(June 24, 2025) — All local media companies are invited to apply to join the 2026 national cohort of the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding to learn strategies to sustain their journalism with philanthropic support.
Thanks to support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, this program will bring the lab’s proven training and fundraising impact to up to 20 news organizations across the country.
News organizations that apply and are accepted will participate in the six-month program, running from August through February 2027.
Since its launch in 2020, the Lab for Journalism Funding has trained more than 200 newsrooms on fundraising best practices. Collectively, those newsrooms have raised nearly $40 million to support local journalism, thanks to sustained support from Google News Initiative and support from the Knight Foundation.
“As a former participant in the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, I can attest to how helpful it was as I sought and secured my first philanthropic grants,” said Duc Luu, Director of Journalism Sustainability at Knight Foundation. “As more national and local funders are committing to supporting local journalism, this program will be an important resource for newsrooms who are deeply focused on their communities’ needs and hoping to find like-minded funders that can help them make their communities thrive.”
Community-based, locally controlled news organizations across the country are invited to apply to join this cohort. The lab seeks a varied mix of media companies and welcomes both nonprofit and for-profit news organizations focused on civic journalism.
Applicants must be producing original, local news at least weekly. Local news partnerships or coalitions are also encouraged to apply, particularly if they have a joint initiative that they are seeking to fund via philanthropy.
News organizations in the 26 Knight communities are strongly encouraged to apply.
In addition, we are pleased to include up to five Report for America newsrooms in this cohort, thanks to a partnership with Report for America to promote philanthropic best practices to their host newsrooms across the country.
News organizations that have participated in the lab in prior years are also now eligible to apply for this cohort if there have been staffing changes or other developments that create a new benefit for the organization to participate again.
Preference will be given to media organizations that:
- Have strong local leadership with deep ties to the community.
- Are focused on high-quality local journalism.
- Have leadership-level buy-in to participate in this lab and make the time/resource commitment.
- Have a record of essential service to the community through journalism.
Applications are open and will be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis through July 12 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Program details
Publishers will set fundraising goals, in consultation with their coach, that are in line with each publisher’s market size. They will learn best practices documented in LMA’s industry reports, Pathways to Philanthropy and Sustaining Philanthropy for Journalism, including strategies like impact tracking, donor stewardship and building partnerships.
News organizations in the program will also conduct community listening, map and grow their networks, conduct a small donor campaign, develop a list of fundraising prospects and create a pitch deck for a project to be funded by philanthropy.
The lab will culminate in a Pitch Day, where newsrooms will pitch their projects to a panel of funder-judges, and the top winners will receive seed funding stipends. Case studies and articles will be published to share best practices and lessons learned.
Travel stipends will be provided for the selected participants to convene for an in-person program launch at Local Media Fest in Chicago in August.
The new cohort will be led by Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer at Local Media Association, and project and programming manager Nina Joss. The lab features a team of best-in-class coaches including Joaquin Alvarado, who has been instrumental in the development of philanthropic funding at The Seattle Times and other local newsrooms; executive coach Joanne Heyman; and Judi Terzotis, CEO of Georges Media Group, among others.
“We are inspired by the impact of the Lab’s training for alumni of the program, and are excited to offer this experience to a new cohort of newsrooms looking to sustain their essential local journalism,” said Mungeam.
Applications are open and will be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis through July 12 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
For more information, please contact Nina Joss from Local Media Association at nina.joss@localmedia.org.