What News Literacy Project does

News Literacy Project (NLP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2008 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., that operates as the established leader in K-12 news literacy education in the United States. The organization provides free resources to educators across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., reaching 15,700+ educators, 575,000+ students, and 4,800+ school districts during the 2024-25 school year. NLP was founded by Alan Miller and is led by President and CEO Charles (Chuck) Salter.

NLP's core product is the Checkology virtual classroom, a digital learning platform delivering interactive news and media literacy lessons, quizzes, infographics, and classroom-ready resources led by journalists and experts, with 272+ resources and integration into district systems via Clever. The product suite is anchored by The Sift, a weekly educator newsletter distributed on Mondays during the school year, and the District Fellowship Program, a competitive three-year partnership that disburses $30,000 per district plus professional development and peer-network access. Supporting products include the Framework for Teaching News Literacy (UbD methodology, grade bands K-2 through 9-12), RumorGuard fact-checking slide decks, Daily Do Now bell-ringer activities, and the seasonal News Literacy Unplugged summer program.

The business model is philanthropic rather than commercial: all core resources are provided free to educators, students, and families, with revenue sourced from individual donations, monthly giving programs, foundation grants (notably The Broad Foundation $1.15M three-year grant and a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation grant), institutional and corporate partnerships (vetted for nonpartisan alignment), and community-voted grants such as Project for Awesome. Go-to-market is dual-motion: a community-led self-serve adoption path through Checkology and The Sift, plus a channel-partner path through District Fellowship fellowships and State Education Department partnerships. The organization maintains editorial independence from funders through formal gift acceptance and editorial policies.

Name

News Literacy Project

Legal name

News Literacy Project, Inc.

Website

https://newslit.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

News Literacy Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2008 that provides free K-12 news literacy education to educators, students, and school districts across all 50 states, anchored by its Checkology virtual classroom platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

News Literacy Education

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (61171), Educational Services (611)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Literacy & Media Literacy (Reading/Writing Online) (EDAMAJAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Literacy & Reading Intervention Technology (EDAJAMAF), Early Literacy & Reading Intervention Programs (EDAGAAAD), Literacy Foundations (Phonics, Reading Fluency, Comprehension) Platforms (EDAFAOAD)

Keywords

• News literacy education
• Media literacy curriculum
• K-12 digital learning
• Misinformation education
• Educator professional development

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: NLP accepts donations from individuals through its website. The organization runs monthly giving programs and one-time donation options.
2. Foundation Grants: NLP receives grants from foundations to support specific initiatives. Example: $1.15 million three-year grant from The Broad Foundation to develop a national model for media literacy education in partnership with LAUSD.
3. Institutional/Corporate Partnerships: NLP receives support from corporations and institutions that share their values. All funding is vetted to ensure alignment with nonpartisan mission.
4. Project for Awesome Grants: NLP wins grants from community voting initiatives like Project for Awesome, where online supporters vote to direct funding.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

News Literacy Project operates the Checkology virtual classroom, a free digital learning platform that delivers interactive news literacy lessons, quizzes, and classroom resources to K-12 educators and students. The organization complements the platform with The Sift weekly educator newsletter, the District Fellowship Program (a three-year implementation program with $30,000 grants), state and district partnerships, and curriculum guides built on the Understanding by Design framework to teach students how to evaluate news, identify misinformation, and understand journalism.

Product overview

The News Literacy Project operates a platform-centered model centered on the Checkology® Virtual Classroom as its core digital learning product. This is complemented by The Sift® educator newsletter as a weekly content delivery mechanism, the District Fellowship Program as a three-year implementation support service with funding, and a comprehensive suite of curriculum resources including the Framework for Teaching News Literacy, Grade Band Expectations, RumorGuard fact-checking tools, and Daily Do Now slides. Additional offerings include state/district partnership services, the annual National News Literacy Conference, and seasonal News Literacy Unplugged program. All products work together to provide educators with tools, curricula, professional development, and ongoing support to teach news literacy skills to students across all 50 states.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Checkology®: Digital learning platform providing news and media literacy education with interactive lessons, quizzes, and classroom resources.
• The Sift®
• RumorGuard
• District Fellowship Program

Products and services

• Checkology Virtual Classroom Free digital learning platform providing interactive lessons led by journalists, ready-to-use lesson plans, infographics, quizzes, and classroom activities covering misinformation, conspiratorial thinking, algorithms, AI, journalism, and press freedom. Used by 15,700+ educators and 575,000+ students during 2024-25.
• The Sift Newsletter Weekly educator newsletter providing discussion prompts, classroom-ready insights, Daily Do Now slides, teaching tips, and timely examples of news and viral content covering social media, AI, journalism, misinformation, and press freedom.
• District Fellowship Program Three-year competitive fellowship for school districts to implement districtwide news literacy programs. Selected districts receive a $30,000 grant ($10,000/year), personalized implementation plans, professional development, ongoing expert support, and access to a national peer network.
• Framework for Teaching News Literacy Comprehensive curriculum guide for educators providing five core news literacy standards covering news recognition, First Amendment, journalism ethics, critical thinking, and civic responsibility. Based on Understanding by Design (UbD) methodology with grade-band expectations.
• RumorGuard Interactive slide decks and classroom-ready resources that use real examples of viral misinformation to guide students through the fact-checking process, including identification of AI-generated images, deepfakes, and misleading memes.
• State and District Partnerships Partnership programs offering free high-quality resources, professional development, and ongoing support to state, regional, and county departments of education for building sustainable news literacy programs, including public sector and nonprofit sector partnership options.
• National News Literacy Conference Annual conference bringing together educators and news literacy professionals for professional development, training, and networking opportunities.
• News Literacy Unplugged Summer program providing offline news literacy instruction activities for students to continue learning during summer months outside of the regular school year.

Quantifiable outcome

• 88% of students recognized when a social media post failed to provide credible evidence — a gain of 20 percentage points after Checkology
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability5 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 August 2024Three-year partnership to implement news literacy instruction across the district, serving as a national blueprint for other districts. Funded by $1.15 million grant from The Broad Foundation starting 2024-25 school year. LAUSD Secondary English Language Arts coordinators working with NLP to create news literacy professional development course that may lead to permanent salary increase for teachers.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• iCivics: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor-founded nonprofit providing free K-12 civics curriculum and games. Adjacent civic-education mission with overlapping district distribution and free EdTech model.
• Common Sense Media (Common Sense Education): Major nonprofit providing free K-12 digital citizenship and media literacy curricula, ratings, and educator resources. Directly comparable mission, audience (K-12 educators and students), and free distribution model.
• NewseumED (Freedom Forum): Freedom Forum's free K-12 news literacy resources including lesson plans, primary sources, and the First Amendment curriculum. Closely comparable mission around journalism literacy for schools.
• Stanford History Education Group (SHEG): Stanford-based research group producing Civic Online Reasoning curricula and free lesson plans teaching students to evaluate online sources. Highly comparable K-12 critical-thinking/misinformation mission.
• Facing History & Ourselves: Nonprofit providing free K-12 history, civics, and media literacy curricula with strong teacher PD. Comparable audience, mission around democratic citizenship, and free delivery to educators.
• MediaWise (Poynter Institute): Poynter's teen and senior-focused media literacy program with fact-checking curricula and a Teen Fact-Checking Network. Directly competes for the same K-12 misinformation-literacy space and partner relationships.
• Project Look Sharp: Ithaca College's K-12 media literacy curriculum and professional development program. Overlapping educator audience and free lesson-based delivery model for media literacy instruction.

Others

• Media Literacy Now: Advocacy nonprofit pushing state-level media literacy legislation. Complementary ecosystem player — its legislative wins expand the policy environment NLP operates in.

Emerging players

• NewsGuard: Commercial news credibility rating service that also runs a NewsGuard for Educators program. Overlaps in the news-literacy/K-12 misinformation space but operates as a paid B2B/B2C product rather than a free nonprofit resource.

Broad incumbents

• PBS Education (PBS LearningMedia): Major public-media EdTech platform with free K-12 lesson plans and media literacy content from PBS stations. Competes in the same free K-12 digital content space as NLP's Checkology.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NewsLitProject
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/NewsLiteracyProject
• Facebookfacebook.com/NewsLitProject
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/newslitproject
• Instagraminstagram.com/newslitproject
• TikToktiktok.com/@newslitproject

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about News Literacy Project