Zane Schwartz

Zane Schwartz is founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Investigative Journalism Foundation, a Toronto non-profit newsroom he launched in 2023 to pair public-records databases with investigative reporting, following an earlier career at the National Post, Maclean's and the Calgary Herald.

Based in Toronto, ON Org Investigative Journalism Foundation Role Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Notable work and positions

Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Editor-in-Chief
Canadian Association of Journalists — National Chair (volunteer)
National Post, Maclean's, The Logic, Calgary Herald, Toronto Star — former staff journalist

Biography

Zane Schwartz is an investigative journalist who worked on staff at the Calgary Herald, Maclean's, the National Post, The Logic and the Toronto Star before founding the Investigative Journalism Foundation. In 2017, as the Michelle Lang Fellow in Journalism, he built a searchable database of five million political donations, identifying the biggest donors in every Canadian province and territory for the first time; the project won a Data Journalism Award from the Global Editors Network in 2018. He won the Goff Penny Award, given to the best young newspaper journalist in Canada, in both 2017 and 2018, and in 2019 won the Project of the Year award from the National Newspaper Awards and was named Best Young Journalist by the Canadian chapter of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Schwartz founded the Investigative Journalism Foundation, a Toronto-based non-profit newsroom, launching it in early 2023 as a Canadian outlet focused on turning public records — on political donations, lobbying, procurement and access-to-information releases — into searchable databases alongside original investigative reporting; he has described the model as “ProPublica meets OpenSecrets.” He serves as the organization's chief executive officer and editor-in-chief, and the IJF regularly partners with outlets including CBC, CTV News, the National Post and The Walrus on longform investigative projects. Under his leadership, the IJF was named the sixth most innovative media company in the world by Fast Company in 2025, and its work has won a Canadian Online Publishing Award for investigative continuing coverage, a silver Anthem Award in the Human and Civil Rights category for its residential school database, and a Canadian Association of Journalists gold award for crime and justice reporting.

Schwartz also serves as the volunteer national chair of the Canadian Association of Journalists. In that role, he founded and leads the organization's annual diversity survey, co-leads its mentorship program, and contributes to its press freedom advocacy, including efforts to free jailed journalists.

Career highlights

1. Founding the Investigative Journalism Foundation, 2023 Launched the Toronto-based non-profit newsroom combining public-records databases with investigative reporting, described as bringing a “ProPublica meets OpenSecrets” model to Canada.

2. Political donations database, 2017–2018 Built a searchable database of five million Canadian political donations as the Michelle Lang Fellow in Journalism, winning a Global Editors Network Data Journalism Award.

3. National Newspaper Awards Project of the Year, 2019 Recognized for his investigative reporting; the same year he was named Best Young Journalist by SABEW Canada.

4. National Chair, Canadian Association of Journalists Leads the CAJ's annual diversity survey and co-leads its mentorship program on a volunteer basis.