About Young America’s Foundation

Young America’s Foundation is committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.

As the principal outreach organization of the Conservative Movement, the Foundation introduces thousands of American youth to these principles by providing essential conferences, seminars, educational materials, internships, and speakers to young people across the country.

Young America’s Foundation has a deep relationship with President Reagan. The foundation stepped forward to save President Reagan’s Western White House, Rancho del Cielo, in the spring of 1998 to preserve it as a living monument to Ronald Reagan to pass on his ideas to future generations. President Reagan committed himself to reach young people with his ideas—a goal that is also central to the Foundation’s mission.

The Foundation has several important centers and departments, including Rancho Del Cielo, The Reagan Ranch Center, Reagan’s Boyhood Home, the National Journalism Center, Young Americans for Freedom, and Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise, etc.

About the YAF National Journalism Center

Since 1977, the National Journalism Center has trained aspiring journalists in the values of responsible, balanced, and accurate reporting.

The NJC offers an intense, 12-week in-person paid internship in the nation’s capital, training aspiring reporters in the fundamentals of responsible, fearless, and truth-seeking journalism. The internship combines on-the-job training with once-weekly seminars featuring off-the-record briefings with distinguished journalists, public policy experts, and lawmakers.

At the NJC, students spend an average of 30 hours weekly gaining practical, hands-on journalism experience at designated media work placements throughout the D.C. area. NJC students are matched with print, broadcast, or online media outlets based on the individual student’s interests and skills. Potential placements include the Hill, the Federalist, the Washington Examiner, Townhall, National Review, the Daily Caller, and many more. The NJC provides a generous $1,500 tax-free monthly stipend. A housing scholarship of up to $500 is also available for qualified candidates. The internships are full-time, five days a week.

About The Dao Prize

The Dao Prize, funded by the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation and launched in conjunction with Young America’s Foundation’s National Journalism Center (NJC), is an annual award founded to recognize excellence in investigative journalism. Dao Prize-winning journalism stands out for accuracy and courage.

The Dao Prize will be judged by an independent prize committee and a guest judge, which will cast secret ballots after a round of debate and discussion. Forms will be signed and preserved. Judges will have no subsequent interaction with applicants in regard to their submissions outside the form itself, with the exception of logistical questions. A judge cannot vote for a story from their own news outlet, or for a story they worked on personally.

Entries will be evaluated on five key criteria: investigative depth, public interest, fairness and accuracy, style, and impact.

Winners will then be announced at a celebratory dinner held in Washington, D.C.

Now the Dao Prize has 6 awards and $170,000 award bonus in Total.

The Best Overall Reporting or Series Winners will be awarded $100,000.

Two finalists for the Best Overall Reporting or Series will receive $10,000 each.

The Annual Special Award Winners will receive $30,000.

The Best Multimedia Journalism Award Winners will receive $10,000. 

The Best Local Journalism Award Winners will be awarded $10,000 as well.

It is available to all American media outlets, including print, broadcast, podcast, Substack, etc.

About the Grants

In 2023, the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation partnered with the Young America’s Foundation’s National Journalism Center, committing to provide a 10-year grant of at least $300,000 per year to honor truth-seeking investigative journalists. The Bedrock Foundation joined as a co-funding partner in 2024.

From 2023 to 2025, the Foundation awarded $930,000 in grants and facilitated an additional $90,000 from the Bedrock Foundation, for a total of $1,020,000.

Why We Founded The Dao Prize

As public trust in the media has fallen to historic lows, the Foundation and YAF’s NJC, after joint discussions, believe it is necessary to recognize investigative journalists who pursue truth through powerful investigative reporting.

As Christian Chinese immigrants, Dao Feng He and Angela have a profound and painful understanding of politically correct ideology shaped by fake news. Dao Feng realized that defending the roots of universal values must begin with “seeking truth,” with Christ as the cornerstone. In collaboration with YAF, the NJC’s projects that inspire college students to seek truth motivated him to think about how to cooperate in establishing the Dao Prize to reward the truth-seeking courage and wise practice of investigative journalists that the current journalism industry urgently needs. This is not only about safeguarding the Constitution but also about correcting the distortion of universal values by politically correct labels and returning to the Christian rock upon which those values are founded through the Constitution.

The Dao Feng and Angela Foundation is passionate about this prize and firmly believes that, for the United States to uphold its constitutional principles, elected officials must bear the political responsibility they promised voters, and NPOs and philanthropists in the public sphere must fulfill their public social responsibilities. For this purpose, courageous, determined, and intelligent investigative journalists who seek the truth are indispensable. The Dao Prize aims to reward these courageous and intelligent journalists who seek the truth and to give them public recognition that is often overlooked by society.

Mr. Dao Feng He shared more his stories and thoughts about why he decided to initiate the Dao Prize in two articles as below:

Is it time for an alternative to the Pulitzer Prize?

My Suffering in Communist China Taught Me the Importance of a Free Press in America

The Inaugural Winner of the Dao Prize

On November 2, 2023, Young America’s Foundation’s prestigious National Journalism Center in partnership with the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation is proud to announce the inaugural winner of the Dao Prize – the Twitter Files.

Through their tireless, truth-seeking reporting, Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, and Michael Shellenberger have demonstrated the power and importance of courageous journalism.

Finalists for the Dao Prize also included Aaron Sibarium of the Washington Free Beacon and Joseph Simonson and Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon.

“The inaugural Dao Prize was a roaring success and a giant step forward for America’s broken media. NJC is so eager to bring the values of good old-fashioned investigative reporting back to an industry that desperately needs it,” said Emily Jashinsky, previous Director of the National Journalism Center.

“I could not be more grateful that you’ve chosen to create such a significant new prize for old-school, fact-based reporting,” Matt Taibbi said during his acceptance speech, “The journalism profession has become hopelessly politicized in recent years. Editors now care more about narrative than fact, and as many of the people in this room know, there are now fairly extreme penalties for failing to toe party lines. This begins with pressures within the business to conform and continues with algorithmic targeting of advertisers of the sort that the Washington Examiner and its excellent reporter Gabe Kaminsky, who’s here tonight, reported on.”

“It’s my hope and belief that the DAO Prize, by giving such work recognition, can help begin the process of bringing suppressed factual journalism out of the basement. It’s my hope journalists will someday look back at this moment as a turning point.” Matt Taibbi said.

The full speech can be read here or watched on YAF’s YouTube channel.

2024 Dao Prize

In 2024, inspired by the 2023 applications, the Dao Prize added two categories of the awards: Multimedia and Local Journalism.

“NJC is honored to expand on the successful Dao Prize by recognizing tireless local and multimedia journalists whose truth-seeking work too often goes unrewarded. This is a transformational addition, not only for the Dao Prize, but for the media at large,” said Emily Jashinsky, previous director of the National Journalism Center. “Reporters around the country can now take comfort in knowing the Dao Prize is eager to support their bold pursuit of local and multimedia journalism that challenges power.”

In 2024, the National Journalism Center was excited to welcome Miranda Devine as a guest judge alongside the Board’s other esteemed panelists. Devine is an Australian journalist whose work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, Sky News, and Fox News. Most recently she conducted reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop for the NY Post and authored a best-selling book on the topic, Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide.

The second annual Dao Prize was awarded on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics won the Second Best Overall Reporting Dao Prize.

Crabtree was nominated for her investigative coverage of the United States Secret Service, especially her reporting on the fallout from the first assassination attempt on President-elect Donald Trump. Her deeply sourced coverage revealed an agency reeling from mismanagement and political gamesmanship, each placing the public and high-profile figures in harm’s way. For her first-place finish, Crabtree received $100,000 in prize winnings.

“What she uncovered directly impugned the Secret Service’s motto, ‘Worthy of Trust and Confidence,’” said RealClearPolitics’s Washington editor Carl Cannon. “What her reporting showed is that the Secret Service, just like other once revered federal agencies, including the FBI, has fallen prey to political forces. This is an agency with an annual budget exceeding $3 billion with a single overarching mission: Protect the president, former presidents, and future presidents — and their families.”

He added, “Yet this series is not just about Donald Trump. The Secret Service’s inept leadership and the fallout over its misplaced priorities put our Republic at risk.”

Runners-up for the Second Annual Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism included the Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky, who was nominated for his coverage of a Biden White House executive order that allowed partisan nonprofits to influence voter turnout, and the Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli, who was nominated for her exceptional firsthand, on-the-ground reporting on the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Runners-up were awarded $10,000 each.

In addition to the main prize winner and runners-up, the Dao Prize launched two new categories for its second year. The Dallas Morning News won first place and was awarded $10,000 for the “best local journalism” category for producing “Bleeding Out: A Public Health Crisis in the American Trauma System.” The investigative series by Ari Sen, Lauren Caruba, and Smiley Pool exposed critical gaps in trauma care, revealing that many lives could be saved with better access to blood transfusions in the field.

The Dallas Morning News also took first place and the $10,000 prize in the “best multimedia reporting” category for its series “Deadly Fake: 30 Days Inside Fentanyl’s Grip on North Texas.” This series by Claire Ballor, Maggie Prosser, Sharon Grigsby, and Tom Fox produced 30 days’ worth of stories exposing the full scope and reality of the fentanyl epidemic gripping north Texas.

2025 Dao Prize

2025 Dao Prize has received 152 applications from 71 applicants and 31 newsrooms. By the end of September 2025, Independent Committee members has completed pre-selection process. They volunteered to read the full packet of applications, which includes more than 4000 pages paperwork and hundreds of videos, and narrowed it down to 24 finalists. The list of 24 finalists has been announced here.

A big difference this year is the addition of the Annual Special Award (2025 annual topic is DOGE) with the bonus of $30,000.

The 2025 Dao Prize Award Banquet was held on November 19, 2025 in Washington D.C.

The National Journalism Center of Young America’s Foundation and the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation are honored to announce The Federalist as winners of the third annual Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism, awarded Wednesday evening in Washington, D.C.

The Federalist‘s team was nominated for its standout reporting series on the Russia collusion hoax, including an in-depth look at the declassification and release of key evidence from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The outlet’s exceptional, deeply-sourced coverage detailed how members of the intelligence community, government agencies, and corporate media outlets manufactured the Russiagate hoax in a coordinated effort to undermine President Trump. For its first-place finish for Best Overall Reporting or Series, staff at The Federalist received $100,000 in prize winnings.

“The Federalist‘s superb reporting on the Russia collusion hoax epitomized everything we look for in a Dao Prize winner,” said YAF Chief Communications Officer Spencer Brown. “In its relentless pursuit of the truth, staff at The Federalist helped expose widespread corruption at the highest levels of power, politics, and news. We are honored to recognize their efforts and help fuel more groundbreaking investigative reporting.”

• Best Overall Reporting or Series, Runner Up: Ashley Rindsberg at Pirate Wires for his series, “The Ideological Capture of Wikipedia.” He received $10,000 in prize winnings. 
  
  
• Best Overall Reporting or Series, Runner Up: Katelynn Richardson and Megan Brock at The Daily Caller News Foundation for their series on gender ideology in the Biden Administration. They received $10,000 in prize winnings. 
  
  
• Best “DOGE” Reporting (Annual Special Award), Winner: Luke Rosiak at The Daily Wire for his report on a small federal agency that spent taxpayer money on vacations, self-portraits, and other luxuries. Rosiak is the first-ever winner of the “DOGE” Reporting category on government waste, launched this year. He received $30,000 in prize winnings. 
  
  
• Best Local Journalism, Winner: Tom Pappert, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Christina Botteri at The Tennessee Star for their series on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s infamous traffic stop that led to human smuggling charges. They received $10,000 in prize winnings. 
  
  
• Best Multimedia Reporting, Winner: Steven Robinson and Graham Pollard at The Maine Wire for their print and video series on the Chinese mafia’s infiltration of rural America. They received $10,000 in prize winnings.

The Dao Feng and Angela Foundation and the National Journalism Center are grateful to everyone who submitted reporting for the third annual award.

The Application

Journalists and publications are welcome to submit as many applications for consideration as they like. The full rules for entry are located on the application. Applications are available at njc.yaf.org/DaoPrize, and all applications must be signed and approved by an editor from the publication. All mediums will be considered, including print, broadcast, podcast, Substack, etc.

Please visit The Dao Prize Website to download the form or submit application online.