· Public charity
Local Media Foundation
LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION's mission is to ensure a healthy future for local journalism, which is essential to a strong democracy, by reinventing business models for news.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k19 grants · $132k
- $10k–50k36 grants · $726k
- $50k–250k14 grants · $935k
- $250k+5 grants · $2.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GANNETT HOLDINGS LLC | $743,897 |
| WORD IN BLACK PBC | $619,898 |
| NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY | $445,480 |
| THE COLUMBIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY | $331,809 |
| AMSTERDAM NEWS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION | $264,000 |
| AMNEWS CORPDBA NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS | $112,219 |
| MASCO COMMUNICATIONSPHILADELPHIA GAY NEWS | $97,166 |
| LAMBDA PUBLICATIONS INCDBA WINDY CITY | $81,575 |
| AFRO AMERICAN CO BALTIMORE CITY | $77,053 |
| LOOKOUT LOCAL | $71,162 |
| DREAM LOCAL DIGITAL LLC | $63,534 |
| SENA CHRISTIAN | $60,635 |
| PRONEWS COACHES INC | $59,338 |
| LEE PUBLISHING COMPANY INC | $58,512 |
| SARA SCHNEIDER GRAZIOSI | $53,582 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $43k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
37 repeat relationships: 25 still active in FY2025, 12 since wound down; 46 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 44% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.3M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TCTHE COLUMBIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY4× · 2022–2025 · $1.4M
- SRSPOKESMAN & RECORDER PUBLISHING CO3× · 2023–2025 · $677k
- VNVOICE NEWS NETWORK5× · 2021–2025 · $443k · revenue -7% · 26% of their budget
Funded once
- WIWORD IN BLACK PBCone grant, 2023 · $350k
- MJMAINE JOURNALISM FOUNDATIONone grant, 2023 · $178k
OKLAHOMA MEDIA CENTER INCone grant, 2023 · $157k · 50% of their budget
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To educate journalists and the public, and foster public debate, about improving political journalism to reflect public needs and hold the powerful accountable.
Educating the public and journalists about crime and criminal justice, primarily through the publication of a daily news digest, Crime and Justice News.
Expands local news across North Carolina
Producing journalism that matters to Arkansans.
To educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.
How this is measured
17 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 117 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Local Media Association · Alternative Newsweekly Foundation · The Groundtruth Project Inc · Local Independent Online News Publishers Inc · The Miami Foundation Inc · The Lenfest Institute for Journalism Special Asset Fund of Tpf · Solutions Journalism Network Inc · The Int'L Center for Journalists Inc · Pro Publica Inc · Borealis Philanthropy · American Press Institute Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Local Media Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Local Media Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Local Media’s filings →