New grant will help PolitiFact grow

The Democracy Fund will invest up to $500,000 over two years in PolitiFact to expand its fact-checking efforts, the two organizations announced Thursday.

The additional funding will be used by PolitiFact to support its staff of reporters and researchers.

“PolitiFact has been helping voters separate fact from fiction in political speech since 2007, publishing more than 11,500 on our Truth-O-Meter. Our mission is simple: to provide nonpartisan, in-depth analysis of statements and claims framing the political discussion. No politician or political viewpoint is off-limits, and all our work and sources are available for anyone to scrutinize,” said PolitiFact executive director Aaron Sharockman. “We’re thrilled that the Democracy Fund believes in our mission and supports our journalism.”

The Democracy Fund was created in 2011 by eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar as an initiative of Omidyar Network. In 2014, the Democracy Fund became an independent private foundation. The Democracy Fund previously provided funding to launch PunditFact, a fact-checking website devoted to analyzing the claims of members of the media.

PolitiFact, a project launched by the Tampa Bay Times in 2007, won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 2008 presidential coverage. It has fact-checking partners in 15 different states and is the nation’s largest fact-checking organization.