Latest release comes amid service
upgrades, $150,000 contribution

FIRE is pleased to announce a $150,000 gift by one of our longtime donors, which will provide a critical boost for FIRE's general operating expenses.

The gift affirms our groundbreaking success in legal protection with the support of Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

FIRE’s new legal tools include our Contract Template, Tip Sheets on liability, and Legal Consultancy, which has helped freelancers negotiate protections in 15 of 17 cases.

FIRE's template has been requested by more than 100 freelancers and outlets. This month a publisher with 100 million monthly page-views quietly adopted it as a boilerplate for its hundreds of freelancers.

Next up: a pilot tool to evaluate which publishers and broadcasters are protecting freelancers from liability—featuring nearly 20 outlets FIRE has already engaged. 

Beyond legal assistance, the $150,000 gift will also augment FIRE’s full-service Virtual Newsroom, including grants up to $12,500. We are pleased to announce that the latest Virtual Newsroom release—a multipart investigation of the Baton Rouge Police Department—is appearing this week in Verite. 

Lastly, a thank you to Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) for including FIRE in an informative April 11 webinar on freelance investigative reporting.

(Correction: Due to an inadvertent double-count, FIRE’s April 20 e-newsletter erroneously reported that requests for the FIRE Contract Template totaled “nearly 200.” The correct representation, as above, should have been “more than 100.” The actual number is 111—84 freelancers, 27 outlets.)