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

The 2023 Media Impact Forum: Stories of Community served as an important reminder of the robust network of funders, storytellers, journalists, and others who understand the importance of media for healthy communities. Held at KQED headquarters in San Francisco, the Media Impact Forum focused on uplifting voices from the news outlets and media organizations that are deeply rooted in community. Uniquely positioned to reflect local concerns and surface appropriate solutions, media that’s created in and reflective of the communities it serves plays a vital role in our information ecosystem, providing the means for cultural expression, discussion, and debate. Read More

Last year, the Associated Press announced an initiative to enhance the global understanding of climate change, its impacts, and solutions through quality climate journalism that is inclusive of local perspectives and contexts, and in places where climate is under-reported. The initiative created a standalone AP climate desk and placed more journalists in countries, primarily in the Global South. Read More

It was great to be back in Oxford, England, earlier this month for the Skoll World Forum, a unique gathering of donors and doers from around the world. From the opening courageous conversation between Carole Cadwalladr and Nobel Prize-winning editor and author Maria Ressa, one of the central messages of this year’s World Forum was on the dangers of attacks on press freedom and the corrosive impact of misinformation on all of the vexing issues undermining social justice around the world. Read More

For more than 10 years, Humanity United has been dedicated to cultivating the conditions for enduring peace and freedom. HU supports and works alongside partners who strive to advance human dignity and change the systems that enable violent conflict and human exploitation around the world. A member of MIF since 2017, Humanity United is part of The Omidyar Group, a collection of independent organizations and initiatives that pursue different ways to improve the lives of people and societies. Humanity United is focused on specific portfolios of work: Peacebuilding and Human Trafficking and Forced Labor, in addition to a cross-cutting Public Engagement portfolio. Its Independent Journalism and Media (IJAM) program operates within the Public Engagement portfolio and supports investigative reporting, journalism networks, and robust duty of care and support for journalists. Here, Liz Baker, Senior Director of IJAM, highlights HU's journalism strategy, its evolution as a media funder, and what the organization wants to learn alongside its peers. Read More

Published in partnership with Media Impact Funders, Global Press has released new findings about U.S. audience demand for international journalism, and provides actional recommendations for funders supporting public interest media around the world. “Unlocking U.S. Audience Demand for International News,” a study of 1,200 U.S.-based adults who are regular online news readers, establishes that there is a deep reservoir of untapped demand from readers in the United States for international journalism that is local, precise, and representative. These potential news consumers exist across a wide range of demographics. The study found that large segments of the U.S. audience want stories that are written by local reporters from their own communities rather than by journalists sent from abroad. It also demonstrated a fatigue with the pervasive and generic negative narratives about disaster and conflict. Instead, it proves that readers value reporting that is dignified, precise, and avoids stereotypes common in international journalism. This study leaves no doubt that U.S.-based readers are in favor of upending stereotypical global narratives in favor of those with solutions and context. “For too long publishers have made the assumption that there is little demand for… Read More

News executives have long wed themselves to the narrative that there is a lack of U.S. audience appetite for international news. But is that true? Read More

The Media Impact Funders team was pleased to be able to return to Park City, Utah, to attend the Sundance Film Festival this month, viewing powerful documentary films and reconnecting with film funders who have not had a chance to convene in person since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was exhilarating to learn and share with key funders and we were especially fortunate to hear from Carrie Lozano, Director of Documentary Film and Artist Programs at the Sundance Institute. Read More

Since 2020, Perspective Fund has been gathering current and recent grantees whose work serves as the backbone of the documentary impact field. These grantees, all focused on strengthening and innovating different aspects of the documentary impact ecosystem, participated in these gatherings not only to build community but to participate in a two-way channel of conversation about what Perspective Fund (and funders like them) can do to elevate their support “beyond the check.”  This content was originally meant to be shared during an MIF Member Briefing, but has since been adapted into a transcribed conversation between Denae Peters, Program Officer at Perspective Fund, Daniel Forkkio, CEO of Represent Justice, and Shaady Salehi, Executive Director of the Trust-based Philanthropy Project. Here, they share some of the most meaningful takeaways from this fruitful and galvanizing discourse, including ways for funders who want to elevate trust-building with their grantees; the realities of restricted grants; the importance of capacity-building; and more. (Click here for a brief summary of these convenings.)  Read More

With a fresh Oscar nod and a Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, 2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Catapult Film Fund. A longtime partner and stakeholder in MIF’s efforts to convene a robust network of documentary film funders, and a member of MIF since 2022, Catapult has gained a reputation for its work to support artists and their films in the earliest stages of development. Founded in 2010 by Lisa Kleiner Chanoff and Bonni Cohen, Catapult is among the first supporters on a project, and it stays with that project from its very early beginnings until it makes its way out into the world. In this Q&A, Catapult Co-Director and Senior Program Officer Megan Gelstein—who spoke at our film funder gathering adjacent to the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month—gives us a deeper look into Catapult’s strategy, lessons learned from playing the long game, and what the funding community should do more of to support nonfiction storytelling. Nina Sachdev, Communications Director, Media Impact Funders: We know that getting films off the ground is incredibly difficult. But early stage work is your bread and butter. Tell us how you “catapult” nonfiction… Read More

This members briefing was organized in partnership with New Media Ventures and co-sponsored with Philanthropy New York. All members and supporters of Media Impact Funders have the opportunity to initiate and produce issue-related programming for their peers. Learn more about member briefings. This week, experts from industry leaders New Media Ventures and Accelerate Change joined a discussion about how the media landscape is shifting, why philanthropic investment is necessary, and opportunities for collaboration. Philanthropy has long been critical in sustaining public interest media through the various stages of landscape shifts. Now as the country faces unprecedented polarization, rampant disinformation, and the overall erosion of trust in media, philanthropy must again shift—this time, to target investment in sustainable, scalable media companies and organizations. Across the board, media in the public interest is losing critical ground on emerging social platforms. Meanwhile, an insidious media infrastructure rooted in disinformation is gaining traction on emerging platforms such as TikTok, Twitch, and Discord. These efforts are building massive audiences while also misleading them with completely evidence-free narratives. The pathway is clear and the time is now—in order to protect democracy, we need a decentralized, innovative media ecosystem able to meet targeted audiences where they… Read More

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