In 2023, Documented celebrated its fifth anniversary of community-driven journalism with and for immigrant New Yorkers. Founded in 2018 as part of a wave of innovation in the nonprofit news sector, we focus on delivering high-quality journalism that centers the concerns, priorities and interests of low-income immigrants.
Last year, we:
• Launched our Wage Theft Monitor to shift power from exploitative businesses into the hands of workers themselves
• Released new in-depth research on the needs of Chinese and Caribbean New Yorkers that resulted in launching two new critical platforms on WeChat and NextDoor, alongside our service on WhatsApp
• Got behind the scenes to understand the realities for over 150,000 new migrants in New York, and produced critical information guides to help them navigate their new lives
Our supporters — foundations, communities and individuals — are key partners in this endeavor. Supporters give us freedom to target a critical constituency — low-wage immigrants — underserved by traditional media because of their low purchasing power but with a high need for information as they rebuild their lives and choose whether to participate in the civic life of their communities, our city and our country.
By lifting up their perspectives, we are also filling an important narrative gap in the ecosystem. Supporters give us the bandwidth to take bold risks, including unflinching investigative and accountability reporting, guides addressing how immigrants can cut through the noise to navigate complex systems, and, as technology advances quickly, critical efforts to tap into new ways that we create and consume information. Here, too, Documented has created a model of news that is community driven and, by its nature, iterative, nimble and responsive.
As we look ahead to this contentious election year and beyond, Documented is finalizing a strategic plan that lays out our vision for local community-driven journalism in New York and across the country. We know this work can play a foundational role in immigrant inclusion and building the engaged, participatory democracy that we need. With immigration in the headlines, Documented’s community-driven journalism is more important than ever.
Read the Documented 2023 Annual Report
We are excited to work with you to strengthen our commitment and our impact. Thank you for considering our 2023 Annual Report, and let’s look to the future together.
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In community,
Mazin Sidahmed and Max Siegelbaum
Co-Executive Directors
