Our learning partnerships

Through these strategic partnerships, the American Journalism Project supports innovative ideas and projects that bring together unique sets of collaborators to solve particularly complex problems that have the potential to transform the landscape for local news.

We are pleased to support and partner with the following organizations:

  • Racial Equity in Journalism Fund
    The Racial Equity in Journalism Fund is a donor collaborative at Borealis Philanthropy that seeks to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of news organizations led by people of color and to increase civic engagement for communities of color. Since 2019 it has provided general operating support grants to 31 news organizations. Our contribution and ongoing partnership with the fund is helping to rectify racial disparities in access to funding for local news, build a pipeline of organizations led by and serving communities of color, and develop support strategies to help those organizations grow their journalism and their impact.
  • National Trust for Local News
    The National Trust for Local News is a nonprofit dedicated to keeping local news in local hands by working with communities to catalyze the capital, new ownership structures, and business model transformations needed for established local and community news organizations to thrive and remain deeply grounded in their communities. We partnered with the National Trust on its pilot transaction in 2021, as it acquired Colorado Community Media and placed it under new local ownership. Our support for this work in Colorado alongside local partners the Colorado Media Project, the Gates Family Foundation and the Colorado Trust will establish a model for how local ownership and a statewide nonprofit infrastructure for local news can shrink news deserts and ensure robust local news for a growing number of communities.
  • Rebuild Local News
    Rebuild Local News is a coalition of organizations advocating for locally grounded and nonprofit community journalism. The coalition develops and works to build bipartisan support for public policies that will strengthen communities by creating a more robust, more inclusive local news system without endangering editorial independence. Our partnership with Rebuild Local News advances public policy solutions, including public financing that could ensure the sustainability of local news, and ensures that the nonprofit newsrooms that we support have a strong advocate on Capitol Hill and in front of policymakers.