Grantmaking Rubric

You have an ambitious vision to quickly grow your organization by at least $1M in annual budget in the next three years to become a primary source of local news. (We define a primary source of local news as an organization that sees itself as a community leader, taking it upon itself to fully understand the information needs of its target communities, and taking on the responsibility to play a key role in planning to ensure information needs are fully met over time via original reporting and a variety of types of journalism.) You have an existing budget and serve a market that can sustainably and viably lead to this growth. You are ready to engage in strategic growth planning – based on a full understanding of your market, its local news ecosystem and its revenue potential – with a credible path to scaling your organization’s original local reporting to meet the needs of your region. You have or can build a bottom-up financial model that projects revenues and costs for an enterprise that is sustainable after the conclusion of AJP’s three-year injection of growth capital. 

Your organization has identified critical local information needs for your community, both in terms of areas of coverage as well as products and forms of distribution to effectively reach community members and your vision is designed to meet those needs. You measure impact on your community and ways to ensure you’re building trust with your community members. 

Your team includes:

• Experienced, ambitious and dynamic leadership who understands the intersection of community, product and revenue, and is committed to the mission of local, community-driven and trusted news that reaches the audiences it aims to serve.
• A highly engaged board that has demonstrated value to date and has the skills, connections and expertise to support you in your next phase of growth.

You have a demonstrated track record of producing high-quality local journalism that has had a proven impact, and you have dedicated editorial capacity / a program team producing a meaningful and impactful volume of journalism that an AJP growth investment (which will focus on business and operations capacity) can build upon.

You have stewarded strong relationships with local civic leaders and philanthropic partners who are champions for your work and can help bring in additional support. You understand the local philanthropic landscape and have a credible path to new sources of local funding in your vision for growth.

Your organization has a strong understanding of its current and future role within its local news ecosystem. You have demonstrated leadership within the ecosystem you serve today, effectively collaborating with partners, and elevating the broader movement for local nonprofit news as you grow.

Your organization is consistently working to become more representative of your community and inclusive, and has a track record toward these goals that is reflected in the experience of your employees and communities served. Your employees would speak highly of your commitment to building a healthy culture. Your commitment to community representation and trust is reflected in the composition of your staff, leadership, board, audiences served, content delivered and in the systems and structures you’ve put in place.

You have or are working toward effective and accountable financial systems and a staff and board with experience in financial management and operations. You have a strong internal culture and a flexible, forward-looking team that is able to successfully plan for and manage significant growth.

You are committed to being a part of the broader national movement for local nonprofit news, and are eager to both learn from and teach other organizations and leaders with the goal of strengthening and growing the overall field. You have important and scalable lessons that the broader field can learn from.