Stay up-to-date on the latest news, trends and perspectives in media and philanthropy.

At the Media Impact Forum last month, attendees had several opportunities to roll up their sleeves and discuss not only challenges in funding public interest media but the tools, research and frameworks that would move our field forward. We promised that the Forum was only the beginning of a conversation, and today we’re announcing the first round of Learning Initiatives we’re building based on these discussions feedback. These Initiatives are designed to be time-bound and outcomes-based collaborations for members to work together  on specific topics and themes, providing opportunities for our members to build tools, collaborate on strategies as well as identify new opportunities for funding and co-funding. Our first two initiatives are open to all members, including those with more experience in these areas and those considering some of these conversations for the first time. They will start meeting later this summer by Zoom and will finish their work by December. At the conclusion, MIF will be sharing outcomes and conclusions with the entire community later this fall. New Tech & Platforms Initiative: How do funders help support and build new platforms and distribution tools, particularly in the age of AI? This group will explore approaches and best practices… Read More

Health and science funders have been experimenting with media grantmaking for years including through support for local journalism, documentary film, narrative research, and support for creators. Yet many have been doing this work largely alone. That’s why we’re so excited to announce the MIF’s Science and Health Media Funders Network, a dedicated space for funders interested in how media investments can improve health and science outcomes. This network is open to both members and non-members, experienced media funders and those considering their first media grant. By creating spaces for learning and collaboration, and by producing practical research and tools, MIF helps funders act with greater clarity, confidence and collective impact. We’re grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for making this important work possible. Network participants can expect: Dedicated network calls on key challenges including the science and health media funding landscape, audience trust research, documentary and narrative change, and AI’s implications for science media Peer-to-peer learning and small group work Original research and resources for science and health grantmakers Toolkits and on-ramps for those newer to the field A daylong in-person convening for members Fill out this interest form to learn more. Read More

Media Impact Funders is delighted to welcome three outstanding leaders to the Media Impact Funders board of directors: Angelica Das, Director of the Reimagine & Rebuild Program, Democracy Fund Vidya Krishnamurthy, Vice President and Chief of Communications and Strategic External Engagement, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Marcia Parker, Vice President of Philanthropic Partnerships, The New York Times. Angelica, Vidya and Marcia bring decades of journalism, media and grantmaking experience to our board and to the field. Their vision and leadership will help strengthen Media Impact Funders as we work to ensure a thriving media ecosystem that serves the public interest. Thank you to outgoing board member Norris West We extend our deepest gratitude to Norris West, former Director of Strategic Communications at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, for nine years of meaningful service on the MIF board. Norris expertly stewarded our governance committee and has served as a mentor and champion for so many across the media and philanthropy fields. We’re deeply grateful for his dedication to MIF and our members. Learn more about the new board members Angelica Das is the Director of the Reimagine & Rebuild program at Democracy Fund. Read More

I am still thinking about Hank Green’s keynote at last month’s Media Impact Forum. He made the case that “authenticity is cheap, but credibility is expensive,” and then offered a useful reframing grantmakers grappling with funding creators and creator infrastructure. It’s not solely about how fund creators, Hank said, but about how to build an ecosystem that includes them. Pop Culture Collaborative’s recent Digital Waves series on digital creators, offers a great starting place for funding that new ecosystem. Written in partnership with Dot Connector Studio, the four-part series is aptly titled “Imagine the Pluralist Narrative Power We Will Build: A Primer for Investing in Digital Creator Infrastructure”: Part 1 makes the case for why funders need to rethink creator partnerships (digital creators now shape how tens of millions of people get and make sense of the news) Part 2 names 10 structural barriers driving creator burnout, from one-person-agency overload to competition from AI-generated content Part 3 lays out partnership models, mapped to what funders want (narrative reach) and what creators need (sustainability) Part 4 turns to infrastructure and names models such as creator incubators, fellowships, peer networks, etc., with three… Read More

Last week at the Grantmakers In Health conference in Baltimore, I brought something to life that I’ve been thinking about for nearly a decade: Media Impact Funders’ first-ever Media Grantmaking 101 workshop. For years, we’ve made the case that strong public-interest media is essential to achieving philanthropic goals. You know the refrain by now: Whatever your first issue is, media should be your second. But what happened in this room felt different. The 50+ health funders who joined us weren’t asking whether media belongs in their strategies. They were asking how. That shift feels significant. To help kick off the workshop, I asked two experienced media funders—Kate Shatzkin at Annie E. Casey Foundation and Taryn Fort (she/her) at The Colorado Health Foundation— to share their “why media funding” journeys, what the internal conversations looked like at their respective organizations, and the advice they’d give to a peer who was just starting out. Then, Marisol Bello from Housing Narrative Lab brought the practitioner perspective, talking about the impact philanthropic support can have on narrative storytelling. Participants worked through a hands-on exercise that took them from identifying a health challenge and the information gap making it worse, to choosing… Read More

At the 2026 Media Impact Forum, MIF Executive Director Abby Rapoport opened with a powerful message for funders: the biggest risk facing public-interest media right now isn’t funding or political pressure—it’s a failure of imagination. What’s needed now is cross-sector, infrastructure-level thinking to chart a new and better path forward. Watch or read her remarks below.   At this gathering, we start with a seemingly basic premise: that media, in its many forms, is fundamental to the way that we as individuals connect to our communities and societies. As the central mechanism through which we connect, listen, learn and share, media creates our modern public square and in many ways our realities. And we recognize, like so many forward thinkers throughout the last 100 years of modern media, that this critical function cannot solely be left to commercial interests and market incentives. This past year has seen devastating federal funding cuts, profound technological disruption, journalists and media makers around the world killed without repercussion, and a number of once respected for-profit news outlets seemingly kowtowing to political pressure. At least in the short-term, a lot rests on philanthropy’s ability—your ability—to fill the gap that’s been left by others, to… Read More

Journalists and funders are often talking past each other. It shows up most clearly when fundraising falls short. The three of us came together at ONA in March to lead a session for news leaders on fundraising and philanthropy and answer some of the questions we hear over and over again: How do we get grant support? What are funders actually looking for? Why does this process feel so opaque? The answer, we think, is this: It’s not just that journalists and funders are speaking different languages; they’re often working from different mental models. And it’s that difference in approach that accounts for a lot of the frustration from newsrooms. It’s easy to assume that philanthropy is just one more revenue stream—another way to pay for the work you’re already doing. But philanthropic dollars tend to support the very kinds of journalism that the market alone won’t sustain and that earned revenue won’t justify. That context matters because it changes how you show up in these conversations. Here are seven tips we’ve found helpful in closing the gap. Don’t start with a pitch A lot of news organizations approach philanthropy like a transaction: You have an idea, you pitch it,… Read More

In advance of this year’s Media Impact Forum, our staff has compiled a list of reports, articles and recorded programs to help prepare attendees for the event. These are some of the articles and tools that our programming team had in mind when putting together the conference, and also cover earlier conversations that we will build on at the Forum. We will be adding to this list in the lead-up to May 28. Not attending the Forum? The materials here speak to the dominant themes and ideas that will be presented on stage, but will also be key parts of the conversations and events funders can expect from MIF in the coming months. If you have any questions about the links included here, would like more information or have an item you think we should add to the list, please reach out to shannon@mediafunders.org. Media Infrastructure & Sustainability Rebuilding Local Journalism at Scale: A Field-Level Analysis of Infrastructure Needs. Published earlier this year by MIF, this report provides an analysis of the structural constraints shaping the future of local journalism What Comes Next? The Conversation Emerging Around “Rebuilding Local Journalism at Scale” – a follow-up piece… Read More

As part of Media Impact Funders’ programming on the Future of Public Media (one of our core pillars), we recently hosted an urgent conversation on the role of PBS Kids and public interest children’s media in the aftermath of massive cuts to federal funding and a field increasingly shaped by commercial incentives. The briefing spotlighted the historic role PBS Kids and its production partners have played in delivering research-based educational content for young audiences and ways that funders can help sustain this unique work. Below, you’ll find key takeaways from the program, a brief list of options for funders looking to deepen their engagement, and opportunities to join working sessions next month and in the summer. Please email Shannon Thomas at shannon@mediafunders.org if you would like to get involved in this work. MIF is committed to supporting this critical issue with members and interested funders. We are grateful to our partners: Grantmakers for Education, the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative and Grantmakers for Thriving Youth. And thanks again to the program speakers: Gregg Behr, Executive Director, The Grable Foundation, Sara DeWitt, Senior VP & General Manager, PBS Kids & Education, Jenn Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director,… Read More

MIF has received a three-year, $300,000 general operating grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The grant supports MIF’s shift toward more coordinated approaches in a rapidly shifting media landscape, with public media, journalism, documentary and narrative ecosystems increasingly overlapping. MacArthur’s investment will help advance MIF’s priorities to strengthen funder alignment, advance shared learning and support more strategic, collaborative investments in media infrastructure and impact. That means creating space for funders to move not just faster, but smarter, by linking resources, insights and strategies in ways that reflect the complexity of today’s information environment. At a time when the challenges facing public-interest media are both urgent and interconnected, this funding helps position MIF and its network to meet the moment with greater context, coordination and collaboration. We are grateful to the MacArthur Foundation for their partnership and support. Learn more about MIF’s approach.

The MIF team is back from the International Journalism Festival, where we had the privilege of joining funders, journalists and researchers from around the world discussing local news, journalist safety and more. We organized two panels and hosted our annual funder brunch, and this year, our work focused on how funders are thinking about journalism safety and impact right now and where there are opportunities for collaboration. Our Executive Director, Abby Rapoport, moderated a conversation on how funders are approaching safety and sustainability. Safety is no longer just a concern for reporters in conflict zones. While there’s been growing investment in journalism infrastructure, there’s a critical gap in support systems to protect journalists themselves. The discussion explored how funders are navigating risk and responsibility and what it will take to sustain journalism in an increasingly volatile global environment. Nina Sachdev, our Deputy Director of External Affairs, led a session on what journalism can learn from documentary funders. Panelists discussed the factors that shape funding decisions and the ethics of how stories are produced. The conversation offered practical insight into how these approaches might translate into newsroom practice. We also convened our annual funder breakfast, bringing together… Read More

Editor’s note: At Media Impact Funders, we’re seeing a growing conversation about how philanthropy can strengthen the systems that support public-interest media. At the same time, important questions are emerging about how those systems are experienced on the ground. In this piece, Tracie Powell, founder of the Pivot Fund, offers a perspective rooted in direct work with newsrooms, highlighting the relationship between infrastructure and capacity. Her insights contribute to a broader dialogue across the field about how to align funding strategies with the realities of the organizations they aim to support. Over the past several years, philanthropy has increasingly rallied around the idea that local journalism needs infrastructure—shared services, training programs, accelerators, and technical assistance. This is a critical shift, and long overdue. A new report, Rebuilding Local Journalism at Scale: What nearly 560 applications reveal about scale, sustainability and system-level investments by Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, has helped galvanize this momentum. Drawing on nearly 560 proposals submitted to Press Forward’s infrastructure funding process, the report finds that many of the most persistent challenges facing local journalism are not isolated newsroom problems, but system-level constraints tied to fragmented infrastructure and limited shared capacity. It also makes a compelling… Read More