Transparency and organization’s accounts

At Maldita.es, we believe transparency is essential. As a member of our community, you have the right to know where our money comes from and how we spend it — because Maldita.es belongs to you too. We know this matters if you are to continue trusting us, so we want to explain everything clearly.

We exist to help citizens make decisions with all the verified information at hand and to make sure they don't get fooled in the fight against disinformation. We do this through journalism, education, technology, research and public policy advocacy. Disinformation affects all levels of society and is present in our daily lives; the Foundation develops tools to combat it and generates evidence-based information so that the different actors involved—from legislators to citizens, including journalists, digital platforms and educators—can make decisions based on verified data and scientific evidence.

Thanks to the supporters who backed our 2019 crowdfunding campaign we are a non-profit foundation. At the same time, we continue to operate as an association.

We are independent

Fundación Maldita.es is an independent organisation that answers exclusively to its methodologies (desinfo and buloteca) and to the editorial judgement of its newsroom. Although we do not individually byline our articles because many of them are the result of collaborative work and because, in addition, this is a way of protecting journalists from individual attacks by disinformers and other actors, the biographies of the members of this team are public and can be found here.

Our entire team is governed by a neutrality policy and a code of conduct to protect this independence. Our correction policy, our accounts, and the activities, partnerships and projects we are involved in are also public.

Maldita.es is a non-profit foundation. This means that it does not belong to any media outlet or company, that no one can buy it, and that it is not dedicated to making money for shareholders because it has none. Fundación Maldita.es belongs to civil society.

We do not have advertising but, sometimes, if it aligns with our mission to fight disinformation, we may collaborate with companies or institutions and receive payment for it. In such cases, we sign contracts that protect our editorial independence and include a clause that allows us to make the agreements public. In all cases, each of these sources of income will be reflected in our accounts so that you can consult them, and we will also explain what any collaboration consists of. In addition, we disclose all income that accounts for more than 1% of our total income or could constitute a conflict of interest for our independence, in accordance with the European Code of Standards for Independent Fact-Checking Organisations of the EFCSN.

We will never accept any kind of agreement that allows someone to tell us what we have to publish. Furthermore, if our articles discuss any company or institution we are currently collaborating with, we will make sure to mention it. To safeguard our independence, we also seek the support of our community. Any support helps us fulfil our mission.

The Foundation

Fundación Maldita.es contra la desinformación: periodismo, educación, investigación y datos en nuevos formatos was established in 2019 with three founders. An initial endowment of €30,000, raised through crowdfunding, was contributed for its creation. Subsequently, the three founders became trustees of the Foundation. You can find out more about them here.

For more information about the Foundation, you can consult:

The Association

Asociación Maldita contra la desinformación: periodismo, educación, investigación y datos en nuevos formatos was established in September 2018 with five founders: Clara Jiménez Cruz, Julio Montes Moreno, David Fernández, Ignacio Calle Fernández and Stéphane Manuel Grueso Lenoir. Here you can check who is currently on the Association's Board of Directors and here you can see the Association's Bylaws. We continue to maintain both entities, although the Association has no operations or staff.

Botalite SL

In addition, at the end of 2021, following the success of our WhatsApp chatbot, we established a limited liability company of which the Foundation is the sole administrator and 100% owner, with the aim of providing the tool to other media outlets and organisations. To date, we have developed the system for more than 20 organisations around the world. The company is called Botalite SL. and has not distributed dividends, which is why you will not see it reflected in our accounts. Here you can find our Investment Code.

Every year, we publish the balance sheet of the Association's accounts and the Foundation's audited accounts. You can always consult them.

Our journalistic brands

At Maldita.es, we do journalism from different trenches and to reach our diverse community. These are our editorial projects:

Maldita.es: a media outlet that produces content for a general audience related to disinformation. Through a fact-checking methodology validated by the International Fact-Checking Network and the European Fact-Checking Standards Network, our journalism team develops multiplatform content to debunk disinformation about politics; science; food and health; climate; migration and gender. We also conduct investigations into the disinformation ecosystem, which are published by this outlet.
Factous: our verified information space on social media to fight disinformation on the platforms where young people spend the most time, mainly Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. With a 30-second format and clear, direct, simple language adapted to new narratives, Factous seeks to connect with younger audiences by providing data and context for the news they see every day.
Maldita.es Content Agency (ACM): a platform with free content that can be republished by third parties, designed especially for small, independent newsrooms or those with limited resources. The content consists of adaptations of Maldita.es publications that have already gone through the methodological process.

The editorial and organisational team

Ultimately, both entities operate as a single organisation, with the following structure for editorial and organisational decision-making positions:

MANAGEMENT

Clara Jiménez Cruz. Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Julio Montes. Director
David Fernández. Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Ximena Villagrán. Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Pedro Santana. Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Carlos Hernández-Echevarría. Deputy Director and Coordinator of Public Policy and Institutional Development
Rocío Benavente. Deputy to the Director and Coordinator of Sustainability and Development Strategy

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Ana Gómez Parra. Newsroom Coordinator
Pablo Hernández. Academic Research Coordinator

EDITORS

Cristina Armunia. Editor
Natalia Diez. Editor

SECTION COORDINATORS

Carmen Mesa. Disinformation Coordinator
Laura García Merino. Science Coordinator
Maribel Ángel-Moreno. Climate Coordinator
Magdalena Torga. Citizen Protection Coordinator
Beatriz Lara. Community Coordinator
Lucía Gómez. Maldita Educa Coordinator
Stephane Grueso. Audiovisual Coordinator
Claudia Ocaranza. Partnerships and Innovation Coordinator
Óscar Luna. External Communications Coordinator.
Dayanara Champa. Social Media Coordinator.

You can read the biographies of the entire team here.

Our internal teams

NEWSROOM AND RESEARCH: Our team of data journalists, researchers and OSINT experts monitors trends and narratives in disinformation and gathers the data and information needed to conduct specific investigations that generate robust evidence on the creation, dissemination and effects of disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) campaigns, including the topics, narratives and TTPs used by disinformation actors, as well as the role played by other institutional actors.
EDUCATION: Our team of educators and pedagogical experts develops media literacy and prebunking strategies to meet the needs of a society that needs to relearn how to consume information. From schools to senior centres, as well as businesses and training for trainers to scale the impact of our work, our Maldita Educa team develops online and offline training programmes to reach the different audiences affected by disinformation.
AI AND DATA: Our team of developers, AI experts and data analysts works to provide the Foundation and its partners with tools that make it possible to collect relevant data on disinformation and its trends globally and make the most of that data when analysing and organising it through the application of AI, followed by human validation.
PUBLIC POLICY: Our Public Policy and Institutional Development unit offers society and those in leadership positions solutions based on our experience as experts in disinformation. It also provides them with information to help them make better decisions based on data rather than personal impressions, and that are truly effective in the fight against disinformation.
ACADEMIA: Our academic research team collaborates with universities around the world to produce scientific evidence on disinformation, its effects and the most effective ways to fight it, so that both Fundación Maldita.es and the information ecosystem as a whole can benefit from this knowledge.
PROJECTS: Our projects team identifies opportunities for our teams to delve deeper into their respective areas, while also coordinating the work of the different parts of the Foundation with one another and with third parties.

Collaboration, community and partnerships to fight disinformation

Maldita.es is possible thanks to all of you, who collaborate with us by alerting us to hoaxes in circulation and helping us use your superpoderes to debunk lies. You are also the ones who help the truth reach further by sharing our fact-checks and holding politicians accountable so that they do not manipulate data and facts. A stronger and better-informed community so that no one can fool us.

We are convinced that the fight against disinformation is more effective and has a greater impact when it is carried out through collaboration and cooperation with citizens, other journalism organisations, civil society organisations, universities, companies and media outlets.

Here is a detailed list of the partnerships we currently have to expand the impact of our work and the fight against disinformation, in addition to the media outlets and universities already mentioned in our accounts:

Civil society

PLENA INCLUSIÓN: We have an agreement with Plena Inclusión España to adapt their articles into easy-to-read formats for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
PANTALLAS AMIGAS: We have an agreement with Pantallas Amigas to work on developing tools and informational materials on privacy, data protection and digital inclusion.
EUROPEAN FOOD INFORMATION COUNCIL: We have an agreement with EUFIC (European Food Information Council). Through this agreement, we work together to carry out and/or create specific initiatives and activities focused on combating disinformation about nutrition and food. We also collaborate in actively seeking funding for projects and partnerships to promote our work, as well as in promoting and increasing the visibility of both organisations' work on their respective websites and social media channels.
ASHOKA: Our co-founder and CEO, Clara Jiménez Cruz, was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2019. Ashoka is an independent, non-profit and non-denominational foundation that does not depend on any public or private body and has established itself as a leading organisation in the field of social entrepreneurship. It currently has a community of more than 3,500 Social Entrepreneurs and 300 Changemaker Schools around the world.

Journalism organisations

EUROPEAN FACT-CHECKING STANDARDS NETWORK: The EFCSN is a non-profit association that ensures compliance with methodological, ethical and transparency standards among European fact-checkers. Through the European Code of Standards, the EFCSN defends and promotes the highest standards of fact-checking and promotes media literacy for the public benefit. Maldita.es is in the process of becoming a verified member of the network, in addition to being one of its founding members. Maldita.es's CEO is the President of the association's governing body (and, of course, abstains from decisions regarding the approval of her own organisation as a member).
INTERNATIONAL FACT-CHECKING NETWORK: The IFCN is a global alliance of fact-checkers that ensures that organisations dedicated to this work comply with a series of professional principles that guarantee the impartiality and professionalism of their fact-checks. Maldita.es has been a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network's Code of Principles since 2018. Every year, we undergo an application process, an assessment carried out by an independent assessor and a favourable vote by the IFCN Advisory Board to renew our commitment. Maldita.es's CEO is a member of the IFCN Advisory Board (and, of course, abstains from decisions regarding the approval of her own organisation as a member).
INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE: The International Press Institute (IPI) is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists who share a common commitment to independent, high-quality journalism. Together, we promote the conditions that enable journalism to fulfil its public function, the most important of which is the ability of media organisations to operate without interference or fear of reprisals.
GLOBAL FORUM FOR MEDIA DEVELOPMENT: GFMD is the world's largest community for media development and freedom and for supporting journalism. Through collaboration, coordination and collective action, its network of 147 organisations develops, promotes and delivers policies and programmes that sustain journalism as a public good. As part of this forum, Maldita.es benefits from an extensive network of international media professionals, a wide range of workshops and knowledge exchanges, and a diverse range of tailored services and resources related to building non-profit partnerships, management training and fundraising, market research, and organisational strategy consulting services.
GLOBAL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM NETWORK: GIJN (Global Investigative Journalism Network) was founded in 2003 with the mission of supporting and strengthening investigative journalism. With translations available in more than a dozen languages, GIJN supports different organisations with tools, technology and training to encourage global investigative journalism. As part of this network of 244 organisations in 90 countries, Maldita.es has access to the extensive platforms and networks available to connect with other journalists and international organisations, as well as a representative vote on key issues that the network wishes to bring before the Board of Directors.

Maldita's Accounts: Where Our Income Comes From and Where It Goes

MALDITA’S INCOME. Updated as of July 2026

Below, we explain where our income comes from and what we plan to allocate it to throughout 2026; updated as of July 2026.

MALDIT@S: Here we account for the contributions made by the Malditos and Malditas who provide financial support to the organisation. This is our most important source of income: the one that truly builds the project. If you want to know more about this process, click here. Remember that by becoming a Maldito or Maldita, you can also investigate in La Buloteca and contribute with your superpowers.

MEDIA COLLABORATIONS: The journalistic content we produce at Maldita.es is multiplatform, so we collaborate with different media outlets to ensure that journalism so you don't get fooled reaches more people. Our collaborations include:

Radio Castilla-La Mancha: We have a segment on the news programme Castilla-La Mancha a las 8.
Canal Sur: A weekly collaboration with the Mesa de Análisis programme on Canal Sur TV, participating every Friday with contributions focused on fact-checking content, explaining current hoaxes and analysing disinformation narratives.

MALDITA EDUCA: In addition to the talks and training sessions our Education team provides to all kinds of audiences, from older adults to children, we carry out specific activities to bring knowledge and tools to the fight against disinformation.

“Critical Reading” training for trainers — Castilla y León Digital: As part of the territorial coordination plan to support reading, we provided training and basic materials and tools on disinformation, critical thinking and responsible digital content consumption to primary and secondary school educators across the nine provinces of Castilla y León.
Training programme for the European Parliament in Spain: CONTRADesinfoEU is a training programme that seeks to strengthen the capacity of journalists, young people and communications teams from NGOs and companies to identify and combat disinformation, particularly on issues related to the European Union.
Information Disorder And AI Training For Newsrooms: Development of a specialised training programme on artificial intelligence and disinformation for newsrooms in Latin America, as part of the partnership between the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The initiative aimed to strengthen the capacity of Latin American newsrooms to understand the impact of AI on the information ecosystem, identify content generated or amplified through artificial intelligence, and use AI-assisted verification and research tools.
Adaptation of "The Information Maze" in Ecuador: An educational cooperation project within the framework of LatamChequea to adapt Maldita.es's educational resource "The Information Maze" to the Ecuadorian context. Developed by Lupa Media, it includes the cultural adaptation of the digital game and the creation of a physical board game version for children aged 8 to 12, incorporating local examples, an intercultural approach, a gender perspective and content in Kichwa for bilingual contexts.

PHILANTHROPY AND GRANTS: As a non-profit organisation dedicated to journalistic innovation and to building tools for citizens, every year we seek funding from different philanthropic organisations to support the work we do. This year, we have the support of:

Maldito Clima: With the support of the European Climate Foundation, a dedicated editorial team focuses its work on combating climate change disinformation, a phenomenon that has grown exponentially in recent years. In addition, we will carry out longer-term investigations into climate disinformation, its actors and networks.
RESET: Resilience and Evidence for Safer and More Transparent Information Ecosystems: A project aimed at strengthening democratic resilience against disinformation through the analysis of systemic risks, the generation of evidence and support for the development of data-driven public policies. Maldita.es contributes its expertise in disinformation analysis, applied research and engagement with public decision-makers, helping to develop recommendations and advocacy materials.
AI for Good in Latino Communities: An initiative by Factchequeado, funded by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, which provides AI tools and media literacy resources to Latino communities in the United States. Maldita.es is transferring the Search Your Archive and SocialScript AI tools to three Spanish-language newsrooms, including onboarding, training, follow-up sessions and adoption metrics. Possible co-creation of new AI tools, such as WhatsApp chatbots.

CINet (Climate Investigation Network for Countering Disinformation): A project funded by Journalismfund Europe to strengthen the capacity of journalists from local and regional media outlets to investigate climate disinformation. The initiative combines training, mentoring and support to develop investigations into disinformation narratives, coordinated information manipulation campaigns and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). It also promotes a network of specialised journalists and encourages the use of La Buloteca as a citizen collaboration tool to detect and document cases of disinformation related to climate change.
Cross-regional disinformation campaigns between Eastern Europe, Eurasia and Latin America: With the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the network of partners involved in the project was expanded to include Fake News Tragaç and Raskrikavanje.rs from Serbia, and Raskrinkavanje.ba from Bosnia. Maldita.es, together with ten fact-checking organisations from five European countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Serbia and Bosnia) and four Latin American countries (Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico), will study and analyse disinformation campaigns that cross borders through private messaging applications.
FIMI-ISAC Elections: The FIMI-ISAC project (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference – Information Sharing and Analysis Center) is an international initiative led by European organisations and funded by Google.org, aimed at protecting democratic integrity during electoral processes from threats of disinformation and foreign manipulation. Active from January 2025 to March 2026, the project creates response teams (FRTs), develops data analysis tools (DST), designs in-person and online training, and produces operational manuals to establish a FIMI defence community capable of monitoring, reporting and effectively countering disinformation campaigns in real time.

CIVITATES POLICY: Fundación Maldita.es was selected to take part in the European Tech & Democracy programme, promoted by the organisation Civitates. Through this project, it will strengthen its research into how major digital platforms operate, generate evidence to support the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), and develop advocacy and awareness-raising activities to promote greater transparency, accountability and protection of democracy against disinformation in the digital environment.
CIRCLE (Citizen Integration for Resilient Collaboration against Disinformation in Europe): A European project co-funded by the European Union, through ECAS (European Citizen Action Service), to strengthen citizen participation as a tool against disinformation. The initiative investigates and systematises Maldita.es's community model, particularly experiences such as La Buloteca, with the aim of developing a transferable model that can be adapted by organisations and researchers across Europe.
GROK, IS THIS TRUE? WITH THE JOURNALISM SCIENCE ALLIANCE: In collaboration with the University of Jaén and funded by the Journalism Science Alliance, research will be conducted into how tools such as Grok can generate or amplify disinformation when they provide incorrect or misleading answers, as well as the impact these have on public trust and behaviour.

EFCSN AND SCIENCE FEEDBACK: This project aims to evaluate the mechanisms used by YouTube and TikTok to prevent and remove posts containing climate disinformation. It is funded by the EFCSN and carried out jointly by the French organisation Science Feedback and Maldita.es.
SUSTAIN IFCN: Fundación Maldita.es is one of the 25 organisations selected to receive the International Fact-Checking Network's (IFCN) SUSTAIN 2026 grant. Maldita.es will develop new revenue models to strengthen the Foundation's sustainability.
AIS AI Summary Check for Disinformation and Fact-Checking on Google and Bing: For five months, Maldita.es and the fact-checking organisations Demagog (Poland) and Faktograf (Croatia) will analyse the quality, in terms of accuracy and disinformation, of AI-generated summary results on Google and Bing search engines across three specific topics: health, scams and current events. The project, which will result in a report with recommendations, is funded by the EFCSN.

Future of Europe: Resourcing civil society & independent media through the EU Budget 2028–2034: The project, led by the Atlantic Council and funded by Civitates, plans a series of meetings between European Union Member States and European institutions to analyse and issue recommendations for discussions on the European Union's 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS: Our services are contracted by some technology companies with the aim of reducing the impact of disinformation on their platforms.

Meta: Since 2019, Maldita.es has been part of the company's third-party fact-checking programme. Meta pays us to fact-check content that is going viral on its platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Threads) to combat disinformation. We decide what and how to fact-check based on our methodology. Meta has no editorial power in this process.
WhatsApp: Since we launched our automated WhatsApp chatbot, the company has paid us for the service we provide to its users, responding when they ask us about content that may be disinformation. WhatsApp has no access to the messages.
Google Showcase: We provide the Google Showcase platform with the three most important news stories of the day, every day of the week. Additionally, in accordance with Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, Google pays us a monthly fee for the use of our content on Google News.

PUBLIC TENDERS AND GRANTS: The public funding, or funding from entities financed with public money, that Fundación Maldita.es applies for is always awarded through competitive calls and never allows any influence over our editorial content.

European Union: We currently have several projects partially funded by programmes and directorates of the European Commission.

Iberifier+: In May 2025, the second phase of the Iberian Digital Media Observatory, Iberifier, began with a meeting of its members in Pamplona (Navarre). Fundación Maldita.es will continue to be part of the project's consortium, which has established itself as the largest Iberian digital media observatory since its creation in 2021. So far, Iberifier has focused on researching, analysing and debunking disinformation, as well as promoting best practices for the critical consumption of information by citizens. In its second phase, planned until 2026, it will extend these activities to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries while coordinating its work with the rest of the observatories promoted by the European Commission in the 27 EU countries, which together form the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO).
IBERIFIER 3: The third phase of the project, which will begin in November 2026, consolidates and advances the Iberian Digital Media Observatory as the official EDMO hub for Spain and Portugal, ensuring its continuous and high-quality operation within the European framework for combating disinformation. This new 18-month phase brings together an optimised consortium of 13 organisations—including fact-checkers, news agencies, universities and media literacy organisations—to provide a mature, interoperable and crisis-ready system for monitoring, analysing and mitigating disinformation in the Iberian information space.
RURCODE: Rural youth co-designing their digital education: A European project to improve media and digital literacy and knowledge of digital rights among rural children and adolescents (aged 8–16) through participatory methodologies, co-creation and game-based learning. Maldita.es coordinates the consortium to strengthen educators' capacities and develop educational resources that can be adapted and scaled at the European level.
POP: Promoting Opportunities to Boost European Media Literacy Education in Rural Communities and Among Older People: An EU-funded project aimed at strengthening the resilience of rural communities and older people (50+) in Europe against disinformation through accessible and engaging media literacy education. It scales Maldita.es's BuloBus initiative with a European approach based on high-impact "pop-up" events in rural areas. It develops hybrid educational resources on science, health, climate, conspiracy theories, scams and AI, delivered in towns and villages across Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain.
AI4TRUST: Fundación Maldita.es is one of the 17 organisations participating in the European AI4TRUST project (AI-based technologies for trustworthy solutions against disinformation), led by the Italian Bruno Kessler Foundation and primarily aimed at building a technological platform capable of detecting potential disinformation in real time by bringing together technology and human expertise. The project ended in February 2026.
ATHENA: Maldita.es is one of the 14 organisations and institutes that will contribute to detecting and analysing "foreign information manipulation and interference" (FIMI) and its impact on democracy. The project has a duration of three years.
MALAGRI 2.0: The second edition of the Maldita Agricultura project (MALAGRI), an initiative co-funded by the European Union aimed at increasing knowledge and reducing disinformation among the urban population, especially those under 30, about agriculture, food production and rural environments, with a specific focus on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
MALAGRI 3: The third edition of MALAGRI, which begins in November 2026, will continue working on articles about disinformation concerning the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In addition, this edition incorporates new perspectives.
LEVEL UP: Fundación Maldita.es coordinates the EU-funded Level Up project, which aims to empower older citizens (60+) in Europe, particularly in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Spain, to develop a critical approach to the media and strengthen their resilience to misinformation and disinformation across a range of topics, including misinformation and disinformation in general. Four other institutions are also part of the project, which includes workshops, video games and a toolkit to help older people avoid falling for disinformation.
HATEDEMICS: Maldita.es is participating alongside 11 other organisations from Italy, Spain, Malta and Estonia in this European Union co-funded project, which aims to strengthen preventive and reactive measures against online hate speech and disinformation, and to empower NGOs/CSOs, fact-checkers, public authorities and young people to effectively prevent and combat polarisation and the spread of racist, xenophobic and intolerant discourse. The HATEDEMICS platform, an AI-based tool that enables users to improve their response to hate speech and disinformation by bringing together the partners' expertise in preventing and combating hate and disinformation, will be developed and tested. The platform will be accompanied by interactive training and educational pathways on how to use the tool to combat online hate speech and disinformation.
Infoodmation: Coordinated by EUFIC, this project aims to improve understanding of how traditional media, social media and marketing influence food consumption habits, both in terms of health and sustainability. Maldita.es will primarily participate in coordinating the assessment of the spread and effects of food-related disinformation and in designing recommendations on how to respond to it. The project will run for three years, starting in January 2025, and is funded by the European Union.
More Correct Information, Less Discrimination (MIILD): Fundación Maldita.es is participating in this European Union co-funded project, which aims to improve reporting on migrants, refugees and racialised people in order to reduce disinformation and hate speech surrounding these groups. Led by the Italian organisation Lunaria, MIILD will provide training to journalists, journalism students and activists from civil society organisations in Italy, Malta, Greece and Spain. The aim is to enable them to identify, report and counter disinformation and discriminatory messages appearing in the media and on social media when migration and racism are discussed, through accurate content based on facts and data.
ENDGAME: Fundación Maldita.es is participating in ENDGAME: Escaping New Disinformation through Gamified Cross-border Media Literacy Education, a European project led by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) that aims to help young people develop critical thinking and become digitally responsible citizens through the creation of educational escape rooms that simulate real-life situations in which we consume information. ENDGAME aims to help young people in Finland, Serbia and Spain learn to recognise disinformation online. ENDGAME will run for 24 months, from March 2025 to February 2027.

Ask Europe: A European project led by Agence France-Presse that aims to facilitate EU citizens' access to reliable information about European institutions and their Member States. This initiative is supported by the European Union and will run from March 2025 to February 2027 through a digital platform developed by a consortium of 15 European organisations. Maldita.es will be responsible for producing explanatory content in various formats and coordinating the social media strategy, while other organisations will take on editorial and technological development tasks.
Europe Aid Georgia: SAFIMI (Georgian Society Against Disinformation, Foreign Information Manipulation and Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour): An international project co-funded by the European Union through the NDICI – Global Europe programme, aimed at strengthening resilience against disinformation in Georgia. The project seeks to protect Georgia's information space through research, training, multilingual journalistic content and support for local actors. Fundación Maldita.es will coordinate and prepare media literacy educational materials and make improvements to the technological development of the Georgian organisations participating in the project. It ended in March 2026.
SPQR: Social Problem, Quality Response: A European project aimed at strengthening democratic resilience against disinformation through innovative citizen collaboration. Maldita.es coordinates a consortium that places citizens—particularly young people and the university community—at the heart of prebunking, debunking and postbunking through in-person training, civic engagement and a multilingual digital platform that enables direct collaboration between citizens, fact-checkers and experts. The project ends in February 2028.

Resilient Citizens: A European project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme to strengthen citizens' resilience against disinformation during climate emergencies. In collaboration with organisations in Spain, Croatia and Greece, the project will develop training, resources and tools aimed at both citizens and professionals working with communities vulnerable to climate crises. The Foundation will contribute its expertise in needs assessment, capacity building to identify disinformation, and the design of a communication strategy that facilitates access to reliable and useful information during crisis situations.

OTHER

Industrial PhD: A computer engineer at Fundación Maldita.es is currently conducting her research as part of an Industrial PhD programme at the University of Granada. To make this possible, the Foundation receives a grant that covers part of the PhD candidate's salary so that she can dedicate herself to her research while remaining connected to the social and business sectors.

PROJECTS: At Maldita.es, we work with companies and foundations to produce informative content to combat disinformation across different areas. Under these agreements, all content produced follows exclusively our editorial judgement and methodology.

Factchequeado: An initiative created by Fundación Maldita.es and the Argentine media outlet Chequeado to build a community of Hispanics and Latinos to counter Spanish-language disinformation in the United States, with which both organisations continue to collaborate.
Eroski Consumer: Maldita.es collaborates with Eroski Consumer, an editorial project of the EROSKI Foundation, with the shared goal of disseminating reliable and useful information about health, food and food safety. To this end, for six months Maldita.es will produce one article and one video per month on these topics, which Eroski Consumer will publish on its website and both organisations will share on their Instagram, X and Facebook accounts. All content produced for this project will follow Maldita.es's editorial judgement and methodology.

RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY: We believe that fighting disinformation requires working on every possible front, which is why at Maldita.es we enter into agreements with consultancies and non-profit organisations interested in our content.

NEST: Conducting research into pro-Russian disinformation narratives in Latin America, with the aim of analysing the actors, strategies, content and channels used to disseminate these types of influence campaigns.
TECHSOUP: Writing a series of specialised articles on the relationship between artificial intelligence and disinformation, with the aim of contributing to public debate and strengthening the capacity of civil society organisations to address the new challenges of the digital environment.
IOM: Developing a methodology to update the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Migration Toolkit, transforming it into a modular resource based on disinformation narratives to improve public communication about migration.
ATREVIA: Conducting research into the main disinformation narratives surrounding renewable energy in Spain. Based on a citizen listening system and monitoring of the information ecosystem, the study seeks to identify the most recurring narratives around solar and wind energy and analyse how they evolve and spread.
ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Maldita.es will manage one of the events within the project led by the Atlantic Council and funded by Civitates to analyse and issue recommendations on the 2028–2034 MFF.
CCSINOFYOUTH: This project by the University of Barcelona seeks to understand how young people aged 16 to 25 in Spain consume political information on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and how this influences their knowledge, trust and political participation. Maldita.es will contribute its technological and educational expertise to the design of disinformation-related programmes for the questionnaire, the creation of experimental stimuli and the identification of algorithmic biases.

SERVICES: We develop innovative technology to increase our impact and help other fact-checkers achieve their goals. This year, we are expanding our services to two networks of fact-checking organisations and media outlets, while continuing to offer and improve our chatbot.

MALDITA'S EXPENSES. Updated as of July 2026

JOURNALISM AND RESEARCH: 38.95% of our expenditure goes towards the labour costs of the editorial newsroom, from coordinators to interns. We now have 31 journalists with different types of employment arrangements working at Maldita.es! Our team of data journalists, researchers and OSINT experts monitors disinformation trends and narratives and collects the data and information needed to carry out specific investigations that generate robust evidence on the creation, dissemination and effects of disinformation and influence campaigns (FIMI), including the topics, narratives and TTPs used by disinformation actors, as well as the role played by other institutional actors.
TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION: 9.28% of our expenditure is allocated to paying the engineers who develop technological tools. Our team of developers, AI experts and data analysts works to provide the Foundation and its partners with tools that make it possible to collect relevant data on disinformation and its trends globally and make the most of that data when analysing and organising it through the application of AI, followed by human validation. We have four in-house developers keeping everything running smoothly, a documentalist, a UX designer and a product manager, and we hire external engineers when we need more hands to innovate.
EDUCATION: Our team of educators and pedagogical experts at Maldita Educa develops media literacy and prebunking strategies to meet the needs of a society that needs to relearn how to consume information. This means we have to allocate part of our budget to enabling this team to deliver training programmes wherever you invite us—from schools to senior centres, as well as businesses and train-the-trainer programmes. In addition, this year Maldita Educa consists of six people who are meeting with teachers and developing specific materials to make them available to everyone, along with a monthly newsletter. If you want to know more, visit our Education section .
ACADEMIC RESEARCH: Our Academic Research area collaborates with researchers and universities nationally and internationally to produce scientific evidence on disinformation, its effects and the most effective ways to fight it, so that both Fundación Maldita.es and the information ecosystem as a whole can benefit from this knowledge. If you would like to know more about this, you can write to [email protected].
PROJECTS AND PUBLIC POLICY: As you may have seen in our income section, we have several projects underway with different approaches. This budget item covers the salaries of the people working on projects from both an editorial and an impact perspective. Our projects team identifies opportunities for our teams to delve deeper into their respective areas and also coordinates the work of the different parts of the Foundation with one another and with third parties. This also includes the expenditure of our Public Policy and Institutional Development area, which remained a team of three people this year. Our Public Policy and Institutional Development unit offers society and those in leadership positions solutions based on our experience as experts in disinformation. It also provides them with information to help them make better decisions based on data rather than personal impressions, and that are truly effective in the fight against disinformation.
COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA: We have a team dedicated to our digital products so that users can have greater and better access to our content. This is why we have both a community team and a social media team, which design strategies to make accessing our content in its different formats easier, more enjoyable and more impactful. This year, we redesigned our community system to make it easier for our Malditos and Malditas to support us by investigating through La Buloteca, donating money or contributing their expertise through our Superpowers programme.
ADMINISTRATION: Administration accounts for 7.59% of our budget. This includes the salaries of the three people who manage Maldita.es's accounting, the accounting firms that help us, the retainers for the lawyers who handle all our legal matters, liability insurance and corporate income tax on the previous year's income, among other expenses.
OFFICE: We maintain our two fantastic offices. One of them is used by the Maldita Educa team and especially for creating our social media content, radio segments, live television appearances and even recording videos using a green screen, as well as for holding more private meetings. We allocate 2.29% of our budget to the rent and maintenance of both spaces.
EXTERNAL PROJECTS: Several of the projects we receive through grants and public funding have budgets with committed expenses necessary for their implementation, including subcontracting experts from other fields (such as academics or professionals from areas outside Maldita.es's permanent team), producing events or materials, and travel directly related to these projects. For example, this year we launched La Buloteca and, alongside it, the SPQR project, through which the organisations Facta (Italy) and Demagog.pl (Poland) will be provided with the collaborative platform to fact-check together with their communities and will hold workshops for different audiences to teach them how to use it. We account for these expenses separately from Maldita.es's regular operating costs because they are extraordinary. This category currently represents 13.65% of our budget.
OTHER: From the software we use to carry out our work to Maldita.es merchandise, this catch-all category also includes travel to attend conferences where we can continue learning and the budget for some events we hope to hold before the end of the year.