About Outlier

Outlier Media is a Detroit-based service journalism organization. We identify, report, and deliver valuable information to empower residents to hold landlords, municipal government, and elected officials accountable for longstanding problems. By keeping residents first, we hope to give more than we take and leave people with the information they need to create change in their own communities. 

Our community – public service-minded journalists

Most importantly, we work to serve and learn alongside our news consumers in Detroit.

Our work would not be possible without the help, support, and brainpower of public service-minded journalists like those at City Bureau, Hearken, Free Press, Project Facet, Flint Beat, Tyler Loop, VT Digger, Spaceship Media and so many more!

Our Approach to Giving

Our core values of accountability and transparency are lived out in every aspect of our organization, including in our approach to giving. We accept monetary donations, grants, and sponsorships from individuals, foundations and organizations to help us achieve our mission. Our news judgements are made independently and not on the basis of donor, sponsor, or partner support. 

Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $2,500 or more per year. Here is a list of our current funders. We avoid accepting anonymous donations in order to demonstrate transparency about our funding. We will not accept donations from sources that present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

Outlier Media has officially received a 501(c)(3) status as a nonprofit organization. We are now registered as a nonprofit in the state of Michigan. Our EIN is 87-4775293. All donations are deemed tax-deductible in accordance with IRS limitations. 
Prefer to mail a check or send a cash donation? Our mailing address is 440 Burroughs, Suite 365, Detroit, MI 48202. Please make checks payable to Outlier Media.

We are grateful for the generous grant support from the American Journalism Project, Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, News Integrity Initiative, Democracy Fund, The Facebook Journalism Project, the Dodge Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Outlier was initially supported by a pilot grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Outlier owes a particular debt of gratitude to the JSK Fellowship at Stanford University, Kimberly Springer, James Hamilton, Dawn Garcia, Jim Bettinger, Aaron Glantz, Andrew Haeg, Jennifer Brandel, and former colleagues at Michigan Radio; in particular Tamar Charney, Sarah Hulett, Vince Duffy, Jennifer Guerra, Dustin Dwyer, and Brittany Bartkoviak.