Local Foundations and Local News
Local Foundations and Local News
August 31, 2010
With the decline of traditional news outlets, local foundations are beginning to increase their investment in information and media. According to a study released in July 2010 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, community and "place-based" foundations are increasingly "playing a leadership role in meeting their [communities'] information needs."
The Knight Foundation surveyed 928 foundations and got responses from 135 of them. One-third (34 percent) of all respondents reported that they had increased their grants to information and media projects over the past three years. The same percentage expected that their funding in this area will grow in coming years.
Foundations are putting money into both content and infrastructure. Thirty-seven percent of respondents who had made grants to information or media projects in the past year did so for content. Thirty percent made grants for infrastructure including increasing broadband access, developing new technologies for content production and distribution, and developing new media outlets.
Importantly, foundations who make grants to information and media say they see it as an important way to play a "leadership role" in their communities. In addition to making grants, many foundations (45 percent of respondents) are actively convening community stakeholders around the issue of media and information. By contrast, 27 percent of foundations that are not making grants to information and media said they "do not know" if doing so would present opportunities for leadership.
Surprisingly, most of the foundation respondents seem to feel that they are out there on their own when they fund information and media. Fully 63 percent of respondents who currently support information and media (and 80 percent of non-funders) said they were not aware of any other funders doing so.
What does all of this mean for public media?
- It is worthwhile to help community and place-based foundations see that information and media are core community needs and that they can play an essential leadership role in the community by investing in these areas.
- It is worth looking to community and place-based foundations for both content and infrastructure grants.
- It is important to help foundations understand that they are not venturing into uncharted territory when they fund information and media. Many other foundations – at the national and the local level – make grants to media. What's more, support from one local foundation can help leverage funding from others – thereby expanding investment in media and reducing risk for the individual foundations.
