Publisher of the Year 2020, Local Independent Online News Publishers

“The writing is crisp, love the diversity of coverage, translation of English into Spanish and Vietnamese to reach their readers… that two-way conversation with their community is so very important, something that a lot of publications have lost sight of.”

Our Mission

San José Spotlight is an award-winning nonprofit newsroom dedicated to fearless journalism that disrupts the status quo, uplifts marginalized voices, holds power to account and paves the way for change. Our mission is to change the face of local journalism by building a community-supported newsroom that ignites civic engagement, educates residents and strengthens our democracy.

Our civic-minded journalism searches for truth, sheds light on wrongdoing and reveals stories that would otherwise go untold. We are the community’s newsroom and we’re powered by your support and donations.

San José Spotlight is a project of the San José News Bureau, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization | Tax ID: 82-5355128. All donations are tax deductible.

Read our most recent Digital Impact Report.

 

Awards

San José Spotlight wins 5 awards in annual state journalism contest sponsored by the California News Publishers Association

San José Spotlight wins 4 first place state journalism awards from the California News Publishers Association

San José Spotlight honored for championing freedom of information from the Society of Professional Journalists – Northern California

San José Spotlight places first in regional journalism awards from the San Francisco Press Club

Video Journalism award for “Backbone of Silicon Valley” from the Society of Professional Journalists – Northern California

San José Spotlight nets 8 wins in annual California Journalism Awards from the California News Publishers Association

San José Spotlight wins James Madison Freedom of Information award from the Society of Professional Journalists – Northern California

San José Spotlight wins national Publisher of the Year award from the Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers

Finalist for two national journalism awards from the Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, including Publisher of the Year

Four California Journalism Awards in the 2019 competition sponsored by the California News Publishers Association

Editorial Independence Policy

We adhere to the editorial independence policy adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News.

San José Spotlight relies on donations and memberships to power our nonprofit newsroom, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. Donors and sponsors have no influence over our content. Donors have no involvement in news decisions and we do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

News judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. Your trust is the cornerstone of San José Spotlight’s success. We’ll always maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy

San José Spotlight exists to strengthen the voices of people in our marginalized Silicon Valley communities. As journalists we have witnessed and chronicled the ill effects that occur when people are sidelined because of where they live or who they are.

Read our full DEI Policy here.

Donor Transparency

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. That’s why we disclose every penny donated to San José Spotlight.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to support our work. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our Board of Directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

San José Spotlight Donors

More than $100,000

Google News Initiative

American Journalism Project

California Waste Solutions

Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Valley Water

Heising-Simons Foundation

Facebook Journalism Project

$99,999-$25,000

Davidson Family Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 332

LIUNA Laborers Local 270

County of Santa Clara

Walton Family Foundation

Phil Koen

Nunez Family Foundation

Destination: Home

UA Local 393

Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers

AARP California

Pacific Gas & Electric Company

The Miami Foundation

International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Local 21

Meri Maben and Walt Hammon

Voler Strategic Advisors

Willco Property Management

Payroll Protection Program Funding

MEPS Silicon Valley

Sheet Metal Workers Local 104

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 101

Urban Catalyst

$24,999-$10,000

Comcast

Jackson and Main

Santa Clara County Probation Peace Officers’ Union, Local 1587, AFSCME

Republic Urban

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

South Bay Piping Industry

Blanchard Family BTB

DEI Partner Fund

Valley Physicians Group

Sean and Nicole Morley

Kaiser Permanente

Working Partnerships USA

eBay Foundation

San Jose Water Company

Stanford University

Jim and Sara McManis

McManis Faulkner

Richard Lowenthal

Santa Clara County Association of Realtors

Larry and Carmen Stone

Sprinkler Fitters Local 483

The GroundTruth Project

Habbas, Nasseri & Associates

Habbas & Associates

John A. and Susan Sobrato

Jamshid Mahdavi and Karen Fabrizius

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism

Jenny Wolfes

San Jose Firefighters Local 230

Margaret and Kapil Nanda

Excite Credit Union

Eddie D. Truong

Registered Nurses Professionals Association

McManis-Wigh Chinese Foundation

Rutan & Tucker, LLP

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1245

$9,999-$5,000

IUPAT District Council 16

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

African American Community Service Agency

The Schoennauer Company

Allan and Judy Thompson

Santa Clara & San Benito Counties Building & Construction Trades Council

Rod Diridon, Sr.

Gary Kremen

Sam Singer

Carpenters Local 405

Karla Albright

County Employees Management Association

San Jose Sharks

Ron Gonzales

Pat Waite

Marquis Advisory Group

David E. and Barbara Cohen

Art Amirkhas

Sobrato Family Foundation

San Jose Police Officers Association

Susan Hartt

Society of Professional Journalists

Silicon Valley Restaurant Association

Operating Engineers Local 3

Jean-Marc Blanchard

Santa Clara County Government Attorneys Association

The Health Trust

Philanthropic Access fund

$4,999-$1,000

Larry Kuechler and Ivonne Montes de Oca

Jesus Flores

Brian Bumb

Richard Alexander

Gloria and Stanley Hoo

Dominic and Suzanne Cortese

SWENSON

Robey Pointer

Education Partner Fund

Law Foundation of Silicon Valley

Ted Smith and Amanda Hawes

Akemi Flynn and Hien Do

Kathleen King

United Airlines

Norman Kline

San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP

Vijay Sammeta

SPUR

Gail Bautista

Housing Authority of Santa Clara County

Bill Roth

Roofers and Water Proofers Local 95

Kathleen Muller

Rob Bettencourt

Gary Schoennauer

Teresa Alvarado

John McLemore

Rich Robinson

Rick Callender

Tom Saggau

Dustin DeRollo

Renaissance Journalism

Cisco Systems

John Morgridge

Carol Watts

Stephen Wright

United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 5

Terrascape Ventures

Urban Community

HCA Healthcare

Stanford Health Care

Gardner Family Heath Services

Roots Foundation

Erik Hayden

Al and Carmen Castellano

Geoff and Andrea Ralston

John and Barbara Comiskey

Cafe Stritch

Abode Services

PATH

Ahmad Thomas

Dakarai Aarons

CreaTV San Jose

Hai Huynh

Maria Fuentes

Terry Christensen

Housing Trust Silicon Valley

Ryan Ford

Ash and Bianca Pirayou

The Core Companies

Bob Staedler

Ro Khanna

Minority Business Consortium

Sacred Heart Community Service

Reginald Swilley

San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce

Nuria Fernandez

Erik Schoennauer

Harmeet Dhillon

Shiloh Ballard

Jim Cunneen

Joe Head

June Tran

David and Elisa Ginsborg

Patricia Gardner

Rich De La Rosa

Don and Dory Albert

Steve Ellenberg

Christopher Thompson

Chris Platten

Sand Hill Property Company

SV@Home Action Fund

Louis Rocha

Walter Wilson

Chris Hickstein

Bob Nunez

Nhan Nguyen

Thao Tran

Castellano Family Foundation

Kevin Jensen

Anne Marie Sconberg

Nancy Bremeau

Prabu Balasubramanian

Andy and Joselle Kryder

Jane Howard

David E. Snyder

Santa Clara Family Health Plan

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health

Mario Banuelos

Aaron Hurst

Harrison Nguyen

Privacy Policy

We will not release your name, email address or any other personal information to anyone outside San José Spotlight without your consent, unless we are under a legal order to do so, or there is an emergency involving danger to a person or property.

If you wish to have your account and/or personal data deleted, you may submit a request by contacting us at [email protected]. Once we receive your request, we will verify your identity and process the deletion in accordance with applicable data protection laws.