INN

Nonprofit news is growing, and so is demand for people with the vision and skill to lead our field. INN is committed to building and empowering this next generation. We formed the Emerging Leaders Council in 2017 to identify, connect, retain and build up the diverse leaders who will continue to innovate, grow and expand nonprofit news over the next 20 years. Nominations for the 2021 cohort are open, and the deadline to nominate is April 2.

Bridget Thoreson, an experienced journalist and collaborator, will be INN’s first full-time Member Collaborations Editor, starting on Monday. She will work with Amplify Collaborations Editor Sharon McGowan and Chief Network Officer Jonathan Kealing to expand the scope and depth of member-led collaborative projects. With Thoreson onboard, INN expects to be able to expand the number of funded editorial collaborations it can manage, increasing the amount of money INN is able to invest in member journalism and providing the sort of hands-on facilitation and project management members said they valued in the most recent member survey.

In the first quarter of 2021, we're thrilled to announce that the Institute for Nonprofit News welcomed 18 new members! They include 10 news startups, 12 newsrooms increasing local and state news, five outlets focused on national news and one investigative newsroom based in Canada. We're so excited to have...

In September 2020, INN published the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in Nonprofit News report based on survey responses from 117 nonprofit newsrooms. Our topline finding in the DEI report: nonprofit newsrooms are more diverse than traditional newsrooms — but there is a lot of room for improvement, especially concerning racial equity.

In a comprehensive story detailing the effects of COVID-19 on Schurz Elementary School on a reservation in the Nevada desert, reporters Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez and Jackie Valley of The Nevada Independent revealed that “Prior to the pandemic, 80 percent of households on the Walker River reservation had a computer, but only 60 percent had access to broadband internet service. Now, every single family with a student has a computer or a Chromebook and internet access.”

The fifth annual NewsMatch campaign was the most successful ever with a record-breaking $47 million raised by nonprofit newsrooms across the country. In November and December 2020 -- at a time when the health and economic impacts of the COVID pandemic and elections made access to reliable news absolutely essential -- matching gifts from funders, philanthropists, and local businesses were leveraged to generate this groundswell of support from individual donors.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic uncertainty that followed brought challenges for many nonprofit newsrooms’ major gift fundraising efforts. Uncertainty around support from major donors is a serious challenge. Donations from major donors, defined as gifts of $5,000 or more from individuals, are an essential part of many nonprofit news organizations’ revenue strategies. Indeed, early findings from INN’s latest Index survey (which includes financial data from 218 nonprofit news outlets) show that contributions from major donors account for over half (55%) of total revenue from individual giving.

Over the past year, INN has watched as the independent and nonprofit news organizations in our network produce incredible service journalism for their audiences (readers, viewers and listeners). What is service journalism, you might ask? We like this definition from Pete Pachal:. “Service journalism, of course, is a new term...

The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), an organization dedicated to digital security, is partnering with INN to help our members protect their staff and assets. GCA has created a Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists and is co-hosting INN’s online office hours on Wednesday, March 31st to provide a demonstration and answer questions. (View schedule and register.)

From Eden Prairie, Minnesota, here’s the happiest journalism news of the new year: Eden Prairie is saving its local news, one year after a hedge fund bought the local newspaper and promptly closed it. Some 65,000 people live in this farm town turned suburb, on the rolling bluffs where the...

With the INN Network Philanthropy Center, the Institute for Nonprofit News has created the first one-stop-shop for nonprofit newsrooms seeking to increase their success at fundraising. Built around INN’s signature News Giving Roadmap program, the Center’s goal is to increase revenue from major gifts while meeting organizations where they are on the “road” to sustainability. That means that whether an INN member is a startup learning how to write grants, a growing organization evaluating donor management tools, or a longstanding publication seeking to establish an endowment, the INN Network Philanthropy Center has resources that meet their needs.

The Institute for Nonprofit News, the backbone organization of a growing network of 300 nonprofit newsrooms, has been approved as a provider for Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) accredited courses in fundraising best practices. These courses can include webinars, workshops, conferences, online courses and other programs with content that covers subject areas featured in the CFRE certification exam.

INN’s vision is to build a nonprofit, nonpartisan news network that ensures all people in every community have access to trusted news. We can’t and won’t ignore the domestic terrorism that occurred at the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6: this was a traumatic event, and it reinforced racist double standards in American society.

The Google News Initiative and Abrams Foundation are investing a combined $1 million in the 2020 NewsMatch fund, bringing the program’s total investment in nonprofit news organizations to more than $5 million this year. The Google News Initiative’s $750,000 contribution will provide added support to the participating 266 newsrooms: every...

Google News Initiative and INN today released the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue — a comprehensive "playbook" showing. nonprofit newsrooms how to grow revenue from display advertising, event sponsorships, sponsored content, and other earned revenue sources. This first-of-its-kind resource is the latest output from the GNI-INN Sponsorship Lab, which...

During a time where journalism, on the whole, has declined, visual journalism has been hit the hardest. Over the last 10 years, the number of visual journalists has declined by 52%, more than any other newsroom staff members. Without visual journalism, there’s no representation of the communities local newsrooms cover....

Emily Spranger has joined INN as our Network Philanthropy Prospect Researcher. Spranger will provide direct services to our members by conducting research on potential philanthropic prospects and reporting research results to members. Additionally, she will work with members to help them access the philanthropic shared services that INN offers, including wealth screening and software subscriptions.

The "Lens on Lightfoot" collaboration, which included the Better Government Association, Block Club Chicago, Chalkbeat Chicago, The Chicago Reporter, The TRiiBE, The Daily Line and La Raza, ended on Oct. 31. The project reunited many of the partners responsible for Chi.vote, which reported extensively on the mayoral election. Each participating...

Emily Roseman is a media researcher and newsroom consultant interested in the sustainability of high-quality journalism. Emily has researched and written for the Membership Puzzle Project, the Public Media Mergers Project, the Solutions Journalism Network and Harvard’s Belfer Center. Most recently, she has worked with Blue Engine Collaborative on materials for INN's Ignite Sponsorship program. Previously, she served as the research project manager for a study at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center that analyzed how nonprofit, single-topic newsrooms can engage and grow audiences.

Along with 40+ organizations that stand against political misinformation and manipulation, the Institute for Nonprofit News calls on Facebook to withdraw its cease and desist demand for the Ad Observer plug-in tool. Ad Observer allows journalists and researchers to better understand the political misinformation and manipulation that spreads daily on...