income are also aggregated as a total.
Prior to setting up our own legal entity in September 2020, we were hosted by the Journalismfund Europe and N-Ost as a project initiative and received funding via them as our fiscal sponsor.
We strive to further diversify our funding and count on our readers and supporters to maintain our independence. Please also become a donor – every Euro helps.
We strive to further diversify our funding and count on our readers and supporters to maintain our independence. Please also become a donor – every Euro helps.
