Well framed. Worth noting that your thesis is hardly theoretical. It has been borne out over more than 50 years in public radio, whose business model depends predominantly though not exclusively on all three pillars of philanthropic support — membership, major gifts and institutional foundation support — likely, if memory serves, in descending order of magnitude.
Agree with your analysis 100% from the perspective of having built a nonprofit newsroom over 20 years. One possible divergence: What it means to invest in long-term "institution" building rather than immediate on-the-ground reporting. I do agree that institutional foundation money works best to seed projects that then need long-term local support from individual donors (large and/or small). But I think there's a legitimate debate about that early "institution-building" money. Some people are critical of Press Forward for not funding actual reporting rather than "institution-building." I think Press Forward has a good point about how they don't want to see money support one or three-year reporting projects that then can't continue. But what does institution-building mean, and how does an institution get built? I'm concerned that Press Forward and similar national donors may focus too narrowly on funding bureaucratic positions that sound like they recreate what look like enduring old-style generic corporate structures (marketing, "outreach," development) that of course are important functions in any enduring organization. But especially with local news, I would argue that much of that happens organically through one-to-one relationships and loyalty and appreciate that develop ... reporting! Going out, doing stories, being scrappy, making every penny count, and building loyalty through actually reporting rather than creating spreadsheets and ads trumpeting how important a certain story was and trying to convince/preach to people, rather than just showing up and doing work that lays the groundwork everyday to create value that donors would then want to support. I know this is complicated.
Well framed. Worth noting that your thesis is hardly theoretical. It has been borne out over more than 50 years in public radio, whose business model depends predominantly though not exclusively on all three pillars of philanthropic support — membership, major gifts and institutional foundation support — likely, if memory serves, in descending order of magnitude.
Agree with your analysis 100% from the perspective of having built a nonprofit newsroom over 20 years. One possible divergence: What it means to invest in long-term "institution" building rather than immediate on-the-ground reporting. I do agree that institutional foundation money works best to seed projects that then need long-term local support from individual donors (large and/or small). But I think there's a legitimate debate about that early "institution-building" money. Some people are critical of Press Forward for not funding actual reporting rather than "institution-building." I think Press Forward has a good point about how they don't want to see money support one or three-year reporting projects that then can't continue. But what does institution-building mean, and how does an institution get built? I'm concerned that Press Forward and similar national donors may focus too narrowly on funding bureaucratic positions that sound like they recreate what look like enduring old-style generic corporate structures (marketing, "outreach," development) that of course are important functions in any enduring organization. But especially with local news, I would argue that much of that happens organically through one-to-one relationships and loyalty and appreciate that develop ... reporting! Going out, doing stories, being scrappy, making every penny count, and building loyalty through actually reporting rather than creating spreadsheets and ads trumpeting how important a certain story was and trying to convince/preach to people, rather than just showing up and doing work that lays the groundwork everyday to create value that donors would then want to support. I know this is complicated.
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