To receive a download link for the new report, Sustaining philanthropy for journalism, please complete and submit the form at the end of this article.

Local Media Association is pleased to announce a new report from the LMA Advanced Fundraising Lab on best practices to sustain philanthropy as one source of funding for essential civic journalism. 

The Lab for Journalism Funding was launched in September 2020 with support from Google News Initiative. Since its inception, the lab has trained more than 100 news organizations in best practices for seeking philanthropic support for local reporting projects. As part of the initial six-month cohort, LMA published Pathways to Philanthropy, a 42-page industry report documenting the learnings from newsrooms who completed the introductory lab. By the end of 2023, newsrooms that had completed the lab had collectively raised more than $22 million to fund local journalism. 

Since then, LMA has added two advanced cohorts, working with 16 newsrooms to develop deeper and more sustained philanthropy strategies. This new report from the LMA Advanced Fundraising Lab describes the significant changes in the landscape for philanthropic support for local news since 2020, and adds detailed case studies about the ways local newsrooms have sustained philanthropy as an ongoing source of support for essential civic journalism. 

Here are the key highlights from this 51-page report:

  • Philanthropic support for local journalism is growing, including increased support by traditional funders of journalism as well as funders that are new to journalism. 
  • While funders continue to prefer to support nonprofit news organizations, there is a strong trend toward also supporting for-profit local news organizations where those outlets have a record of civic journalism.
  • Multiple new national efforts have sprung up to support local journalism recently, from the American Journalism Project to the National Trust for Local News to, most notably, the establishment of Press Forward, a network of funders committed to investing up to $1 billion into the local news ecosystem over the next five years.
  • Evidence of community and local funder support is expected by any national funder, and this local support is also considered more sustaining and reliable.
  • The LMA Lab for Journalism Funding has trained more than 100 newsrooms in ways to gain philanthropic support for journalism from both local and national funders. By the end of 2023, those newsrooms had collectively raised more than $22 million for their journalism. 
  • Best practices from the lab, detailed in that report, include:
    • Start with strategic community listening to identify essential community needs.
    • Develop a plan for a journalism response to address that need and drive impact.
    • Prepare a proposal that includes: the problem to be solved, the community affected, the plan or journalism response, the resources needed, expected impacts, and examples of past reporting that drove community impact.
  • Sustaining philanthropic support over time requires a strategic, ongoing donor cultivation effort including small- and community-donor programs, individual high-capacity donors, community foundations and local funders, local donor events and national funding sources.
  • Stewardship is an essential component of a sustainable strategy to support journalism through philanthropy, including ongoing donor communication as well as events, both as direct fundraisers but also as a method of stewardship.
  • Impact is the “secret sauce” of local journalism. Documenting and telling the story of journalism’s impact is a key component to securing and sustaining philanthropic support for journalism. 

Interested in reading the full report? Please complete and submit this form to receive a download link for the free 51-page Local Media Association report, Sustaining Philanthropy for Journalism.