Journalism Funding Partners Receives Multi-Year Grant from Knight Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Investment from Knight recognizes and supports emerging nonprofit’s work to increase depth and diversity of local journalism
Journalism Funding Partners (JFP) announced today a two-year, $187,500 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support its mission to increase the depth, diversity and sustainability of local journalism by building and stewarding connections between funders and news organizations.
“This generosity from Knight Foundation is deeply exciting and meaningful,” said JFP Board Chair Orage Quarles III. “In addition to the significant impact of the funding itself, this multi-year grant is a wonderful and welcome endorsement of JFP as an organization and of how essential the work we’re undertaking is to communities across the country.”
The capacity-building grant will support the salary, benefits, and related costs of a full-time executive director – who will lead JFP as its sole staff member, working hand-in-hand with the Board of Directors. An interim executive director is currently in place, and the search is underway for JFP’s permanent full-time executive director.
“Journalism Funding Partners provide a critical service to local newsrooms by working to help increase their financial stability,” said Karen Rundlet, Knight Foundation director for journalism. “Knight's investment will strengthen JFP's capacity to steward strong relationships between funders and local news organizations.”
The JFP Board of Directors is made up of 11 dedicated volunteers with extensive experience in journalism, education, law, nonprofits and philanthropy.
Since mid-2020, JFP has helped secure and is managing over $1.6 million in grants to support new and expanded local journalism coverage, with numerous new partnerships and programs in progress.
JFP currently engages in three core programs, serving as a bridge and a leader in the growing realm of philanthropy-supported journalism: 1) Enabling major gifts to local journalism – partnerships between funders and news organizations; 2) Fundraising guidance and training for journalism professionals; 3) Enabling broad community giving to local journalism. JFP places an emphasis on supporting efforts to bring the diversity of local journalists to parity with the demographics of the communities they serve. JFP also prioritizes coverage-topics that have been particularly reduced by the wholesale declines in local news, including equity, economic mobility, education, health, housing, gun violence and the environment.
The Situation: Foundations and other donors across the country are increasingly embracing the impact philanthropy can have on the depth and diversity of local journalism, seeing this impact as critical to a vibrant democracy and the overall health of their communities. Many individual and institutional donors want to support expanded or improved local journalism in their regions, often with a particular focus area in mind. In many cases, these funders want to support new or expanded coverage at publications or outlets that are part of for-profit organizations – but face the challenge that many foundations have policies that require all grants be made to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and many individual donors are only willing to make donations to a nonprofit for tax-deductibility reasons. In other cases, these funders want to support efforts at nonprofit news organizations but do not feel that they have the journalism experience or understanding to adequately assess the execution and measurable outcomes of the project or activity.
How JFP Makes a Difference: JFP is proud to address this need by serving as a fiscal sponsor – a bridge between the funder and the news organization – allowing an individual or institutional donor to make the contribution through JFP. Sometimes the news organization and funder have already worked everything out, and JFP comes in when it’s time to process and execute the gift. Other times, JFP starts working with the news organization earlier in the process, guiding and supporting a solicitation. In all circumstances, JFP takes its fiduciary responsibilities as fiscal sponsor seriously, ensuring that donated funds are used for the targeted community-benefit-focused activities.
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Media Contact: Rusty Coats, Executive Director | rusty@jfp-local.org | (414) 803-8988