About
The Economic Hardship Reporting Project aims to change the national conversation around both poverty and economic insecurity. The stories we commission — from narrative features to photo essays and video — put a human face on financial instability. We fund and place our reportage and photojournalism in the most renowned and popular sites and magazines, from The New York Times to Slate to MSNBC.
EHRP, fiscally sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies, is emerging in a bleak climate. The number of billionaires doubled between 2009 and 2014 but no one else saw much of a windfall. Despite economic growth, inequality continues to rise and poverty to soar. It’s the biggest domestic economic story of our lifetimes: intractable, long-term unemployment and a yawning income gap between the wealthy, the middle class and the working poor.
We at EHRP believe in telling the underreported stories of American inequality through a range of genres and contributors. Inspired by the FSA and the WPA of the Depression, we want to give voice and work to writers and photographers from unexpected quarters. Our aim is to humanize inequality: some of our writers and photographers are themselves financially on the edge, telling the stories of their communities.
Our multimedia work has been nationally recognized in 2016, with a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for domestic photography and an Excellence in Photojournalism award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. In prior years, our work has been nominated for an Emmy and a National Magazine Award: two of our contributors have also been granted Guggenheim fellowships and one a Getty grant based on their work with EHRP.
Moving forward in 2017, we will continue to bring the indignities and inequities of the Trump era into full view. We will back writers and photographers from even more diverse class, racial and geographical backgrounds, telling even more intimate and striking stories.
To view our fiscal sponsor's 990 form, click here.
For more information about EHRP's financial records, contact us.
Letter from the Founder & Executive Editor
View the letter on the first page of our 2016 Annual Report below.Our Co-publishers
Our People
Editorial Independence Policy
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our Funders
Barbara Ehrenreich, the founder of EHRP, is the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America; Bait and Switch: On the (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream; Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America; and numerous other books. She works closely with journalists to develop their stories for EHRP. Follow on Twitter @B_Ehrenreich.