Applications are now open for Local Media Foundation’s 2022 Local News Fund, built to enable grassroots fundraising for journalism. The program will launch on Sept. 1 and run through the end of the year, allowing participating news organizations to capitalize on Giving Tuesday and year-end donations.
This program builds upon our successful COVID-19 Local News Fund which raised $1.74 million to support local coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 Local News Fund, which, while smaller in scope, raised almost $250,000 for 20+ reporting projects.
Examples of successful campaigns from these programs include:
- Manchester Ink Link’s Manchester Rising Reporting Fund which raised almost $16,000 for social justice reporting. A promotional video about the campaign was shared daily in the morning eNews and through Facebook.
- Long Beach Post’s Investigative Reporting Project raised $130,567 for research and investigative reporting coverage of the Queen Mary, a World War II-era ship owned by the City of Long Beach. This campaign utilized a video appeal from the Editor to their subscribers.
- The Houston Defender raised over $100,000 for COVID-19 reporting by leveraging a personal texting campaign.
Participating organizations in the 2022 Local News Fund will pick a critical issue or topic for the fundraising campaign, such as social justice, climate change or healthcare. The important thing is to choose a topic for which coverage is crucial to your community at this moment in time. Talk to key stakeholders before finalizing your topic, unless you already have a journalism project in the works.
The Local Media Foundation team will provide tools, resources, and best practices over the course of the program to help you raise funds to cover essential reporting on important community issues.
We encourage you to read the Frequently Asked Questions, watch the recorded information session (Passcode: B4M!3&1T), and apply today. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
If your organization is new to fundraising, we encourage you to read some of these articles on journalism funded by philanthropy:
- How local news can forge ‘Pathways to Philanthropy’: Lessons from LMA’s Lab for Journalism Funding
- Philanthropy has become a growing revenue stream for local news
- Community foundation support for local journalism is growing
- The Power of listening: 6 Lessons from the Lab for Journalism Funding
- Start with WHY – How The Post and Courier rallied its community to support investigative journalism
Program overview
The 2022 Local News Fund is a program administered by Local Media Foundation (LMF), a 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with Local Media Association. The purpose of the program is to allow independent and family-owned news organizations to solicit tax-deductible donations from their communities for journalism projects that focus on critical local issues.