ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The International Fact-Checking Network at the nonprofit Poynter Institute has awarded $750,000 grants to 25 fact-checking organizations, providing flexible support to help fact-checking newsrooms keep publishing through a period of rapid funding contraction while they strengthen long-term sustainability.
Recipients include organizations working under pressure in and around Belarus and Russia; verification newsrooms navigating economic instability in Venezuela; and teams building verification capacity in places including Nigeria, Kosovo and Iraq.
The awards of $30,000 arrive at a moment when fact-checkers worldwide are under pressure from multiple directions. Platform partnerships are narrowing, major funders are pulling back, and yet the need for credible verification keeps growing. In communities around the world, people make everyday decisions about health, elections, public safety and crises based on what they see online, in an environment where trust in information is increasingly fragile. Fact-checking organizations serve those audiences by testing claims against evidence and publishing clear, accessible reporting that helps people separate what is true from what is manipulated or false.
The IFCN’s Global Fact Check Fund received 51 eligible applications for SUSTAIN 2025 and funded 25. A second round opens in mid-February 2026, and organizations that were not selected are encouraged to strengthen their applications and reapply. Organizations that are verified signatories of the IFCN Code of Principles are eligible for the program.Â
“These grants are designed to keep fact-checkers publishing while they continue working toward more sustainable business models,” said Angie Drobnic Holan, IFCN director. “The organizations we’re funding are doing essential work. They help the public access high-quality information while avoiding fraud, hoaxes and scams. The grants give fact-checking journalists breathing room to plan for the future without sacrificing their work today.”
SUSTAIN differs from prior Global Fact Check Fund rounds that supported defined projects to encourage innovation in the field. This round provides operational funding that recipients can use to retain staff, maintain publishing capacity, invest in fundraising tools and develop new revenue streams, with lighter reporting requirements aimed at reducing administrative burden.
SUSTAIN 2025 recipients by region:
Africa
- FactCheckAfrica (Nigeria)
- Piga Firimbi (Kenya)
Asia-Pacific
- Japan Fact-check Center (Japan)
- NepalFactCheck.org (Nepal)
- PressOnePH (Philippines)
- Tirto ID (Indonesia)
- VERA Files (Philippines)
Europe
- Belarusian Investigative Center (Belarus)
- CivilNetCheck (Armenia)
- Demagog (Czechia)
- Greece Fact Check (Greece)
- Hibrid (Kosovo)
- KRIK (Serbia)
- Myth Detector (Georgia)
- Provereno (Estonia, serving audiences in Russia)
- StopFake (Ukraine)
Latin America
- Agencia Ocote (Guatemala)
- Aos Fatos (Brazil)
- Bolivia Verifica (Bolivia)
- ColombiaCheck (Colombia)
- Cotejo.info (Venezuela)
- Ecuador Chequea (Ecuador)
Middle East and North Africa
- Tech4Peace (Iraq)
South Asia
- NewsMobile (India)
- TeluguPost (India)
Media contact:
Angie Drobnic Holan
Director, International Fact-Checking Network
aholan@poynter.org
+1-727-410-1770
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About the International Fact-Checking Network
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter was launched in 2015 to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world and advocates of factual information in the global fight against misinformation. We enable fact-checkers through networking, capacity building and collaboration. IFCN promotes the excellence of fact-checking to more than 100 organizations worldwide through advocacy, training and global events. Our team monitors trends in the fact-checking field to offer resources to fact-checkers, contribute to public discourse and provide support for new projects and initiatives that advance accountability in journalism. We believe truth and transparency can help people be better informed and equipped to navigate harmful misinformation.
