We’re excited to host our annual breakfast gathering for funders attending the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. Join us from 8-10:30 a.m. on Friday, April 17, at the Hotel Brufani (SINA Brufani) in the Sala del Cambio 🇮🇹 At a moment of significant change across the media landscape, this meeting will create space for funders to reflect together on the challenges and opportunities shaping the field—from sustainability pressures and shifting audience behavior to the evolving role of philanthropy in supporting public-interest journalism. Rather than a traditional panel, the session will feature brief opening provocations followed by facilitated small-group discussions, allowing funders to exchange perspectives, surface shared questions and explore where greater coordination or new approaches may be needed. Please note: This gathering is intended for philanthropic funders. Intermediaries are welcome to attend in their role as funders. MIF Staff & Board Speaking Engagements at the Festival IJF will be buzzing with over 175 panel discussions that are free and open to the public. We’re excited to share that MIF staff and board will be contributing their expertise to the following discussions: Creative Reconstruction: Reimagining Local News and Public Media How Documentary Funders Think… Read More

For more than 50 years, PBS Kids has offered free, research-based programming that supports children’s learning and development, with particular emphasis on families and communities historically underserved by the market. But the decision to defund the federal Ready to Learn grants, alongside broader public media rescission cuts, has raised urgent questions about the future of PBS Kids and the infrastructure that sustains it. At a time when children’s media is increasingly shaped by commercial incentives, platform design and fragmented attention—often without the same grounding in developmental research—this Media Impact Funders call will explore the role PBS Kids and its production partners have historically played in delivering trusted, educational content for young audiences and what it will take to sustain and evolve that role going forward. Presented in partnership with Grantmakers for Education, the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative and Grantmakers for Thriving Youth, the conversation will bring together both education and media funders to consider how non-commercial children’s media fits within a broader public-interest media ecosystem. Leaders from PBS Kids, GBH and Fred Rogers Productions will share how nonprofit producers are balancing creative vision, educational mission and digital transformation in a rapidly changing… Read More