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

The Heising-Simons Foundation, a member of MIF since 2016, is a family foundation based in Los Altos and San Francisco, Calif. Awarding more than $900 million since making its first grant in 2007, the foundation focuses on five program areas—Education, Climate & Clean Energy, Human Rights, Science, and Community and Opportunity.  With a history of funding media relating to its programmatic priorities, the foundation took a step further by creating a journalism portfolio within the Community and Opportunity program area—managed by Brian Eule, the foundation's director of Journalism and Communications. In this Q&A, Brian shares details about the foundation's thinking around media strategy, why we need to sustain the field of freelance journalism and the critical need to elevate ignored voices, and more. Read More

Lumina Foundation, a member of MIF since 2011, is a private foundation in Indianapolis committed to learning after high school that prepares people for informed citizenship and success in a global economy. For 14 years, Lumina has focused on ensuring that, by 2025, 60 percent of adults in the United States have college degrees or other credentials of value. Lumina believes no matter where you come from, what you look like, or how much money your family has, you should have what you need to learn, grow, and thrive. The foundation works with education and business leaders, civil rights organizations, state and federal policymakers, and other leaders who want to reimagine higher learning for today’s students. These learners are more likely to be Black, Hispanic or Latino, Native American, from low-income households, the first in their families to go to college, and family caregivers. They attend community colleges, regional universities, open-access private colleges, and minority-serving institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities. And they often experience unstable housing situations, a lack of healthcare, and uncertainty over where their next meals are coming from. Read More

The Joyce Foundation, a member of MIF since 2016, is a Chicago-based private foundation that focuses on evidence-based public policy solutions to some of the nation’s most pressing challenges. Since 1993, Joyce has been a leader among philanthropies in supporting efforts to prevent gun violence. (Research the foundation has supported informed key provisions of the recently passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Joyce called a “significant step forward in reducing gun violence in America.”) Joyce Foundation's Chief External Affairs Officer Kayce Ataiyero (left) and Hugh Dellios, Senior Program Officer, Journalism. Joyce has been playing the long game in its support of journalism, too, recognizing the effective role media can play in surfacing public policy solutions. At a recent MIF meeting among journalism funders, Hugh Dellios, Joyce’s Senior Program Officer, Journalism, described the evolution of the foundation’s media grantmaking strategy, which started in the communications department as a way to support Joyce’s primary program areas. Eventually, the foundation established a separate media grantmaking portfolio to deepen the impact of its other investments—and to help rebuild the news ecosystem in the Great Lakes region. This shift was the result of Joyce’s recognition that quality reporting is essential to sound public policy. Here, Chief External Affairs Officer Kayce Ataiyero—who oversees the Journalism program at Joyce—shares more thinking around Joyce’s media funding, the importance of journalism for a healthy democracy, and advice for funders who may be interested in making media and journalism grants. Read More

The role of the impact campaign and its impact producer is critical to the long-term success of a film whose goal is to catalyze social change. It's the impact producer who must deeply understand the film's mission and message, and then figure out how best to leverage it for impact—whether it's raising awareness, inspiring action or changing policy. Few funders are supporting the documentary impact ecosystem as robustly as Perspective Fund. A member of Media Impact Funders (MIF) since 2016, Perspective—in addition to supporting powerhouse social change documentaries such as "Writing with Fire," "Crip Camp" and "Coded Bias"— offers general operating support and infrastructure grants geared toward building and sustaining the field. In 2020, soon after COVID-19 forced widespread lockdowns, which all but eliminated film releases and disrupted their impact campaigns, Perspective implemented an emergency relief fund for struggling impact producers facing economic uncertainty. MIF Communications Director Nina Sachdev recently spoke with Denae Peters, a former impact practitioner who oversees Perspective Fund’s infrastructure program, about the organization’s work two years into the pandemic, opportunities and concerns in the impact ecosystem, and its Our Democracy portfolio. Read More

The Colorado Health Foundation, a member of MIF since 2020, has worked to bring health in reach for all Coloradans for more than two decades by engaging closely with communities across the state through investing, policy advocacy, learning and capacity building. Since 2015, the foundation sharpened its focus on creating health equity for all Coloradans, especially those for whom health is furthest from reach, by intentionally prioritizing communities of color. Relatively new to media grantmaking, the foundation is well under way with efforts to build and sustain the flow of quality information across Colorado. We recently talked with Senior Communications Officer Jaclyn Lensen about the foundation's commitment to equity and takeaways from its work to rebuild the state's local news ecosystem. Read More

There’s a foreboding sketch of an hour glass with an image of a melting globe dripping through it on the most recent edition of h magazine, the semi-annual publication produced by The Heinz Endowments. The headline on the cover declares, “Moment of Truth: Action is Needed to Address Environmental Crises Before Time Runs Out.” Read More

We know that narratives matter. And the prevailing one of Africa is that it's a monolithic continent wracked by poverty, disease, conflict, poor leadership and corruption. Enough with the harmful stereotyping. Africa No Filter (ANF) is a donor collaborative that supports the development of nuanced and contemporary stories that shift stereotypical and harmful narratives within and about Africa. In this Q&A, we talked to ANF's executive director, Moky Makura — who was recently named one of Quartz Africa's top innovators — on how fellow funders can get it right when it comes to the multifaceted continent of 54 countries. Read More

Wichita Community Foundation, a member of MIF since July 2021, was funded in 1986 and partners with people, families, and organizations in Kansas to devote resources to causes that matter. The News and Information Fund at WCF invests in strengthening the local news ecosystem, leading to a more informed and engaged city. Last summer, WCF made its single largest grant—more than $1 million—to launch The Wichita Beacon, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to public service journalism. In this Q&A, Courtney Bengtson, WCF's Director of Strategic Initiatives talks about how media fits into the organization's overall goals and the importance of journalism for healthy communities. Read More

The NIHCM Foundation, a member of MIF since 2019, funds health care journalism that examines issues impacting the United States health care system and consumers, such as access to care, cost and quality, and equity. The impact of its investments can be seen in work such as "The Aftermath," a Vox series about the collateral health effects of Covid-19. A recent NIHCM-supported story in the series, "The Doctors Are Not All Right," confronted the devastating mental health toll that COVID-19 has taken on doctors around the country. This is the kind of high-quality journalism to which NIHCM is committed. That's why, for the second year, NIHCM is making $1 million available to support new awards in journalism and research. The deadline to apply is July 12. In this Q&A, Nancy Chockley, founding President and CEO of the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation, and Kathryn Santoro, Director of Programming, share details about NIHCM’s commitment to supporting high-quality health journalism. Read More

The Wyncote Foundation, based in Philadelphia, was founded in 2009 with funds from the Otto and Phoebe Haas Charitable Trusts, at the direction of John C. Haas. A place-based funder, Wyncote is a strong player in the field of media philanthropy and believes deeply in supporting local communities by lifting up the stories and voices of those who are not usually heard in mainstream media. (In 2019, Wyncote made about $5 million in grants under its Public Media & Journalism program area.) On Wyncote’s funding strategy, Vice Chair David Haas—a decades-long supporter of MIF and former MIF Board Chair—said the foundation “takes an ecosystem approach, combining a strong commitment to accountability journalism with support for a range of community information needs and resources, creative storytelling, and independent media.” The foundation also works to inform and inspire other place-based funders. Over the years, it has produced several reports profiling local foundations’ grantmaking strategies and support for a range of media projects. Wyncote recently released a new report, “Culture, Heritage, and Place: How Media Amplifies Community Narratives,” which focuses on the work of media organizations across the U.S. dedicated to local and… Read More

BWF believes that a diverse scientific workforce is essential to the process and advancement of research innovation, academic discovery, and public service. Has the racial violence we’ve seen in the past year changed your approach to addressing racism in science? Yes, it has, but not just racism in science. The current events have stressed the need for us to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in all facets of our organization. For the first time in my tenure, and perhaps, ever, we issued a public statement after the death of George Floyd. It was something that shook us to our core and made us reevaluate our values in the organization. There’s so much to say on this that I’m not sure where to even begin other than we are at the beginning of a very long road. Read More

The Libra Foundation's Democracy Frontlines Fund is a national aligned giving strategy whose goal is to leverage millions of dollars to fund black-led organizers fighting for free and fair elections. Read More