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Funding

We are transparent about our funding sources. We ensure that funders have no influence over the conclusions that we reach in our fact checks.

FactCheckNI is a company limited by guarantee, registered in Northern Ireland at Companies House (Company Registration Number: NI660549). The company was established with the objective of improving fact checking and critical thinking skills in Northern Ireland. FactCheckNI is a non-profit, Community Interest Company (CIC), where all generated surplus income will be reinvested in the company.

Project funds come from charitable trusts, statutory bodies, and individual donations. None contribute to our editorial policy nor influence what we fact check.

The project costs mainly cover paying for staff (researchers, writers, and editors) and training services (trainers).

For the last financial period ended April 2023, project costs were £84,531.


You can review our filings at Company House.

Funders

In July 2022, FactCheckNI was awarded funding of £210,000 by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust undertake our work entitled “Facts in Front”. This project will run over a 36 month period.

In March 2023, FactCheckNI was awarded a grant of €18,275 from the Irish Government’s Reconciliation Fund. The grant is administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for the “Facts Over Fears” project and will run over a 12 month period.

In October 2020, FactCheckNI was awarded funding of £99,190 by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to conduct our work entitled “Empowering People Through Facts”. The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) aims to fund work which will contribute to the ongoing transformation of the Northern Ireland conflict. The project ran over a period of 24 months.

On 17 April 2019, FactCheckNI joined Meta’s Third Party Fact Checking programme, under which we receive payment for submitting certain fact check articles.  For the financial year 2022-23, FactCheckNI received £1,333 from Meta.

In May 2021, we were awarded a grant of £5,000 from OpenDataNI project sponsored by the Northern Ireland Department of Finance. This project produced a number of fact-checked articles and infrographics, to provide the public with factually accurate information about the impacts of COVID-19 and the efforts being made to counter COVID-19. The project ran until January 2022.

From April 2018 to October 2021, FactCheckNI was a full partner organisation of a research and development project — Co-inform — led by Stockholm University, as part of the Horizon 2020 Programme at the European Commission. The Co-inform project aimed to create socio-technical solutions with citizens, journalists, and policymakers. FactCheckNI received a total grant of 223,304 euros (c. £191,723).

FactCheckNI was commissioned to deliver training services as part of a project by Politics in Action, which ran from October 2021 to February 2022. For this, we received payment of £1,200.

Practical support

And to all our readers, Facebook likers, and Twitter retweeters, you help bring FactCheckNI alive — thank you!