Meet the winners from Pitch Day for the 2025-2026 national cohort of the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding
One powerful way local news outlets can serve their audiences is by being a community convener and connector. That’s one takeaway from the latest “Pitch Day” from the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, where a panel of funder judges scored journalism projects for their potential community impact.
Since 2020, the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding has been training newsrooms in best practices for developing philanthropy as one way to support essential local news. To date, more than 200 newsrooms have been trained, and they’ve raised more than $38 million to fund local journalism. In February, the latest cohort of 20 newsrooms from across the U.S. completed the Lab by presenting the journalism projects they’ll seek to implement with funding support.
The top pitches all were grounded in deep community listening, a strategic approach to informing and convening their communities and detailed budgets to execute their plans.
Their projects showcased several valuable lessons about making the case for support of local news. Here are five best practices for earning philanthropic support for journalism, as well as the top-voted pitches:
Ground journalism in community listening
Modern local news organizations cannot assume they know what their community needs and values in a news source. This kind of assumption is a mistake of the past that news outlets cannot continue. Deep community listening is the foundation for impactful journalism. Newsrooms are certainly under financial pressure, but the best way to earn community support is to focus on serving and solving community needs.
Harness the power of convening
Beyond just reporting, news organizations have the power to bring people together in their communities. Many newsrooms in this cohort leveraged the power of gathering and connection in their pitches, with projects that included community forums, mentorship opportunities for youth and physical spaces for community members to listen to and learn from each other. When thinking about the superpowers of journalism, don’t be afraid to think beyond reporting.
Show, don’t tell
Whenever possible, show how your journalism has served your community. Illustrate the impact, and give voice to people whose lives have been affected by challenges or solutions in your community. If you can show funders the ways you have shown up in your community, it will be more powerful than just telling them. For example, when you tell a funder that you did community listening, show them a photo of your listening session or quote a person you heard from.
Include a strong budget
Funders want to see the details about where their dollars will go. Give details about how much money you need to put towards each aspect of your project. When you have the opportunity, also highlight how your project fits into your overall financial plan and how you might be able to sustain the project with a revenue model going forward.
Focus on impact
Local news organizations, especially so-called legacy news outlets, have a remarkable story to tell. That includes their history of impact, a level of earned trust in the community and their sizable audience reach. These are the ingredients that make a news organization a great partner for a funder seeking to achieve meaningful outcomes, together. Focusing on specific, measurable outcomes from a project is also an important aspect of a strong pitch for funding.
Congratulations to the newsrooms whose philanthropic journalism projects received the top scores from our panels of funder judges at Pitch Day. This national cohort, and stipends for the top projects, were made possible thanks to support from Knight Foundation. Here are the award-winning presentations, along with judges’ comments about what made these journalism projects worthy of support.
1st place (Morning Session): Our Times Newspaper ($5,000)
Project: Youth Media Lab
Judge feedback: “Your youth-led media pilot is powerful because you’re directly responding to their clearly stated need, and you already have early proof of concept from your current youth contributors.”
1st place (Afternoon Session): The Record North Shore ($5,000)
Project: Youth in Journalism Workshop
Judge feedback: “The Record’s focus on the next generation — and its simple solution — engaging young people in the practice of reporting — stood out.”
2nd place (Morning Session): Street Sense Media ($2,500)
Project: Lived Experience Reporting and Resources Guide
Judge feedback: “Your pairing of journalism students with vendors to co-produce coverage and a resource guide is a distinctive, human-centered model that directly answers your audience’s two biggest asks.”
2nd place (Afternoon Session): Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ($2,500)
Project: Arkansas Health Beat: A Statewide Reporting Lab from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Description: Arkansas consistently ranks among the worst states in the nation for health outcomes, including high rates of food insecurity, maternal and infant mortality, limited access to care and a growing rural health crisis. To help address these challenges, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is launching a reporting lab focused on covering the state’s most pressing health issues.
Through in-depth reporting, community partnerships, public forums and accessible guides, the project aims to better inform Arkansans about the state’s health challenges and solutions, empowering residents to make informed decisions and advocate for improvements in the health system.
Judge feedback: “Great work showing connection to the people who need help … It was very helpful to see the quantity of stories planned, and the budget was extremely detailed which will give a funder confidence in your plan.”
We are grateful to our judges who volunteered their time and valuable feedback at our National Pitch Day. Our judges in the morning session included: Duc Luu from Knight Foundation, Natalia Bergamaschi from Google, Alina Panek from the American Journalism Project and Nancy Lane from Local Media Foundation.
Our judges in the afternoon session included: Natalia Bergamaschi from Google, Paulette Brown-Hinds from Voice Media Ventures and Black Voice News, Jennifer Preston from Preston Strategic Advisors and Julia Campbell from Local Media Foundation.
Congratulations to all the newsrooms who completed the national cohort of the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding. Applications for the next national cohort will be accepted starting in May. For more information, contact nina.joss@localmedia.org.
About the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding:
Since 2020, the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding has trained 214 newsrooms in best practices for earning philanthropic support as one way to fund essential local journalism. Alumni of the lab have collectively raised more than $38 million. Thanks to support from Knight Foundation, the lab trained 20 newsrooms in the 2025-2026 national cohort and expanded its offerings to include an alumni newsletter and webinars. The lab is also possible thanks to sustained support from Google News Initiative.
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