Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are one of the fastest-growing charitable giving vehicles in the U.S. — and a largely untapped revenue opportunity for local news leaders.
That opportunity was the focus of a recent Lab Link webinar hosted by Local Media Association’s Lab for Journalism Funding, with support from Knight Foundation. The webinar featured Morgan Baum, vice president of local news sustainability at Report for America; Bob Woodward, a former publisher and now director of journalism philanthropy and college student partnerships at Press Forward NE Iowa; Mary Jo Jean-Francois, vice president of impact at the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque; Erin Richards, director of development and partnerships for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; and DAF donor and former journalist Barbara Frank.
The consensus: philanthropy is becoming a significant revenue stream for newsroom sustainability, and DAFs — which let donors support journalism through community foundations or fiscal sponsors — can help broaden support. Here are the top takeaways for news leaders:
1. DAFs are an untapped opportunity
Donor-advised funds let donors make an immediately tax-deductible contribution, invest the funds and recommend donations over time. “Many donors find this to be an excellent vehicle to think about as their savings account for charitable giving,” according to Baum.
Per the 2025 DAF Research Collaborative annual report, $326 billion is held in DAFs, up from $250 billion in 2024. Of that, roughly $54 billion (17%) sits in the country’s 900 community foundations — the most accessible entry point, versus large institutions like Fidelity. Baum suggested the Council on Foundations’ community foundation locator tool to search in your market.
Many newsrooms already have the infrastructure to receive gifts through fiscal sponsors; donors just don’t know it. Mentioning DAFs explicitly in donor materials opens new pathways. Baum’s bottom line: “The number one way to fundraise is to ask for money. You won’t get funds unless you ask for them… Give people an opportunity to get together, and folks will show you who wants to be a part of your success story.”
2. Treat foundations as partners to strengthen civic health
Community foundations are long-term collaborators, not transactional funders, speakers said. “We’re always happy to serve as the backbone organization for some of these programs,” said Jean-Francois, noting foundations routinely process complex gifts, from appreciated stock to farmland to a piano.
She said her foundation considers local news and information to be “part of the social fabric of who we are.”
“This isn’t just an opportunity for us to get money in and push it out the door, but to really invest within our communities to keep them connected to each other,” she said.
Funding journalism also isn’t about “bailing out” newspapers, she added — it’s about civic health and community connection. “You’re not asking for a handout,” said Jean-Francois: “You’re a thought partner in this work.”
3. Lead with what donors already care about
Rather than pitching journalism first, connect reporting to issues donors already value, such as education, health care, environment, economic development or civic engagement. “You can help position journalism so advisors see it as a mechanism to achieve their donors’ existing goals,” Baum said.
This theme echoes the advice of former Knight Foundation CEO Alberto Ibargüen: “Whatever your first priority… journalism needs to be your second, because trustworthy information, most often locally sourced, is essential to achieving any of these other important goals.”
Woodward emphasized that fundraising begins with listening. “Be a good question asker, be a good listener. Ultimately, you’re trying to help people invest in something that they care about and are passionate about.” A pitch for a specific reporting initiative often lands better than a general ask.
It’s also important to remind donors the money stays local, Baum said, because one of the reasons why many donors choose to work with their community foundations is because they want to keep those dollars local.
4. Relationships open doors
In Dubuque, where Woodward was publisher at TH Media and Woodward Community Media, his relationship with the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque led to a donor interested in local news and education. “One coffee is literally all it took,” he recalled, for that conversation to result in an investment of thousands of dollars to launch a fellowship in short-form video and social media storytelling. In Milwaukee, Richards said ties to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation brought institutional funding for a community-engaged reporting initiative.
The lesson: fundraising success starts long before the ask.
5. Show impact, and say thank you
Barbara Frank said she began giving to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through her DAF after attending a subscriber event and touring the newsroom — illustrating the power of using various strategies, including events, for fundraising. She urged news leaders to educate foundation leaders and boards about the importance of local news. She also encouraged them to lead with success stories, not industry struggles: “We need to tell our positive story in every possible way that we can.”
Stewardship matters too, Frank said, adding that she appreciates when stories credit the funders behind them. Jean-Francois agreed: thank donors consistently and share impact. “I think you can’t overestimate the power of sharing that information.”
6. Protect editorial independence, then take next steps
Baum said that publishing gift guidelines is the most critical step a newsroom can take to protect its integrity. Baum said that when blind contributions are routed through a community foundation and a donor’s identity is truly unknown, it can eliminate concerns about editorial influence. Overall, she said it is important to create public guidelines that ensure that journalism and funding remain strictly separate.
Baum recommended a checklist of five practical next steps, including creating gift guidelines, searching for community foundations in your area to start building relationships, hosting an educational session, developing a one-pager and eventually pitching a fund focused on a field of interest.
By building partnerships with community foundations, educating donors and demonstrating journalism’s impact on civic life, newsrooms can incorporate DAF gifts as an important piece of their philanthropic funding strategy.
For more information: Watch the full webinar here (Passcode: v7N.5#nS).
Editor’s note: Artificial intelligence was used to help the author summarize takeaways from the webinar. Any writing generated by AI for this piece was edited and fact-checked by a human.
You must be logged in to post a comment.