Mission & Model
Our mission
Floodlight is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom that investigates the corporations and political interests stalling climate action.
Our reporting reveals how the fossil fuel industry hinders climate progress by sowing disinformation with the public and influencing government with political spending, including dark money.
You can count on Floodlight to provide authoritative, rigorous investigations that shed light on who is fighting the transition to clean energy — and why.
Our reporters are experts in their field. And we partner with high quality news organizations. We subject our most extensive investigations to a multi-step fact-checking process. What does that mean? We check facts, names, quotes, assertions and context. We go back to our source material — documents, interviews, peer-reviewed studies, transcripts — and make sure everything lines up. This can take an editor and reporter each about six hours to complete.
We adhere to clear and transparent standards to protect our editorial independence. We follow Institute for Nonprofit News guidelines and disclose our major donors (over $5,000). Floodlight may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but we maintain editorial control. We don’t accept donations that could cause a conflict of interest.
Our model
Since launching in 2021, Floodlight stories have garnered millions of views, and our reporting has spanned the nation, with local and national partners including The Guardian, NPR, Mother Jones, Grist, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, Texas Tribune, Louisiana Illuminator and more.
For some stories, we work hand-in-hand with staff at other news outlets to report, edit and publish together. For others, we produce the work ourselves and provide it for free for any news outlet to republish.
Floodlight’s theory of change is simple. For journalism to be effective, it should reach the people who are most affected by the stories (often the locals on the ground) and also get in front of as big of an audience as possible (via our national news partners). Our local news partners know the stories in their backyard best. And we know our national news partners know their readers best. That’s why we work with them.
Our investigations about who is responsible for delaying progress on the biggest crisis of our time are too important to let competition get in the way. So, instead, we collaborate. As the news industry contracts and critical outlets shrink or shut down, Floodlight is working with our partners to carve out new models for how we continue to get the public the journalism they need and hold the powerful accountable.
Our impact
Floodlight’s model has shown how journalism can hold the powerful to account and expose the harms of climate change on vulnerable communities. Many of our stories have spurred regulatory and corporate change around the country. Floodlight is also a leader in the news industry. Our reporting regularly wins prestigious state and national awards.
Read more about our impact.
News from Floodlight
Lee Pedinoff/Floodlight
Lee Pedinoff/Floodlight
Dee J. Hall/Floodlight
Emily Holden/Floodlight