Ellen Tordesillas had returned to the field. She was reporting stories once more at the age of nearly 70, eighteen years after co-founding the nonprofit organization VERA Files in Manila. It wasn’t because she wanted to, but rather because there was no one else to send. By the end of 2024, five reporters had left, and no one had stepped in to take their place. Three-hour hearings at the International Criminal Court were being transcribed by the tech team.
The tip line had been passed down to the fact-checker. “Financial survival — it’s really the most challenging for us,” Tordesillas remarked as the editors filed dispatches. It’s the kind of statement that sticks in your memory, especially from someone who has endured two decades of navigating Philippine media with a target on her back, political harassment, and government pressure.
| Key Information: International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) & Global Fact-Checkers — 2025 Overview | |
|---|---|
| Organization | International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute |
| Report Title | State of the Fact-Checkers Report 2025 |
| Survey Scope | 141 organizations across 71 countries |
| Audience Growth (2025) | 62% of surveyed organizations reported audience growth |
| Financial Crisis | 76% described their financial position as vulnerable or in crisis |
| Sustainability Rate | Only 22.6% considered themselves financially sustainable |
| Meta Funding Share | Dropped from 45.5% to 34.3% after Meta ended its U.S. fact-checking program |
| Staff Cuts | Rose from 14.9% to 38.3% of organizations year-over-year |
| AI Adoption | 53.3% of organizations integrated AI tools into their workflows |
| Budget Range | 74.5% operated on budgets under $500,000 |
| Key Featured Organization | VERA Files, Manila-based nonprofit, founded 18 years ago |
| Report Release Date | April 2, 2026 — International Fact-Checkers Day |
The fact that she refers to money as the most difficult aspect reveals something unsettling about the covert transformation of the fact-checking sector.
What she is going through is confirmed by the numbers. 62% of the 141 fact-checking organizations surveyed in 71 countries for the IFCN’s 2025 State of the Fact-Checkers report reported an increase in their audience in the previous year.
According to the same survey, 76% of respondents said their financial situation was either precarious or dire. Merely 22.6% identified as sustainable. Go over those numbers twice. More people than ever are being reached by the work. The groups that carry it out are barely making ends meet.
Meta declared in January 2025 that it was discontinuing its fact-checking program in the United States. The ripple spread quickly and widely. Although Meta’s fact-checking funding share had already decreased from 45.5% to 34.3% over the course of the year, the announcement itself alarmed partners in Asia, Africa, and Latin America who relied on those connections, even in cases where the program was officially ongoing.
The National Endowment for Democracy stopped awarding grants around the same time. Programs at USAID decreased until July 2025, when the organization completely closed. Suddenly, organizations that had built their existence around those sources of funding had to figure out how long they could survive.
Staff reductions more than doubled. 42.6% of businesses added full-time staff in 2024. Just 23.4% were able to do the same in 2025, and 38.3% reported cuts. Almost 75% of organizations had budgets under $500,000. The middle budget tier, which offers some leeway between $500,000 and $999,999, was cut in half, from 17% to 8.5%. The industry is not only becoming less profitable. The center is becoming hollowed out.
coverage that decreased as the headcount increased. Reporting on climate science decreased from 75.2% to 55.5%. The percentage of historical claims decreased from 59.9% to 40.1%. Schools in the provinces requested training from VERA Files to help teachers and students identify false information, but they were turned away. Tordesillas stated, “Everyone should be a fact-checker.” “And we cannot put that in practice as much as we want to these days.”
Although the numbers in the US came to the same conclusion, they did so in a different way. The Spanish-language fact-checking group Factchequeado lost two employees and was unable to find replacements. Nevertheless, its reach increased by 60%. Every week, it produced 20 to 25 original pieces that were distributed to 146 media partners in 27 states.
ChatMigrante, its AI-powered immigration chatbot, advanced to the Online Journalism Awards finals. It received the Global Collaboration Award from the IFCN. The Gabo Award for Journalistic Excellence in 2025 went to co-founder Laura Zommer. The awards piled up. The money didn’t. “I don’t want more prizes,” she stated bluntly. “We need funds.”
That sentence contains a certain type of tiredness. It’s the weariness of being praised for completing essential tasks while the systemic support for doing so keeps deteriorating. Demand for precisely what Factchequeado produces has increased due to the Trump administration’s targeting of Latinos and migrants. The audience was present. The funds weren’t.
There was some real adaptation along with the expansion in reach. With 54.7% of organizations citing it, short-form video emerged as the most popular expansion format. Visual explainers ascended. In 2025, the percentage of organizations publishing in multiple languages increased from 52.5% to 60.6%. The percentage of organizations that collaborate on a monthly basis nearly doubled from 35.3% to 58.4%, and 94.9% of them work with at least one kind of partner.
Civil society organizations and nongovernmental organizations became much more frequent partners. This change toward coalition-building and leaner formats may be the reason why so many outlets were able to expand their audiences despite having fewer resources.
AI tools were incorporated into the workflows of over half of the organizations, primarily for translation and research. Compared to 32% the previous year, half now have formal AI guidelines. Additionally, almost half identified synthetic media and deepfakes as a significant problem. Both the threat and the tools are changing.
It’s difficult to ignore the paradox the report presents: a field that is more technically adaptive, collaborative, multilingual, and financially precarious than it has ever been. Government pressure or interference was reported by nearly three out of ten organizations. The percentage of lawsuits increased from 16.4% to 20.4%. However, 92% of respondents said they were highly or somewhat adaptive.
Back in Manila, VERA Files continues to apply for all available grants. The team has a small, group-oriented, hopeful ritual when an application is submitted. It’s the kind of information that sticks in your memory. A group of people who have already been cut down, clinging to something that seems more like faith than strategy. The number of viewers is increasing. Whether anyone will provide funding for those who serve it is the question.