Want to sharpen your pitch for philanthropic support for your newsroom? Try applying the lessons learned from reporters covering city hall or the statehouse.
Journalists on the government beat often hear elected officials make promises on the campaign trail or describe bold solutions in their annual addresses. These reporters know the real story is not found in speeches or interviews, but is often revealed by looking at spending priorities in an elected official’s budget plan. Digging into the line items and examining what resources have been allocated to help fulfill a promise or new program provides a much clearer picture of what will actually happen.
Jennifer Preston, a coach in the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding and a former city hall and statehouse bureau chief, shared this example during a cohort call with newsrooms in the lab. She used the example to illustrate the importance of news outlets designing a realistic budget that aligns with their narrative and goals when putting together a funding pitch.
“Think about that experience as you tell your story and put your budget together for funders,” said Preston, formerly vice president of journalism at Knight Foundation. “Funders are going to look for alignment between your pitch, your story and what your budget says.”
“As a former funder, one of the first things that I would do is look at the proposed budget … I would look for alignment between the pitch and the budget.”
Jennifer Preston, a coach in the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding
For newsroom leaders accustomed to operating on shoestring budgets, putting together the financial details of a pitch can feel daunting — but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you are presenting a pitch deck or drafting a proposal, here are eight tips to consider as you prepare your budget to present to funders:
Format your request as a multi-year ask
Instead of asking for funds to support your project for one year, Preston said it’s generally wise to propose a plan that requires two or three years of funding if that is what is realistically required to achieve impact. This is especially important if you are seeking funding to hire an audience development staff member or someone to help you build and sustain revenue growth.
While some specific reporting projects could be completed in one year or less, Preston recommended creating a multi-year series of reporting projects on key topics of concern to your community. These projects should also include a community engagement component.
“By presenting a multi-year budget, you’re also indicating to the funder that you’re thinking strategically about the work, and it’s not just a one-off,” Preston said.
A multi-year budget also gives more space to show how costs may change over time — like raises for staff salaries, decreases in training costs as the project goes on or changing technology needs year-over-year.
Capture realistic staffing costs
When it comes to line items for freelance and staff members, it’s critical to request realistic amounts and offer competitive salaries.
“(Funders are) not looking to see if you are paying your reporters too much money — if anything, they are looking to see if you are paying your reporters and your journalists enough money,” Preston said.
Staffing costs should also include dollars for benefits, payroll taxes and journalism organization memberships that will help support development and training for your grant-funded staff members.
Include community engagement
A strong budget for a journalism project should include line items for more than just reporters and editors. According to research Preston conducted in 2023 for Media Impact Funders, community engagement was one of the top three areas of journalism that funders supported.
“For a very long time, the tradition for journalists was to report the story, and put it out there, and we did our job, and that’s it,” Preston said. “But today, funders are looking to see how you are going to engage with your community around the reporting.”
Budget items for community engagement could include community engagement staff members, or venue, production and supply costs for events like forums, listening sessions and town halls.
Budget for audience development, marketing and distribution
Funders are looking for impact, and that means they want to know about a newsroom’s plan to reach, inform and build an audience. To this end, budgets should include costs that cover marketing and distribution to ensure the work reaches audiences and has impact.
“How are you sharing your journalism and distributing it to the community on the platforms and in ways that the funder knows that people are going to consume it?” Preston said.
Line items could include marketing costs, newsletter production, social media resources and other ways to ensure your team’s work reaches your audience. The smartest proposals also include how philanthropic dollars will support long-term audience growth — and pathways to monetize the audience, increasing the news organization’s sustainability.
Integrate technology
It’s also wise to think about how your team can use technology to transform or sustain your work, and to include this in your budget. This is especially important as AI tools are proving to be helpful with data-driven reporting, marketing, distribution and other news products.
“Most organizations … do not always have the technology resources that they need to effectively distribute their content and produce their content, and also produce the types of video and audio and multimedia storytelling that is often anticipated and expected,” Preston said, noting that some funders are specifically interested in supporting technology that will accelerate a newsrooms’ digital transformation.
Budget line items for technology could include AI tools, mapping or visualization software, data tools, camera equipment, video or audio production software or a laptop for a new employee.
For newsrooms facing capacity challenges, strategically budgeting ways to leverage the power of AI, for example, can be a strong signal that the newsroom is adapting and evolving in a sustainable way.
Consider overhead costs
When applicable, you should also make sure you include overhead costs in your budget. For example, if an editor already employed with the news organization will dedicate time to the project being pitched, including a portion of their salary as a cost could make sense. This might also apply to other roles, like a social media manager or data editor.
Other costs might include portions of rent or marketing costs. Preston said some funders will want to see these costs itemized, whereas others offer extra funds to cover general overhead costs.
She also said it was important for news outlets to be prepared to share their organization’s overall budget and multi-year financial plan and revenue goals to inspire confidence in their fiscal health. This documents how you are covering existing costs.
Layout matters
Once you have created a strong budget, put it in a layout that is easy for funders to understand. Depending on style preferences, you may decide to show your budget as a table with one-year and overall totals, a pie chart showing percentages of funding going to different parts of the project or another easy-to-follow format.
In more thorough deliverables, such as a full grant proposal, you may be asked to outline your budget in deeper detail. No matter what format is used, make sure the budget is easy to understand and the total is clear.
Align your budget with the story you tell
“As a former funder, one of the first things that I would do is look at the proposed budget,” Preston said. “I would look for alignment between the pitch and the budget.”
The budget is a quick way to find out whether the organization has the capacity to accomplish their idea and whether they are realistically accounting for salaries and additional costs required to make the pitch a success, Preston said.Â
But beyond that, the budget can also show gaps between what is described in the newsroom’s grant application and in discussions with the funders. Sometimes, newsrooms adjust their narrative to appeal to what they think the funder wants — yet their budget shows different intentions.
“That’s why alignment is important,” Preston said. “An experienced funder is someone who wants to support your idea — not their idea, your idea. And I want to see a budget that makes sense to support your idea. Because at the end of the day, how you spend the money and how you say you’re gonna spend (the) money is often the most revealing document of any pitch.”
As storytellers, journalists should use the budget as another tool to drive their story home.
“Let your budget align with the narrative for your pitch, and let the budget help you tell your story,” Preston said.
Editor’s note: AI was used to create the featured image for this story. The author used a detailed prompt to help the AI create the image of a hand drawing a budget pie chart.
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