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Plinth

· Public charity

American Journalism Project Inc

The american journalism project, inc.

$19M
Granted FY2024still arriving
52
Grants FY2024still arriving
30
States reached
$5.5M
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20192024.

Arts & Culture$52MPublic Benefit$3.3MEducation$2.7MCommunity Improvement$1.7MCivil Rights$749kEnvironment$352k
02FY2024 · 52 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $230k
  • $50k–250k19 grants · $2.4M
  • $250k+24 grants · $16M
$204,950
Median grant
30
States reached
$66M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FREE PRESS INDIANA$5,456,464
OHIO LOCAL INFORMATION INITIATIVE$1,454,936
CALMATTERS$812,000
FORT WORTH REPORT$596,384
TEXAS TRIBUNE INC$549,167
THE CITY REPORT INC$534,745
SPOTLIGHT PA$509,135
WISCONSIN CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM$494,471
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RADIO$480,000
CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE$455,375
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE$444,975
BEACON MEDIA INC$427,927
INDIJ PUBLIC MEDIA$401,113
BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO$369,963
HOUSTON LOCAL INFORMATION INITIATIVE$350,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY22–24, $582k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%DOCUMENTED: $384k → 17%DOCUMENTED: $167k → 17%DOCUMENTED: $32k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

VT
WA
MT
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
IN
OH
PA
CT
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
WV
DE
AZ
TN
NC
DC
OK
MS
TX

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$57M · 50 repeat orgs$3.0M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +26% since the first grant, against -22% for the ones you funded once.

50 repeat relationships — 43 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

50
2

Total granted

$57M
$352k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+26%
-22%

Still filing today

98%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.7M went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationPublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementCivil RightsHuman ServicesOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • CJ
    CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE
    5× · 2020–2024 · $2.4M · revenue +102% · 45% of their budget
  • BM
    BEACON MEDIA INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +96% · 46% of their budget
  • DS
    DEEP SOUTH TODAY
    6× · 2019–2024 · $1.9M · revenue +508%

Funded once

  • RL
    REBUILD LOCAL NEWS
    one grant, 2023 · $250k
  • LS
    LIFE SHARED INTERNATIONAL
    one grant, 2021 · $102k · revenue -100% · 55% of their budget

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Press Watch

To educate journalists and the public, and foster public debate, about improving political journalism to reflect public needs and hold the powerful accountable.

2
Springfield Daily Citizen Inc

The mission of the springfield daily citizen is to inform our community and be a catalyst for good.

Arts & Culture
3
San Francisco Public Press

The mission of the San Francisco Public Press is to enrich civic life by publishing investigative and solutions journalism that engages diverse audiences and promotes public accountability. The San Francisco Public Press…

Education
4
Santa Cruz Local Inc

Independent nonpartisan newsroom serving Santa Cruz County, California we are all watching and engaged in our local government, our needs are addressed, democracy works better and our community is stronger.

5
Citizens News Guild Inc

Citizens news guild educates the public by publishing non-partisan state and local news.

Community Improvement
6
America's Newspapers

Providing research, education and practical information all aimed at optimizing newspapers' business operations, deepening their community engagement and enhancing the quality of their journalism.

Employment
7
Journalism New England

The organization is non-profit organization working to build and sustain local news and ensure that local news organizations across new england are supported with the kinds of tailored problem-solving, training and partnerships they need…

Civil Rights
8
American Journalism Project Inc

The american journalism project, inc. is a first-of-its-kind venture philanthropy dedicated to building and supporting local news across the country. american journalism project makes grants to nonprofit news organizations, partners with…

Arts & Culture
9
Canary Media Inc

Canary Media is an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy.

Environment
10
States Newsroom

States newsroom is the nation's largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, with reporting from every capital. every newsroom is led by a veteran local journalist with deep knowledge of the state's political history and media…

Arts & Culture
11
American Media Institute

Inform the public by providing news

12
City Limits News Inc

To use investigative journalism through the prism of new york city to identify urban problems, examine their causes. explore solutions, and equip communities to tak action

Public Benefit

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Institute for Nonprofit News and the most unlike its peers is Life Shared International. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyImmigrant Worker SupportLgbtq+ Community SupportEnvironmental Conservation …Women & Girls Leadership De…Affordable Housing Developm…Community FoundationsPolicy Research and Advocacy
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 7 years old; the field is 16. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%25%<5yr14%32%5–10yr19%32%10–20yr16%11%20–35yr13%0%35–55yr16%0%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%35%<5yr14%30%5–10yr19%28%10–20yr16%7%20–35yr13%0%35–55yr16%0%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 25% of your grantees by number, and just 35% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/60
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,505

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

59 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 59 of the 62 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

15
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
18
Early backer (in before they grew)
59/59
Grantees still filing
36/59
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

OHIO LOCAL INFORMATIONAL INTIATIVE INC — $5,675,863 · Arts & CultureOHIO LOCAL INFORMATIONAL INTIATIVE INCFREE PRESS INDIANA — $5,612,996 · Arts & CultureFREE PRESS INDIANAHouston Local Information Initiative Inc — $2,818,829 · Arts & CultureHouston Local Information Initiative IncCITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE — $2,446,250 · Arts & CultureCITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVEBEACON MEDIA INC — $1,990,252 · Arts & CultureDEEP SOUTH TODAY — $1,875,775 · Arts & CultureWCIJ INC — $1,789,583 · Arts & CultureCity Report Inc — $1,385,045 · Arts & Culture+24 more — $15,846,388 · Arts & Culture+24 moreCIVIC NEWS COMPANY — $1,756,556 · EducationCIVIC NEWS COMPANYBLOCK CLUB CHICAGO NFP — $1,690,963 · EducationBLOCK CLUB CHICAGO N…INVESTIGATIVE NEWSOURCE — $1,638,363 · EducationINVESTIGATIVE NEWSOU…Sahan Journal — $1,348,275 · EducationSahan JournalTEXAS TRIBUNE INC — $1,049,167 · EducationTEXAS TRIBUNE INCNEVADA NEWS BUREAU INC — $1,041,284 · EducationNEVADA NEWS BUREAU I…SPOTLIGHT PA — $702,349 · EducationSPOTLIGHT PAINSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT NEWS — $652,250 · EducationINSTITUTE FOR NONPRO…NEW YORK FOCUS INC — $556,802 · Education+2 more — $385,124 · EducationEL PASO MATTERS INC — $1,122,275 · Public BenefitFORT WORTH REPORT — $1,082,498 · Public BenefitNEBRASKA JOURNALISM TRUST — $833,758 · Public BenefitZERO DEBT MASSACHUSETTS INC — $400,000 · Public BenefitTHE MARSHALL PROJECT INC — $1,109,000 · Community ImprovementCOMMUNITY LIFT CORP — $278,000 · Community ImprovementCHARLOTTESVILLE TOMORROW — $271,000 · Community ImprovementCalMatters — $812,000 · Civil RightsMUCKROCK FOUNDATION INC — $659,500 · Civil RightsBlack Votes Matter Institute of Community Engagement — $89,000 · Civil RightsTHE LENFEST INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM SPECIAL ASSET FUND OF TPF — $997,000 · PhilanthropyBROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $410,500 · PhilanthropyIndividual grant recipient — $384,854 · OtherTHE LA LOCAL — $155,552 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $137,000 · OtherDocumented LTD — $582,461 · OtherGrist Magazine Inc — $351,625 · OtherTHE GROUNDTRUTH PROJECT INC — $340,000 · OtherLIFE SHARED INTERNATIONAL — $102,000 · Other
Arts & Culture$39,440,981Education$10,821,133Public Benefit$3,438,531Community Improvement$1,658,000Civil Rights$1,560,500Philanthropy$1,407,500Other$2,053,492

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetOHIO LOCAL INFORMATIONAL INTIATIVE INC — $5,675,863 over 3y, 36% of budgetFREE PRESS INDIANA — $5,612,996 over 2y, 100% of budgetHouston Local Information Initiative Inc — $2,818,829 over 3y, 23% of budgetCITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE — $2,446,250 over 5y, 45% of budgetBEACON MEDIA INC — $1,990,252 over 4y, 46% of budgetDEEP SOUTH TODAY — $1,875,775 over 6y, 14% of budgetWCIJ INC — $1,789,583 over 4y, 39% of budgetCIVIC NEWS COMPANY — $1,756,556 over 4y, 6.5% of budgetBLOCK CLUB CHICAGO NFP — $1,690,963 over 4y, 18% of budgetINVESTIGATIVE NEWSOURCE — $1,638,363 over 6y, 29% of budgetCity Report Inc — $1,385,045 over 3y, 17% of budgetSahan Journal — $1,348,275 over 4y, 14% of budgetINDIJ PUBLIC MEDIA — $1,288,363 over 4y, 12% of budgetCITY BUREAU NFP — $1,223,126 over 5y, 25% of budgetVERMONT JOURNALISM TRUST LTD — $1,192,155 over 6y, 12% of budgetEL PASO MATTERS INC — $1,122,275 over 4y, 33% of budgetTHE MARSHALL PROJECT INC — $1,109,000 over 4y, 3.0% of budgetFORT WORTH REPORT — $1,082,498 over 3y, 22% of budgetTEXAS TRIBUNE INC — $1,049,167 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetNEVADA NEWS BUREAU INC — $1,041,284 over 4y, 23% of budgetMONTANA FREE PRESS — $1,029,814 over 5y, 37% of budgetCAPITAL B NEWS INC — $1,013,300 over 4y, 11% of budgetTHE LENFEST INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM SPECIAL ASSET FUND OF TPF — $997,000 over 4y, 3.2% of budgetCONNECTICUT NEWS PROJECT INC — $974,822 over 6y, 13% of budgetCENTRO DE PERIODISMO INVESTIGATIVO INC — $915,000 over 5y, 17% of budgetBOREALIS PHILANTHROPY — $850,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetNEBRASKA JOURNALISM TRUST — $833,758 over 3y, 13% of budgetCalMatters — $812,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetMountain State Spotlight Inc — $750,079 over 4y, 24% of budgetENLACE LATINO NC INC — $748,257 over 3y, 27% of budgetSPOTLIGHT PA — $702,349 over 2y, 8.1% of budgetKENTUCKY PUBLIC RADIO INC — $698,868 over 4y, 4.0% of budgetWYOFILE — $666,305 over 5y, 24% of budgetMUCKROCK FOUNDATION INC — $659,500 over 2y, 13% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT NEWS — $652,250 over 4y, 4.2% of budgetLOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE INC — $644,975 over 2y, 44% of budgetUNIVERSITY RADIO FOUNDATION INC — $601,686 over 3y, 5.5% of budgetDocumented LTD — $582,461 over 3y, 22% of budgetNEW YORK FOCUS INC — $556,802 over 2y, 16% of budgetOUTLIER MEDIA — $493,953 over 3y, 7.6% of budgetSOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RADIO — $480,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetBROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $410,500 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetLOOKOUT Publications — $404,950 over 2y, 81% of budgetZERO DEBT MASSACHUSETTS INC — $400,000 over 2y, 50% of budgetGrist Magazine Inc — $351,625 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetSan Jose News Bureau — $351,339 over 3y, 12% of budgetTHE GROUNDTRUTH PROJECT INC — $340,000 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetColorado Sun — $329,300 over 1y, 5.7% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Institute for Nonprofit NewsCA81× affinity37 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Institute for Nonprofit News · The Miami Foundation Inc · The Groundtruth Project Inc · Local Independent Online News Publishers Inc · The Lenfest Institute for Journalism Special Asset Fund of Tpf · Inasmuch Foundation · John S and James L Knight Foundation · The Ford Foundation · Pro Publica Inc · Walton Family Foundation Inc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization American Journalism Project Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 70%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • Vermont Journalism Trust Ltd0% of income from government
  • Local Journalism Initiative Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY2025

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 62 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph