More than 150 nonprofit newsrooms across the country — including the NKyTribune — will participate in this year’s NewsMatch, the largest grassroots fundraising campaign to support nonprofit news organizations. The national call-to-action will launch on November 1, 2018.
In 2017 NewsMatch helped to raise more than $4.8 million from individual donors and a coalition of private funders. This year the number of nonprofit news organizations participating has jumped by more than 40 percent.
NewsMatch will double individual gifts to these nonprofit newsrooms in another record-setting year.
“There is an incredible amount of excitement building around NewsMatch 2018 from news organizations across the country,” said Sue Cross, Executive Director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News, which serves as one of NewsMatch’s nonprofit partners. “We are encouraged to see such strong growth in community support of news because NewsMatch makes it easy for communities and individuals to find and fund their local sources of trusted news.”
In 2018, more than 150 organizations will be eligible to receive matching funds for individual donations up to $1,000. Donors will be able to contribute between November 1 and December 31, 2018, at NewsMatch.org — the first and only one-stop platform for donating to nonprofit news. Donations can also be made directly to participating newsrooms.
“The NKyTribune will participate in the NewsMatch campaign for a second year,” said Judy Clabes, editor and publisher, “and we are thrilled to be selected again. We hope to exceed last year’s effort and to make individual donations to our nonprofit online newspaper the major piece of our revenue stream.
“Our loyal readers have helped us grow. We mean to continue to expand our coverage in breadth and depth — and hope our readers will help us do that too.”
The NKyTribune will be providing a link for direct contributions for the matching funds.
“We are happy that our partner, KyForward.com, now a nonprofit too, has been accepted for the NewsMatch challenge this year,” Clabes said.
Both nonprofit news sites are published by the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism.
NewsMatch’s national call to action rallies those who believe in freedom of the press and helps empower journalists to do their jobs by telling stories that spark change and hold leaders accountable.
The campaign is driven by a partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News and the News Revenue Hub, Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Miami Foundation serves as fiscal sponsor for the fund. The Facebook Journalism Project also made a $1 million donation to NewsMatch in 2018. Donors and foundations can join NewsMatch 2018 or support individual newsrooms by contacting The Miami Foundation’s Lindsey Linzer (LLinzer@miamifoundation.org).
“We would be happy to talk to local foundations about providing additional matching funds to contributions from our readers,” said Clabes. “The whole community has a stake in the survival and success of local news.”
Knight Foundation launched the inaugural NewsMatch in 2016, helping 57 nonprofit news organizations raise more than $2.4 million. In 2017, the campaign expanded to include a coalition of funders, raising $4.8 million for nonprofit news organizations, and equipping them with professional fundraising, tools and technology and cultivated over 43,000 new donors.
Organizations selected for NewsMatch 2018 include:
In the Northeast:
Adirondack Explorer; Baltimore Brew; CivicStory; Connecticut Health Investigative Team; City Limits; Delaware Currents; ecoRI News; Hidden City Philadelphia; Highlands Current; Hummel Report; Investigative Post; Lower Cape Community Access Television, Inc.; Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting; Maryland Matters; MarylandReporter.com; NancyOnNorwalk.com; New England Center for Investigative Reporting; New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism; New Haven Independent; NJ Spotlight; Philadelphia Public School Notebook; PublicSource; The CT Mirror; The GroundTruth Project; VTDigger.org; and WHYY.
In the Midwest:
Belt Media Collaborative; Better Government Association; Block Club Chicago; Bridge Magazine; City Bureau; Flint Beat; East Lansing Info; Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism; KCUR-FM; Madison365; Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service; MinnPost; Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism; South Dakota News Watch; St. Louis Public Radio; The Chicago Reporter; The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting; Wausau Pilot and Review; WDET; WFYI Public Media; and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.
In the South:
Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism; Arkansas Nonprofit News Network; Austin Monitor; Borderzine; Breckenridge Texan; Carolina Public Press; Center for Sustainable Journalism; Centro de Periodismo Investigativo; Charlottesville Tomorrow; Daily Yonder; Florida Bulldog; Florida Center for Investigative Reporting; Georgia Health News; Insider Media Group, Inc.; Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting; KYForward.com; LkldNow.com; Mississippi Today; North Carolina Health News; Northern Kentucky Tribune; Oklahoma Watch; Scalawag Magazine; Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation; Texas Observer; The Austin Bulldog; The Lens; and The Texas Tribune.
In the West:
Alhambra Source; Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting; Aspen Journalism; Bay Nature Institute; BenitoLink.com; California Health Report; CALmatters; Crosscut; EdSource; Frontier Media Group; High Country News; Honolulu Civil Beat; inewsource; InvestigateWest; KPBS; Mission Local; Montana Free Press; Mountain Independent; New Mexico In Depth; NowCastSA; Rivard Report; Rocky Mountain Public Media; Searchlight New Mexico; San Francisco Public Press; The Colorado Independent; The Nevada Independent; The Seattle Globalist; TucsonSentinel.com; Voice of OC; Voice of San Diego; Voices of Monterey Bay; WitnessLA; and WyoFile.
National/Global Publications:
100 Reporters; Anthropocene Magazine; Center for Responsive Politics; Chalkbeat; Civil Eats; Current; Energy News Network; Ensia; FairWarning; First Look Media Works; Food and Environment Reporting Network; Fostering Media Connections; Futuro Media Group; Grist; Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance; In These Times; Injustice Watch; InsideClimate News; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; Investigative Reporting Workshop; Mother Jones; MuckRock; National Parks Traveler; Next City; Orb Media; PassBlue; PBS NewsHour; PolitiFact; ProPublica; Public Radio International (PRI) / Public Radio Exchange (PRX); Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; Religion News Foundation; Retro Report; Society for Science and the Public/Science News; Solitary Watch; The Center for Investigative Reporting; Tarbell; The Center for Public Integrity; The Conversation US; The Hechinger Report; The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute; The Marshall Project; The New Food Economy; The Trace; The War Horse; Threshold; Washington Monthly; and Youth Radio.
These nonprofit news organizations are all members in good standing of the Institute for Nonprofit News. To be a member, an organization must be a 501(c)(3) or have a 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, must be transparent about funding sources, and produce investigative and/or public-service reporting. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Visit newsmatch.org for more information.