The News Literacy Project Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

The real-life impact of news literacy skills on teens: a recent teen vogue article highlights how news literacy skills have made a tangible difference in students' daily lives and includes interviews with students who learned these skills using nlp's resources. One student recognized that election poll numbers circulating on tiktok were actually from a betting site and warned friends to seek credible sources. Another said news literacy training changed the way she approaches everyday information, making her more skeptical of sensational headlines and more likely to dig deeper before believing or sharing a story. A third applied news literacy skills to help manage her school's news page, better evaluate credibility and bias, and help facilitate a class to teach her peers.neveah rice, nlp's 2024 gwen ifill student of the year, is now a first-year journalism major at Indiana university of Pennsylvania, where she continues to champion news literacy. As part of the sixth annual national news literacy week (february 2025), she authored an opinion piece, "bias is all over your social feed. We need media literacy to help us navigate it" (USA today). In the article, neveah reflected on how the news literacy skills she developed in high school gave her a strong foundation for analyzing information in college skills many of her peers lacked, particularly when it came to recognizing the influence of algorithms and dangers of echo chambers on social media. Her continued advocacy for news and media literacy exemplifies the lasting impact of nlp's mission.by the numbers:- students taught using nlp resources - 574,418 students. Surpassing our goal of 485,000 by 18%. Fy2024 473,004 students- educators engaged with nlp's free resources & programs - 20,592 educators.surpassing our goal of 20,000 by 3%. Fy2024 19,054 educators- school districts where nlp's resources were used - 4,801 school districts. Surpassing our goal of 4,250 by 13%. Fy25 is the first year we tracked this metric.- organizational budget - 9.25 million fy2024 7.38 million.growth and momentum for the district fellowship program: launched in 2022, the district fellowship program is one of our strongest drivers of lasting change. Districts in the program are committed to making sure every student learns news literacy skills before graduating from high school. This three-year program enables participating districts to create and implement models that seamlessly integrate news literacy into existing curricula. These models are easily replicable by other u.s. School districts, at any grade level and across subject areas such as english, social studies, science and civics.to date, three cohorts with 14 school districts from 10 states are active in the program. Cohorts 1 and 2 completed their commitments. As alumni, participants mentor new fellows, lead training, attend conferences and support nlp's state-level advocacy efforts. Cohort 3 begins its second year in august and has eight districts from five states, including a state cluster of five districts in California. Interest in the program continues to grow. In march, more than 50 school districts across the country applied to join cohort 4, including several clusters from the same states, a cluster model that has helped build scale in places like California. We expect to welcome 17 school districts to the program*, our largest cohort yet, with another 15 districts already approved and deferred to cohort 5.additional highlights from fiscal year 2025: top 10on checkology, nlp's award-winning digital learning platform, these were the most popular resources for educators:1. Misinformation 2. Infozones3. Introduction to algorithms4. Is it legit? 5. Evaluating evidence onlineamong the resources we highlighted for educators this year in our weekly newsletter, the sift, these were the most popular:6. Daily do now slides7. Fact-checking red flags quiz8. Wellness & science claims quiz9. 6 things to know about ai 10. Introduction to algorithm

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 61.6%; rating input score 62
• Program expense ratio: 65.3%; rating input score 65
• Fundraising efficiency: $7.6 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 6.3%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.27; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 17.4%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 19.5% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 18.7% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 19.8% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings