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Outlet profile

The Marshall Project

U.S. center-left (criminal-justice reform–oriented nonprofit)

Owned byIndependent 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization with no corporate or individual owner. It is governed by a board and was founded by Neil Barsky, a former hedge fund manager and journalist. Katrice Hardy is CEO, and Jennifer Peter became editor-in-chief in late September 2025.
FundingPhilanthropy: foundation grants, major individual donors, and reader donations. Grants have come through donor-advised funds such as the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and it has also received American Journalism Project support. It does not run a paywall. It earns some revenue from partner republication of its stories and from events.
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The Marshall Project launched in 2014. Neil Barsky, a former hedge fund manager and journalist, founded it, and former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller was its first editor-in-chief. It is named after Thurgood Marshall. Its mission is to cover criminal justice, including policing, courts, prisons, and immigration enforcement, and it often republishes stories with partners such as The New York Times, The Atlantic and local outlets. Susan Chira, a former New York Times editor, was editor-in-chief from 2019 until she stepped down in December 2024. Jennifer Peter, a longtime Boston Globe managing editor, took over on September 29, 2025, to lead a newsroom of more than 60 journalists. The outlet calls itself nonpartisan, but its work is framed around the need for reform and it focuses on harms in the system, so its perspective is generally seen as center-left or reform-minded. Since January 2025 it has run extensive reporting on ICE detention conditions, deportation data, the detention of children and DACA recipients, and gaps in federal data transparency. That reporting is data-driven and sourced from documents and officials, and it is generally critical of administration policy. Like many nonprofit newsrooms, it depends on a small number of large donors, which is a recurring point of discussion in coverage of the sector.

Sources

  1. About The Marshall Project
  2. The Marshall Project (Wikipedia)
  3. Jennifer Peter new editor in chief (The Marshall Project)
  4. Katrice Hardy named CEO of The Marshall Project (Editor & Publisher)
  5. The Marshall Project (American Journalism Project)
  6. The Marshall Project (Cause IQ)
  7. As it grows, The Marshall Project finds plenty of partners, but fundraising is still not easy (Nieman Lab)
  8. ICE Hasn't Reported Detention or Deportation Data in Months
  9. DACA Recipients Detained, Deported by Trump Administration

Profile compiled 2026-10-06; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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