Journalism Philanthropy
The traditional, advertising-centric business model for local news is broken. Report for America is dedicated to supporting a new model—one that promotes local philanthropy as part of what fuels a healthy, thriving information ecosystem.
The traditional, advertising-centric business model for local news is broken. Report for America is dedicated to supporting a new model—one that promotes local philanthropy as part of what fuels a healthy, thriving information ecosystem.
Our Model
Report for America leverages a three-to-one funding match model:
- The ‘National Share‘: Report for America’s contribution towards the corps member’s salary. One-half of salary the first year (up to $25,000), one-third the second year, and one-fifth the third year.
- The ‘Local Share’: 25% of reporter salary — also referred to as the Minimum Fundraising Requirement.
- The ‘Newsroom Share’: The final portion of the corps member’s salary, which grows every year as the National Share declines. Newsrooms should aim to fundraise for this expense, above and beyond the Local Share.
This approach promotes new models for shared investment in local reporting, increasing the chances of sustaining public service journalism, for the community, by the community.
In our 2021-22 program year, Report for America’s local newsrooms raised $7.4 million for local news — almost $3 million more than the 2020-21 program year.
Most of this support came from individual donors—teachers, plumbers, lawyers, librarians, car dealers, nuns, and more—who understand the vital role local journalism plays in their community and who are willing to make an investment if only asked.
Collaborations between local newsrooms and community foundations have also proven to be sustainable paths forward for journalism philanthropy. Learn more about what we’ve found in our latest “Community News Funds” report.
Our Results, By The Numbers
Newsrooms raised 61% more per reporter in 2020 than in 2019. Additional 2019-2020 Report for America highlights include:
- The total amount raised by Report for America newsrooms jumped 436%, from $861,000 to $4,616,059.
- The number of donors to Report for America partner newsrooms grew from 634 to 8,887, six times what would have been expected in a linear growth model based on corps size.
- 70.4% of partner newsrooms met or exceeded their fundraising requirement of raising at least a quarter of the reporter salary.
Report for America newsroom leaders were successful when they invested time and effort into their fundraising, leveraging Report for America fundraising templates and tips.
Newsroom Testimonials
El Paso Matters
Bob Moore, CEO and founder of El Paso Matters, pictured above, created a giving circle to support his newsroom’s Report for America beat— but the idea was not his own. In early 2020, Moore began looking for five to six major donor prospects who could commit to giving on an annual basis. He approached community leaders to ask how to raise the local share for El Paso Matters’ corps member. They suggested forming a host committee and getting the community involved.
Moore did just that. A host committee of 17 members brought together more than 60 attendees via Zoom. The giving circle raised more than $23,000 from 76 supporters, 60 of whom were new supporters of El Paso Matters. Many set up recurring donations to support Victoria, El Paso Matters’ Report for America corps member.
There were additional benefits to this model, beyond simple fundraising. While it’s remarkable the community was able to raise the entire local fundraising share in one night, the giving circle has also acclimated Victoria to the El Paso storyscape. Moore remarks that it’s this type of support that makes an editor’s job easier, as many of Victoria’s leads and story ideas are generated from this group of informed community members.
El Paso Matters is planning a similar event in Spring 2022 to keep the giving circle members active. Continuous stewardship is also important to keep a community engaged and the valuable reporting they are making possible.
The Haitian Times
The Haitian Times found themselves covering two historic events in 2021. Report for America’s journalism philanthropy team worked in real time with Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder and editor of the Haitian Times, to build two email campaigns sharing the Times’ heroic journalism.
In just a couple of weeks, more than $4,000 was raised for the Times — $2,286 from 23 newsroom donors and $2,090 from 26 RFA donors.
Mountain State Spotlight
The Mountain State Spotlight was born in 2020 from the fallout of layoffs of longtime staffers at a West Virginia newspaper. Three co-workers forecasted the impending cutbacks and structured a loose idea of what they would do when the first layoff occurred. Report for America reached out to the American Journalism Project, and the Spotlight was born almost in a single weekend. The efforts of three groups resulted in a $286,250 fundraise in 2020 for the Mountain State.
Flint Beat
Flint Beat CEO Jiquanda Johnson says Report for America corps member KT Kanazawich’s photography has “played a vital role” in the success of their fundraising campaigns. In 2020, the Flint Beat raised $30,000 — a record-breaking year. They gained four donors of $1,000 or more. In Flint’s short life (started in 2017), a typical year of fundraising has been about $5,000 to $10,000. In 2021, they anticipate growing to about $75,000 on heels of 2020 success.
Fundraising a portion of Report for America corps members’ salaries can be a daunting task, especially for the news organizations that have relied on subscriptions and advertising as their main source of revenue, or those fundraising for the first time.
The Journalism Philanthropy Team
Report for America’s goal is to support partner newsrooms in their efforts to create sustainable fundraising relationships within their local communities. As such, our team of local sustainability staff work directly with host newsroom partners, granting access to tech platforms, hosting informational webinars and providing fundraising advice.
Todd Franko
Director of Local Sustainability and Development
James Martinez
Deputy Director of Local Sustainability and Development
Amy Bonn
Manager of Local Sustainability and Development
Daniela Salgueiro
Operations Associate
Tools and Resources
Our team is here to help connect you with fundraising tools and resources. We provide guidance on topics ranging from fundraising for the first time to kicking off an end-of-year campaign. A full list of reports exploring our fundraising successes and latest trends is below: