What we fund

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

We believe that every community deserves access to high-quality local news. We especially encourage inquiries from organizations that are led by and serve traditionally underrepresented communities. We know there are great entrepreneurs and organizations who won’t fit everything described in our grantmaking rubric or who provide important public service to their communities that we have not considered. We welcome a conversation about your organization and how it is serving local information needs.

What to expect

Working with a venture philanthropy can be a new experience for some. Our model is built to provide bespoke support based on grantees’ biggest strategic challenges alongside our investment in organizational revenue and operations capacity. Read more about our support here.

What we look for

In addition to the core criteria listed above, which must apply to all our grantees, we consider strength in core organizational areas as outlined in this rubric. We do not expect organizations to be strong across all pillars but we do expect our grantees to have a compelling track record, and demonstrate the commitment and capabilities to strengthen in each area.

How we decide

Most of our grants are made through a competitive grantmaking process. We periodically make calls for letters of inquiry (LOIs), often with a specific investment thesis motivating the call. Our internal grants committee reviews all LOIs and selects a handful of organizations to move to the proposal phase, which includes a written proposal, financial and operational due-diligence, and a series of workshops with the organization’s leadership and board of directors. Our aim during the proposal process is to articulate a 3-5 year growth plan and then structure an investment that will enable the organization to reach its goals. Final proposals are approved by our board of directors.

Get in touch

If you think we should know about the work of your existing, nonprofit news organization, please reach out via our general inquiry form below (and if you are exploring launching a new nonprofit local news organization see information about our incubator initiative below). Our team can’t respond to every inquiry we receive, but we promise we are reading them!

Photo courtesy of our grantee partner Mississippi Today.