Malditas Accounts: Where our income comes from and how we spend it

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.

Today, we are a non-profit foundation (you can read our foundation bylaws here), thanks to the supporters who backed our 2019 crowdfunding campaign. At the same time, we continue to operate as an association (you can read the association bylaws here). We maintain both entities because the association was already running long-term projects that cannot be closed abruptly. Gradually, we are transferring staff and projects to the foundation, with the goal of eventually closing the association.

At the end of 2021, following the success of our WhatsApp chatbot, we created a limited company fully owned by the foundation to provide this tool to other media outlets and organizations. The company is called Botalite SL. It has developed chatbot systems for more than 20 organizations worldwide. It has not distributed dividends, so this will not appear in our accounts. You can read our Investment Code here.

Every year, we publish the association’s financial balance and the foundation’s audited accounts.

Below, we explain where our income comes from and how we are using it in 2025 (updated as of June). Once the accounts are formally approved and submitted, we will publish the full financial statements.

Malditas income 2025 (updated June)

Our income is diversified. For clarity, we have grouped it into the following categories:

MALDIT@S (Community Supporters)

This includes contributions from ambassadors and community members who financially support Maldita.es. This is our most important source of income, the one that truly sustains the project. You can learn more at comunidad.maldita.es. You can also contribute with your “superpowers” (volunteering your expertise here).

Media Collaborations

We collaborate with different media outlets to expand the reach of our journalism:

• Julia en la Onda (Onda Cero)

• Radio Castilla-La Mancha

• Caiga quien caiga (Cuatro)

• Malas Lenguas (RTVE La 2)

Maldita Educa (Education)

Philanthropy and Grants

As a non-profit organization dedicated to journalistic innovation and to building tools that serve citizens, each year we seek funding from philanthropic entities and organizations that believe in the fight against disinformation to support our work. This year, we have received support from:

• Maldito Clima: With the support of the European Climate Foundation, we continue to maintain Maldita.es’ climate vertical, placing climate change and its impact on everyday life at the center of public debate while fighting climate disinformation. We will also conduct longer-term investigations into climate disinformation, its actors and networks.
• EnRédate JyD: With the support of Fundación Jóvenes y Desarrollo (JyD), Maldita.es participates in a monitoring lab focused on racist and xenophobic hate speech narratives linked to youth. The project tracks disinformation content related to migration shared on the main social media platforms used by young people. In addition, Maldita.es will host a webinar for teachers, educators and university students to provide tools to detect disinformation and hoaxes.
• Agencia Maldita: Maldita.es has been selected by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to receive a grant from the Global Fact Check Fund to advance our content distribution strategy across additional channels. Launched in January, this project aims to position the organization as a reliable source of verified information for other platforms and media outlets in the Spanish-speaking world. Through this grant, Maldita.es facilitates access to verified content for other media organizations, mainly local and regional outlets. As of June, the agency has more than 190 registered journalists from 120 media outlets in 16 countries and has published over 500 news pieces on its website.
• SoJo Europe: Maldita.es has been selected, together with nine other European newsrooms, to join the first SoJo Europe programme, an initiative designed to promote solutions journalism across the continent. With this support, we published the investigation “Before, During and After: The Complex Puzzle That Must Be Solved to Protect Against Floods.”
• FIMI-ISAC Elections (FDEI Project): The FDEI project is an international initiative led by European organizations that are part of FIMI-ISAC and funded by Google.org. Its goal is to protect democratic integrity during electoral processes against disinformation threats and foreign interference. Active from January 2025 to March 2026, the project creates rapid response teams (FRTs), develops data analysis tools (DST), designs in-person and online training sessions, and produces operational handbooks to establish a FIMI defense community capable of monitoring, reporting and effectively countering disinformation campaigns in real time. Maldita.es is responsible for disseminating and promoting the project’s results and connecting them with European institutional and political stakeholders.
• AC/DC – Argument Checking vs Disinformation Content during Climate Emergencies and Crises: This project, led by Fundación Maldita.es in collaboration with the University of Navarra, proposes an innovative evolution of traditional fact-checking by introducing the “argument-checking” methodology. Instead of verifying isolated facts, this technique analyzes the structure, logic and credibility of arguments that sustain disinformation narratives, especially in climate crisis contexts. Maldita.es will design a practical methodology for argument verification, developing several prototypes to be tested within our fact-checking formats, focusing on climate disinformation. Their effectiveness will be tested with users and evaluated by the University of Navarra. The project lasts six months and concludes in the second half of 2025.
• Pop Fascism: With the support of Journalism Fund, Maldita.es and Facta.news lead an investigation examining how, in Spain and Italy, social media users are turning dictators such as Franco or Mussolini into pop icons. The project studies the tactics used to spread these messages and how they evade platform moderation. With a focus on young audiences and a strong transnational component, it aims to raise awareness about the risks this trend poses to historical memory and democracy.
• European Youth Forum: Factous, our youth-focused project, has been selected to cover the European Youth Forum 2025, to be held on 13–14 June in Strasbourg. This biennial event brings together thousands of young people from across Europe to debate, interact with Members of the European Parliament and learn about EU initiatives. Factous will develop a digital communication strategy aimed at bringing the EU closer to young people aged 18 to 30 through educational social media content.
• Cross-border disinformation campaigns between Eastern Europe, Eurasia and Latin America: With the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the project expanded its partner network to include Fake News Tragaç and Raskrikavanje.rs from Serbia, and Raskrinkavanje.ba from Bosnia. Maldita.es, together with ten fact-checking organizations from five European countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Serbia and Bosnia) and four Latin American countries (Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico), will study and analyze cross-border disinformation campaigns circulating through private messaging apps until October.
• Short and Effective Media Literacy Service (SEMS Europe): With the support of Porticus, Maldita.es, together with deCheckers, Correctiv and The Guardian Foundation, will develop and test five media literacy courses delivered through WhatsApp chatbots in three countries, including focus groups and evaluation.
• Data Model Project: Funded by the Google News Initiative, Maldita.es and Full Fact co-lead this project to explore a useful data model to train AI systems to recognize disinformation. The goal is to build a data standard that fact-checkers can use anywhere in the world. Partners include Boom, Chequeado and Africa Check.
• NARRADisinfo: Narrative and AI Responses for Resilience Against Disinformation: Maldita.es was awarded one of the grants provided by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to develop AI-driven solutions. We worked on innovations in our narrative monitoring panel to improve identification using generative AI, strengthening our fact-checkers’ ability to tackle disinformation narratives. The project lasted six months and concluded in March 2025.
• AI-Assistant for Fact-Checkers: Fundación Maldita.es has been selected by the JournalismAI Innovation Challenge, an international initiative supported by the Google News Initiative, to develop an artificial intelligence assistant aimed at increasing the efficiency and accuracy of daily verification processes. The foundation was chosen alongside 35 organizations worldwide from more than 700 applications across 22 countries. The tool uses technologies that allow rapid exploration of large volumes of content, detection of disinformation patterns, connection of new claims with previous debunks, and suggestions of relevant experts and optimal response formats.

Technology Partnerships

Our services are contracted by several technology companies with the aim of reducing the impact of disinformation on their platforms.

• Meta: Since 2019, Maldita.es has been part of Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program. Meta pays us to fact-check content that is going viral on its platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Threads) in order to combat disinformation. We independently decide what to fact-check and how to fact-check it, based on our methodology. Meta has no editorial control over this process.
• WhatsApp: Since launching our automated WhatsApp chatbot, the company has paid us for the service we provide to its users, responding to queries about content that may contain disinformation. WhatsApp does not have access to the messages users send us.
• Google Showcase: We provide Google Showcase with the three most important news stories of the day, every day of the week.

PUBLIC TENDERS AND GRANTS

Public funding or funding from publicly financed entities received by Fundación Maldita.es is always awarded through competitive calls and never allows any influence over our editorial content.

• European Union: We currently run several projects partially funded by programmes and directorates of the European Commission.
• Iberifier+: In May, the second phase of the Iberian Digital Media Observatory Iberifier began with a meeting of its members in Pamplona (Navarra). Fundación Maldita.es continues to be part of the consortium, which has become the largest Iberian digital media observatory since its creation in 2021. Iberifier has focused on researching, analysing and debunking disinformation, as well as promoting best practices in critical information consumption. In its second phase, running until 2026, it will extend these activities to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, while coordinating with other observatories promoted by the European Commission across the 27 EU Member States under the umbrella of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO).
• EU Hybnet: A five-year project led by two Finnish institutions — Laurea University of Applied Sciences and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats — bringing together 23 organisations from 16 countries to conduct comprehensive research aimed at detecting, preparing for and countering potential hybrid threats affecting EU countries.
• Erasmus Youth Participation Activities: With EU support, we organised an event for 80 university students on media literacy in relation to climate change, gender and migration. Funding runs until 2025.
• AI4TRUST: Fundación Maldita.es is one of 17 organisations participating in the European project AI4TRUST (AI-based Technologies for Trustworthy Solutions Against Disinformation), led by Fondazione Bruno Kessler. Its main goal is to build a technological platform capable of detecting potential disinformation in real time by combining technology and human expertise. The project runs for three years.
• Active Citizen for People and Planet!: A project aimed at promoting public discussions and civic action related to climate change and the environment. Led by Oxfam Intermón under the European Commission’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme, it started in September 2023. Maldita.es participated alongside six other organisations, running a campaign enabling citizens to report potential disinformation, debunk misleading content and host Twitch programmes on climate change featuring experts. The project concluded in early 2025.
• ATHENA: Maldita.es is one of 14 organisations and institutes contributing to the detection and analysis of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and its impact on democracy. The project runs for three years.
• MigraVoice: Migrant Voices Matter in the European Media: Coordinated by Maldita.es together with five leading European media organisations producing content in seven languages, the project seeks to amplify migrant voices and perspectives within Europe. It will establish a cross-border expert community of migrant background professionals — the MigraVoice Superpower Community — serving as a platform to connect their expertise with European media content. A temporary newsroom of 15 journalists with migrant backgrounds will also produce content across multiple formats and platforms. In parallel, European journalists will strengthen their inclusive journalism skills to promote more representative media narratives.
• QYourself: Question What You Receive. Media Literacy to Combat Disinformation: A project designed to raise awareness among European citizens about the need to verify information before sharing it. It provides teachers and educators from diverse backgrounds with knowledge, tools and teaching materials to bring media and information literacy into classrooms. Fundación Maldita.es contributes its expertise in media literacy, supporting tool development and coordinating communication and dissemination activities. The project is funded by Erasmus+ and led by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).
• FactCRICIS: Maldita.es is part of the FactCRICIS consortium, led by the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN). The project aims to strengthen European fact-checking organisations’ capacity to respond to crisis situations, particularly by identifying and debunking climate-related disinformation campaigns and fostering faster, more coordinated responses across Europe.
• MALAGRI: Maldita Agricultura is a multiplatform, evidence-based information campaign targeting young urban audiences (under 30) in Spain to promote better understanding of national and European agriculture. With EU support, Maldita.es produces evidence-based journalism to counter disinformation and misconceptions about the agricultural sector.
• 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 critical media skills and resilience against misinformation and disinformation. The project includes workshops, video games and a toolkit designed to help older adults avoid falling for disinformation.
• ISPA COHESION: Maldita.es, together with El Orden Mundial and elDiario.es, participates in a national campaign to redefine public understanding of EU cohesion policy. Funded by the European Commission, the project includes newsletters, weekly briefings and live-streamed events. Maldita.es contributes its articles to support the fight against disinformation about EU cohesion policy.
• HATEDEMICS: Maldita.es joins 11 other organisations from Italy, Spain, Malta and Estonia in this EU co-funded project aimed at strengthening preventive and reactive measures against online hate speech and disinformation. It seeks to empower NGOs, fact-checkers, public authorities and young people to effectively prevent and counter polarisation and racist, xenophobic and intolerant narratives. The project will develop and test the HATEDEMICS platform, an AI-based tool to improve user responses to hate speech and disinformation, complemented by interactive training and educational pathways.
• Infoodmation: Coordinated by EUFIC, this project aims to improve understanding of how traditional media, social media and marketing influence food consumption habits in terms of health and sustainability. Maldita.es will coordinate the evaluation of the spread and effects of food-related disinformation and design response recommendations. The three-year project begins in January 2025 and is funded by the European Union.
• More Correct Information, Less Discrimination (MIILD): Fundación Maldita.es participates in this EU co-funded project aimed at improving media coverage of migrants, refugees and racialised communities to reduce disinformation and hate speech. Led by the Italian organisation Lunaria, MIILD will train journalists, journalism students and civil society activists in Italy, Malta, Greece and Spain to identify, expose and counter disinformation and discriminatory narratives related to migration and racism through accurate, fact-based reporting.
• ENDGAME: Escaping New Disinformation through Gamified Cross-border Media Literacy Education: Led by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), this European project seeks to help young people develop critical thinking and responsible digital citizenship through educational escape rooms simulating real-life information consumption scenarios. Young people from Finland, Serbia and Spain will learn to recognise online disinformation. The project runs for 24 months, from March 2025 to February 2027.
• Ask Europe: A European project led by Agence France-Presse (AFP) aimed at facilitating EU citizens’ access to reliable information about European institutions and Member States. Supported by the European Union, it runs from March 2025 to February 2027 through a digital platform developed by a consortium of 15 European organisations. Maldita.es will produce explanatory content in multiple formats and coordinate the social media strategy.
• Europe Aid Georgia – SAFIMI: “Georgian Society Against Disinformation, Foreign Information Manipulation and Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour” (SAFIMI) is an international project co-funded by the European Union under the NDICI – Global Europe programme. It aims to strengthen resilience against disinformation in Georgia between 2025 and 2027 through research, training, multilingual journalism and support for local actors. Fundación Maldita.es will coordinate and prepare media literacy educational materials and contribute to technological development improvements for participating Georgian organisations.

OTHER

Industrial PhD: Fundación Maldita.es currently hosts a computer engineer who is carrying out her research as part of an Industrial PhD programme with the University of Granada. To support this, the foundation receives a public grant that covers part of the PhD candidate’s salary, allowing her to dedicate time to her research in close collaboration with social and business stakeholders.

PROJECTS

At Maldita.es, we work with companies and foundations to produce informative content aimed at countering disinformation across different fields. In all these agreements, every piece of content produced strictly follows our own editorial criteria and methodology.

• Factchequeado: An initiative created by Fundación Maldita.es and the Argentine outlet Chequeado to build a community of Hispanics and Latinos to counter Spanish-language disinformation in the United States. Both organisations continue to collaborate on this project.
• Eroski Consumer: Maldita.es collaborates with Eroski Consumer, an editorial project of Fundación EROSKI, with the shared goal of disseminating reliable and useful information on health, nutrition and food safety. Over a six-month period, Maldita.es produces one monthly article and video on these topics, which Eroski Consumer publishes on its website. Both organisations also share the content on their Instagram, X and Facebook accounts. All content produced for this project strictly follows Maldita.es’ editorial criteria and methodology.

RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY

We believe that fighting disinformation requires action on all possible fronts. For this reason, Maldita.es signs agreements with consultancies and non-profit organisations interested in our expertise and content.

• MOEVE Consultancy: Maldita.es conducts an independent audit consultancy to analyse the potential risk of greenwashing in the company’s communications. To do so, we have designed our own independent methodology to rigorously assess the transparency and accuracy of the messages issued. In addition, we produce periodic reports analysing disinformation narratives related to climate and energy circulating in Spain, thereby helping to strengthen information integrity in these areas.
• EFCSN – Pre-bunking at Scale: Fundación Maldita.es will be one of the organisations providing disinformation data on short-form videos for the “Pre-bunking at Scale” project, led by the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN), with technological development by Full Fact and Fundación Maldita.es.
• Information Diets – University of Barcelona: The CCSINOFYOUTH project aims 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 collaborate on designing disinformation-related modules for the survey, developing experimental stimuli and identifying algorithmic biases, contributing its technological and educational expertise.