July 27, 2022 — Local Media Association has named the nine news organizations that will participate in its Advanced Fundraising Lab, launching in September. These nine newsrooms have distinguished themselves by their combination of prior success at fundraising and their track record of journalism on behalf of the communities they serve.
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Miami Herald
- Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut)
- The Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina)
- The Seattle Times
- Tampa Bay Times
- The Texas Tribune
- The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (U.K.)
- The Times-Picayune | The Advocate (Louisiana)
The advanced lab will build on the lessons and success of 36 newsrooms that completed the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, raising collectively more than $10 million since September 2020 to fund local journalism projects. LMA published a free 42-page industry report, Pathways to Philanthropy, to capture and share these learnings. The Lab for Journalism Funding and the new Advanced Fundraising Lab are free to participating publishers thanks to continued support from Google News Initiative.
“LMA’s Lab for Journalism Funding has done an amazing job helping local newsrooms learn how to incorporate philanthropy as one way of funding essential local journalism,” said Chrissy Towle, head of Americas News Partnership at Google. “The program has directly helped dozens of newsrooms fund their reporting, and many more newsrooms have benefited from LMA’s Pathways to Philanthropy industry report. We’re excited to see this new cohort of top-performing newsrooms develop the next level of best practices that can be scaled across the local news industry to ensure a sustainable, healthy local information ecosystem.”
The group of nine publishers in the LMA Advanced Fundraising Lab will receive training and one-on-one coaching from category experts in sustainable philanthropy strategy, and share learnings and best practices for donor development and stewardship with each other. Frank Mungeam, who heads the Lab for Journalism Funding as LMA chief innovation officer, will lead the Advanced Fundraising Lab, and is joined by coaches Joaquin Alvarado and Joanne Heyman.
“Across our country, we are seeing more and more examples where funders and leading local news organizations align around a ‘unity of purpose’ focused on community service and trustworthy information,” Mungeam said. “We’re excited to use this powerful cohort learning format to help publishers who’ve had initial fundraising success develop and mature their strategies for sustaining journalism essential to their communities.”
As with the Lab for Journalism Funding, LMA will publish an industry report from the Advanced Fundraising Lab to share and scale the lessons learned by this cohort.
Meet the Cohort
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“In our profession, we’ve always looked to each other for ideas on how to learn and improve. Whether it be coverage of a breaking news story or the launch of a fascinating podcast – there are so many lessons to be learned from the innovative work happening in newsrooms across the country. This cohort continues that long tradition, and I am thrilled we have the chance to listen, learn and be inspired by news organizations blazing a new path with philanthropy.”
— Jaime Sarrio McMurtrie, director of development and community relations, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (U.K.)
“This is a fascinating, instructive and enabling approach to learning. I am thrilled at this peer-to-peer approach alongside such highly esteemed peers and to gain knowledge and insight from the LMA.”
— Rozina Breen, CEO and editor-in-chief, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
The Post and Courier
“The Post and Courier is excited to build on the fundraising strength we have achieved to date, providing a more in-depth knowledge of donor retention, identifying new funding resources, increasing our funnels and providing an excellent stewardship experience for current contributors.”
— Robie Scott, director of development and community relations, The Post and Courier
Record-Journal
“Participating in the Lab for Journalism Funding in September 2020 was truly transformative for our company, allowing us to confidently add philanthropic funding for journalism as a fifth strategic growth pillar for our company. We are thrilled to now participate in the Advanced Fundraising Lab to take our funding strategies to the next level, to create long-term sustainability for this pillar, to help us support providing trusted, local journalism for our community into the future, and to help us remain family owned and operated.”
— Liz White, president and publisher, Record-Journal
The Seattle Times
“After a decade of building our community-funded initiatives, we are grateful to be collaborating with local publishers that are doing this same work. The partnership, ideas and shared enthusiasm for this area is energizing and we’re really looking forward to it.”
— Kati Erwert, senior vice president of product, marketing and public service, The Seattle Times
Tampa Bay Times
“The future of local news requires fresh thinking, an entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to adapt to new approaches. Our experience with the first LMA Lab for Journalism Funding provided us with the insights and network to expand our philanthropic strategies and to learn from the experiences of our colleagues across the country. From my involvement, I hope to continue to forge pathways to sustainability for local news together.”
— Annica Keeler, director of development and community relations, Tampa Bay Times
The Texas Tribune
“We are very excited to participate in this cohort to develop more peer relationships and explore new or better ways to expand how we go about raising major gifts.”
– Terry Quinn, chief development officer, The Texas Tribune
The Times-Picayune | The Advocate
“After successfully raising funds to add four reporters to our investigative team, we need to develop strategies to sustain our fundraising model and continue to augment our reporting ranks. We are excited to be a part of this important cohort along with the leading publishers in the fundraising space.”
— Judi Terzotis, president and publisher, The Times-Picayune | The Advocate | NOLA.com
Read past case studies from the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding.
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