InvestigateWest has made a real difference in the eight years since Executive Director Robert McClure and I first gathered with a group of journalists to form a nonprofit newsroom for the Pacific Northwest.

For our most recent series, called Unequal Justice, InvestigateWest helped tell stories about how African Americans and Latinos in Oregon are arrested, charged, convicted and jailed at many times higher the rate than white people. Same crimes, different outcomes — which became clear because investigator Kate Willson amassed a database of more than 5 million documents through public record requests that spanned a year.

Analysis of that database showed that black people paid $22 million more in court fees than white people who committed the same crimes during the past decade.

So people of color were being fined disproportionately to support a criminal justice system that sent their community members to jail at higher rates than their white neighbors. Legislators and justices in Oregon professed shock and dismay over the numbers — maybe something will change.

Stay tuned to our coverage, produced in partnership with Pamplin Media Group, with support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism and The Loyal Bigelow and Jedediah Dewey Foundation. I admire InvestigateWest Managing Director Lee van der Voo for putting so much time and effort into this project alongside journalists John Schrag, Nick Budnick, Shasta Kearns Moore and Willson, whose database catalyzed the collaboration. Many thanks to the Portland Tribune’s web, graphics and editorial team, as well.

Deep reporting takes time and costs money. Newspapers continue to shed staff reporters and, with them, decades of knowledge. Foundations, newsrooms and readers need to collaborate to support investigations that protect the public.

Connect freelancers with resources and distribution partners. Keep an eye on key issues. Build partnerships to tell stories aimed at social justice. That’s what we do.

Traditional models for sustaining journalism have continued to fail since InvestigateWest first launched to supply reporting about vital issues that would otherwise go unacknowledged, such as crises in foster care and affordable housing, polluted schools, the sale of public lands – our story helped save green space in Seattle – and corporate lobbying against clean water.

Fake news. That’s what people get for free, but it costs our democracy so much. Be part of the solution and visit invw.org/donate today.

We do this work because it matters. InvestigateWest creates journalism to engage communities in civic life, which is why I am grateful to serve as board chair alongside Secretary Brant Houston, the Knight Chair of Enterprise and Investigative Reporting, and Treasurer Randy Robinson.

Please join us in welcoming Mike Green of Oregon and Don Smith of Washington to InvestigateWest’s board. Both former editors, Mike co-founded ScaleUp Partners to increase African American inclusion in technology and startups, and Don is retired from Boeing, where he managed 737 communications after an award-winning career at major metro daily newspapers.

We are grateful to our supporters for keeping our newsroom going through this wild winter, as Northwest Cable News and NBC’s Breaking News site both closed, and the Seattle Times suffered yet another round of layoffs. I want to give a special shoutout to the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and the Knight Foundation for their matching campaigns for InvestigateWest.

These high-caliber institutions support InvestigateWest because they know our stories can help create a better society. Join them. Columbia Journalism Review said InvestigateWest’s “impact consistently belies its size.” Your tax-deductible gift will support investigative reporting about the environment, criminal justice, affordable housing and much more.