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The goal of the Journalism and Media Program is to strengthen democracy by supporting fact-based news and narratives and promoting resilient and sustainable information and storytelling ecosystems that serve the public interest. The program conducts this work in the U.S. and globally across two areas of media: Professional Nonprofit Reporting and Nonfiction Multimedia Storytelling.
We build strong, independent, and sustainable organizations and networks that exemplify leadership and innovation in a rapidly changing media ecosystem and comprise the media infrastructure required to meet the democratic ideals of a multiracial, multiethnic America.
We address barriers that limit the creation of, access to, or participation in media activities, including the legal, safety, digital security, and technological challenges facing organizations and individuals.
We promote learning, leadership, innovation, and field-building opportunities that explore timely and emerging issues related to the production, dissemination, and engagement with journalism and media.
Despite abundant sources of news and information, only a small percentage of media is created with an intention to engender deep understanding about current events, lift up underreported issues, include and amplify independent voices, promote empathy and mutual respect, and inspire civic engagement. As a result, large segments of the American public are misinformed, disengaged, and cynical about their role as civic agents for social change.
In this environment, nonprofit journalism and media organizations are working creatively and entrepreneurially to provide the American public with the information they need for rigorous critical thinking and informed decision making.
These organizations create and disseminate journalism and media content that is original and illuminating, and they achieve a level of influence disproportionate to their size. The Journalism and Media Program seeks to strengthen and sustain this ecosystem, which supports opportunities for public conversations and individual and collective action on urgent contemporary issues.
The Journalism and Media program expects to demonstrate contributions to the following outcomes through our grantmaking:
Strong and stable organizations and networks that anchor a resilient and independent media ecosystem designed to meet the needs of a democratic society.
Availability and accessibility of fact-based news, information, and narratives distributed in creative and effective ways to reach audiences where they are.
Firelight Media produces documentary films, supports filmmakers of color, and cultivates audiences for their work.
In Professional Nonprofit Reporting, our goal is to strengthen and sustain nonpartisan, nonprofit newsrooms that pursue investigative, enterprising, and explanatory reporting that fill important gaps in the journalism ecosystem; defend press freedom; and promote organizations and activities that support journalists of all backgrounds.
In Nonfiction Multimedia Storytelling, our primary focus is on funding social issue documentary films and series that reveal the human side of policy debates, primarily through regranting partner organizations, while also helping to build the infrastructure of organizations and supports that enable individuals with a range of lived experiences to become, and succeed as, independent filmmakers and to create opportunities for community engagement and conversations around stories.
Of note, the Journalism and Media Program is in the process of winding down the Participatory Civic Media strategy after ten years of grantmaking. Since 2016, the program has supported more than 70 organizations with 190 grants totaling $80 million as part of this work.
While we do not accept unsolicited proposals, we are always eager to hear new ideas and perspectives.
Evaluation of our work is a critical tool for informing our decision-making, leading to better results and more effective stewardship of resources. We develop customized evaluation designs for each of our programs based on the context, problem, opportunity, and approach to the work. Evaluation is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process of collecting feedback and using that information to support our grantees and adjust our strategy.
In 2020, the Journalism and Media Program completed a developmental evaluation of the strategy, covering the period between 2015-2020. The evaluation found a clear and urgent need for the Foundation to continue its work in supporting independent journalism and media, pointing to areas where we could respond more boldly to changes in the media environment and invest more deeply in work we have already begun for greater impact. It also identified mis- and disinformation, especially on the social web, as a primary threat to meeting our programmatic goals. In response, the program made a limited number of experimental grants to help build the resiliency of communities most negatively impacted by mis- and disinformation.
Findings and analyses from evaluation activities are posted publicly as they become available.
In 2026, the Journalism and Media program conducted an evaluation of its narrative change grantmaking activities. This evaluation is forthcoming.
