After two decades of supporting journalists to cover crucial under-reported issues across the world, the International Reporting Project (IRP) has wound up its operations.

John Schidlovsky, Director of IRP, announced the close out in a statement on Wednesday, saying funding for the organisation had fallen.

“Although funding has now fallen short of what we need to run the programme as we would like, for two decades our donors made possible thousands of stories that reached millions of people around the world,” Schidlovsky said.

He expressed happiness that the organisation never accepted funding from government and corporate bodies.

Founded in 1998, the IRP supported 651 journalists through fellowships for international reporting trips.

“After 20 years of supporting journalists to report in more than 115 countries, the International Reporting Project (IRP) is ending its programs effective in February,” Schidlovsky said.

“It’s been an amazing 20 years. When we began IRP in 1998, the idea of sending journalism fellows to do actual international reporting was quite new. So was the concept of using foundation support to pay the costs of in-depth journalism. Today, such support is a vital cog of the future of journalism.”

He thanked the 651 fellows whom the organisation had supported for producing outstanding stories across various media platforms.

He also thanked the donors for sustaining IRP over the years.

Although IRP has officially closed, its website is still active and the stories produced through the fellowships can be read here.