Grants for Local News Nonprofits 2026: 64 Funders
Quick Answer: If you're running a nonprofit local or statewide newsroom, a nonprofit that owns a local paper or a fund that pays for local reporting, grants for local news nonprofits come from private foundations, and the gifts that carry a cause tag are filed mostly under education.
Full answer and how we checked it
Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education grants pulled November 1, 2026 found 64 foundations that made 127 grants to nonprofit newsrooms and their support groups, totaling $24,863,011. The median gift was $75,000. New York (17 foundations), California (13) and Mississippi (9) lead, and California's free preview sample is the Kresge Foundation.
This guide is for executive editors, publishers, development directors and founding boards at nonprofit newsrooms: digital statewide sites, city and county news outlets, education desks and local news funds. Public radio stations and public access TV have separate guides, linked below, because their money comes from other places.
Data note: The newsroom counts come from a Grantsights search of 990-PF education grants, pulled November 1, 2026, for recipients or purposes naming nonprofit news organizations, local journalism funds and education news services. Grantsights checked 40 matched education recipients by hand, and 37 were nonprofit newsrooms or groups that fund, train or network them. 4 of those 37 are support groups, not newsrooms. The 3 misses were a funder network, a library's teen journalism club and a media policy group. The statewide education table later in the guide comes from a separate Grantsights pull of all 990-PF education filings, dated October 29, 2026.
In this guide (12 sections)
- 4 Kinds of News Nonprofits and the Case Each One Makes
- Grants for Local News Nonprofits: What 990-PF Filings Show
- News Nonprofit Grants by State
- Why the Education List for News Nonprofits
- What the IRS Doesn't Tell You About Funding a Newsroom
- What Newsroom Projects Foundations Pay For
- Budgeting a Newsroom Grant Request
- Common Mistakes in Newsroom Grant Requests
- A Newsroom's Funding Calendar
- Related Guides for News and Media Groups
- FAQ: Common Questions
- Sources
Foundations near you already fund this work. See three in your state that take requests, with how to apply. Free, about a minute.
Local news source review, Grantsights, November 1, 2026: Grantsights checked the IRS pages on political campaign activity by 501(c)(3) groups (opens in a new tab), public charities (opens in a new tab), the Schedule A instructions (opens in a new tab), Publication 598 on unrelated business income (opens in a new tab) and Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), plus the text of 26 U.S.C. 501 (opens in a new tab), against foundation filings that name newsrooms. Where official sources stop: no federal page says what a reporter, an editor or a records request costs, so a newsroom's budget has to carry those numbers on its own.
Foundations that fund this work
67,088 private foundations gave to schools, colleges, libraries and scholarship funds
From their own IRS Form 990-PF filings (tax years 2019 to 2025). Pick your state to see who gave there, with one foundation in full. About the list
Across the US, these foundations gave 871,704 grants totaling $51,422,345,287.
Historical giving does not establish an open application or eligibility for your organization. For-profit operators should check each foundation's applicant rules before buying.
The full list names all 67,088, state by state: what each gave, to whom, for what, and a link to its filings. One payment, no subscription.
Foundations ranked for nonprofit local newsrooms and the groups that support them in
Ordered by how many grants they made for this work in your state and to how many organizations, invitation-only foundations last. Foundations that gave to nonprofit local newsrooms and the groups that support them come first. From their own IRS 990-PF filings.
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4 Kinds of News Nonprofits and the Case Each One Makes
Grantsights sorted the 37 hand-checked recipients into 4 rough groups. Each wins money with a different argument, so find your row before you write. This table is illustrative, not data: staff sizes and budgets vary widely.
| Kind of group | Example from the filings | What it spends on | What funders say they're buying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide digital newsroom | Texas Tribune, CalMatters, Mississippi Today, Bridge Michigan | Capitol and policy reporters, data desks | Coverage of state government and schools |
| Education news desk | Chalkbeat, EdSource, EducationNC | Beat reporters for K-12, early childhood, college | Parents and teachers who know what schools are doing |
| City or county outlet | New Mexico Local News, iNewsSource, Local Journalism Initiative of Delaware | 2 to 10 local reporters, an editor | News in a place that lost its paper |
| Support group or local news fund | Institute for Nonprofit News, GroundTruth Project, American Journalism Project, Lancaster's journalism fund | Training, regrants, shared services | More reporters across many newsrooms |
The first 2 rows took most of the money. That's because their reporting lines up with what big foundations already fund, such as college access, early learning or state policy. A county outlet covering the zoning board has a harder pitch, and it should lead with the gap it fills and the readers it reaches.
Grants for Local News Nonprofits: What 990-PF Filings Show
Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education grants pulled November 1, 2026 found 64 foundations that made 127 grants to news nonprofits, totaling $24,863,011. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF, private foundations use the return to report their grants and other charitable distributions, so each gift below can be traced to a filing. Foundations reporting grants on Form 990-PF are a main source of contributed money for nonprofit newsrooms, alongside reader memberships, sponsors and community foundations.
The typical check is big by nonprofit standards. According to the same pull, the median grant was $75,000, a quarter of gifts were $15,000 or less and a quarter were $200,000 or more. Only 22 of the 127 grants came in under $5,000. Foundations that fund news tend to write fewer, larger checks for staff positions, not small gifts for events.
One family foundation skews the total
The Steinman Foundation's 3 largest gifts in the pull add up to $8,418,638, about 34% of the national total, according to the November 1, 2026 filings. They're all marked for local journalism and media literacy in Pennsylvania:
| Foundation | Newsroom or fund | State | Amount | Filed purpose | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Steinman Foundation | Steinman Institute for Civic Engagement | PA | $7,000,000 | Local journalism and media literacy | 2024 |
| The Steinman Foundation | Always Lancaster | PA | $1,384,826 | Local journalism and media literacy grants | 2025 |
| John S. and James L. Knight Foundation | The GroundTruth Project | MA | $900,500 | Public service journalism in cities and small towns | 2023 |
| Seedlings Foundation | Connecticut News Project | CT | $585,000 | Humanitarian, educational, community | 2025 |
| Seedlings Foundation | American Journalism Project | DC | $500,000 a year | Humanitarian, educational, community | 2023 to 2025 |
| Walton Family Foundation | Chalkbeat | NY | $450,000 | National and regional coverage for parents, students and educators | 2023 and 2024 |
| Conrad N. Hilton Foundation | CalMatters | CA | $400,000 | Informing policymakers on opportunity youth and homelessness | 2023 |
Pennsylvania's $8,424,138 from 2 funders is almost entirely Steinman money. Connecticut's $2,335,000 from 2 funders is mostly Seedlings, which also gave the Online Journalism Project in New Haven $350,000 in 2025. A newsroom in Pittsburgh or Bridgeport shouldn't read those state totals as a sign of open doors.
Gifts closer to a small newsroom's ask
For example, the Inasmuch Foundation gave the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, which publishes Mississippi Today, $50,000 in 2023 for its statewide Mapping Mississippi reporting. One organization in North Carolina, EducationNC, received $30,000 from the Belk Foundation in both 2023 and 2024 for general operating support, and $135,000 from Dogwood Health Trust in 2024 for pre-K to 12th grade reporting in western North Carolina and the Qualla Boundary. The Austin Memorial Foundation gave New Mexico Local News $36,000 in 2024, and the Laffey-McHugh Foundation gave the Local Journalism Initiative of Delaware $25,000 in 2024 to make education a dedicated beat. In San Diego, the Hertzberg Family Foundation gave iNewsSource $25,000 in 2025.
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News Nonprofit Grants by State
New York leads with 17 funders, though much of it is gifts to Chalkbeat, whose parent, Civic News Company, files from New York while running bureaus in other states. This table uses the November 1, 2026 pull, counted by the state where the newsroom is based.
| State | Funders | Grants | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 17 | 27 | $3,242,552 |
| California | 13 | 23 | $3,256,000 |
| Mississippi | 9 | 12 | $411,835 |
| Texas | 8 | 16 | $2,638,602 |
| Michigan | 5 | 6 | $524,800 |
| District of Columbia | 4 | 6 | $1,910,000 |
| Indiana | 3 | 5 | $110,200 |
| North Carolina | 3 | 4 | $345,000 |
8 states had 3 or more foundations giving education grants to news groups. Mississippi's 9 funders, most of them backing one statewide site, show what a single strong newsroom can draw: MacArthur and Ford each gave $150,000 in 2024, and the Harnisch Family Foundation gave $15,000 in 2023 and again in 2024. In Texas, Houston Endowment gave the Texas Tribune $255,000 in both 2023 and 2024 to redesign its Schools Explorer data tool, and the Greater Texas Foundation gave $120,000 in 2024 for higher education reporting.
Michigan shows how statewide newsrooms pair a big national funder with home-state ones. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Michigan's free preview sample, gave the Center for Michigan, which publishes Bridge Michigan, $400,000 in 2023, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation added $75,000 in 2024. Indiana's sample is the Lumina Foundation, which gave the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation $100,000 in 2024 for nonpartisan election and voting coverage.
California's newsroom funders
California's 13 foundations made 23 education grants to news groups worth $3,256,000, according to the November 1, 2026 pull. The free preview on the Grantsights education funder list for California leads with the Kresge Foundation, whose filings say it takes requests and list what to send and a contact. It gave EdSource $75,000 in 2023 for college coverage and capacity building, and it gave the Institute for Nonprofit News $75,000 the same year to expand higher education coverage in Florida.
EdSource in Oakland draws the widest set of California funders: the Hewlett Foundation gave $200,000 in 2023 and 2024 for arts education reporting, the Sobrato Family Foundation $150,000 in both years for coverage of English learners, and the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation $35,000 in 2024. Each funder paid for a slice of the beat it already cares about. That's the model to copy.
Why the Education List for News Nonprofits
Most gifts to named newsrooms carry no cause tag at all, so no single cause list catches them. Among the tagged gifts, education leads by a clear margin, with community and environment far behind. The education list fits a newsroom with a school, youth or civic beat best. A general-assignment site should treat it as a starting point and read each funder's other grants.
| State | Education gifts in filings | Education funders | Funders taking requests | Median education gift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 82,254 | 13,764 | 3,279 | $5,000 |
| California | 81,479 | 12,291 | 2,871 | $5,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 49,046 | 8,016 | 2,493 | $5,000 |
| Texas | 48,431 | 6,756 | 2,256 | $5,000 |
| Michigan | 23,185 | 4,592 | 1,422 | $4,000 |
| Mississippi | 3,631 | 858 | 312 | $5,000 |
In these 6 states the median education gift runs $4,000 to $5,000, according to Grantsights analysis of 990-PF education filings pulled October 29, 2026. That's a fifteenth or less of the $75,000 newsroom median. Those counts cover every education gift, from scholarships to school buildings, so treat the list as a lead sheet and read each funder's past grants before you write. A single state's education list is $29, and $99 covers a full year of every cause in every state; both can be refunded within 30 days.
What the IRS Doesn't Tell You About Funding a Newsroom
The IRS rules for charities weren't written with newsrooms in mind, and 5 of them catch news nonprofits more than most.
- No endorsements, ever. The text of 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3) (opens in a new tab) bars a charity from taking part in any political campaign for or against a candidate, "including the publishing or distributing of statements." According to IRS guidance on campaign activity, violating it can cost a group its exemption, though nonpartisan voter guides and forums can be allowed. A newsroom that converts from a for-profit paper has to drop endorsement editorials.
- One big funder can sink public charity status. According to IRS instructions for Schedule A, gifts from any one donor, including a private foundation, count toward public support only up to 2% of total support over the 5-year test period, and a new charity should track the test before its sixth year. A newsroom started with one family's money can fail the test, so recruit members and small donors early.
- Ad sales can be taxable. According to IRS Publication 598, selling ads in an exempt group's periodical is an unrelated business, and advertising income above direct costs can be taxed. A common mistake is treating display ads like sponsorship credits.
- There's no federal newsroom grant. Grantsights found no federal program for nonprofit newsrooms as of November 1, 2026. Public radio relied on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose FY 2026 and 2027 money Congress rescinded in 2025, as the community radio guide explains.
- Plan for the grant to end. Expect a funder to ask how a reporter's job survives once its 2 or 3 years of money run out. Show a membership and sponsorship plan in the first ask.
What most news startups underestimate is how fast the public support clock runs. A 3-year operating grant is great news until year 6, when the Schedule A math lets a foundation that gave half the budget count as public support only up to 2% of total support.
What Newsroom Projects Foundations Pay For
Grantsights checked the purposes on the largest gifts in the November 1, 2026 pull against the projects small newsrooms usually pitch, and 8 types stood out.
- A beat. The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation gave Chalkbeat $75,000 in 2023 and 2024 for early childhood reporting.
- A data tool. Houston Endowment's $255,000 gifts to the Texas Tribune paid for its Schools Explorer.
- A statewide bureau. Lilly Endowment gave Civic News Company $275,000 in 2024 for an Indiana education news service.
- Reporters placed in local newsrooms. Knight's $900,500 to the GroundTruth Project, which runs Report for America, paid for young journalists in cities and small towns.
- Leader training. Knight gave the Poynter Institute $333,000 in 2024 to cut tuition for up to 30 local news leaders.
- Community engagement. Carnegie Corporation of New York gave the Education Writers Association $250,000 in 2024 to train local editors in engaging readers on schools.
- Help for Black and ethnic newsrooms. Knight gave the Amsterdam News Educational Foundation $125,000 in 2024 for a demonstration project for those outlets.
- Reader access. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation gave the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism $50,000 in 2023 and 2024 so Baltimore City school students and staff could read the Baltimore Banner.
The best bet for a small newsroom: name a beat or a tool a funder already cares about, and ask for the reporter's salary inside it. General operating support is common too. MacArthur, Ford, Belk and Lumina all gave it in this pull.
Budgeting a Newsroom Grant Request
A reporter costs far more than a salary line once you count editing, legal review and records fees. This table is illustrative, not data: costs vary by city and staff size.
| Cost | What the money pays for | Missing from many requests? |
|---|---|---|
| Reporter salary and benefits | The position the grant names | No |
| Editing | A share of an editor's time for every story | Yes |
| Legal review | Pre-publication review, records appeals | Yes |
| Records and data | Public records fees, data cleaning, software | Yes |
| Audience and membership | Newsletter tools, donation pages, events | Yes |
| Distribution | Republishing partners, print runs, postage | Sometimes |
| Evaluation | Tracking readers, story outcomes, corrections | Yes |
Report readers reached, stories republished by other outlets, records obtained, and public bodies that changed course after a story. Funders compare those numbers across their whole news portfolio.
Common Mistakes in Newsroom Grant Requests
These 6 mistakes come up when a newsroom writes like a newsroom instead of a grantee.
- Pitching the industry's decline. Funders know papers have closed. A red flag is a proposal that spends 2 pages on the crisis and 1 paragraph on your plan.
- Ignoring the funder's beat. Read the funder's past gifts with how to read a 990-PF. Hewlett and Heller paid for arts education reporting, not general news.
- No independence policy. Many funders ask how you'll keep their money out of the newsroom's coverage choices. Write a gift acceptance and firewall policy before you apply.
- Starting without your own tax status. A newsroom in its first year can use a fiscal sponsor, and grants for new nonprofits covers the first 3 years.
- Underestimating overhead. Ask for operating money with grants for nonprofit operating costs in mind; a reporter with no editor isn't a newsroom.
- Treating the 990-PF total as a target. The 34% Steinman share means a typical newsroom should plan around the $75,000 median, not the national total.
A Newsroom's Funding Calendar
This 12-month plan suits a newsroom with a calendar-year budget. Shift it to match your fiscal year.
| Month | Action |
|---|---|
| January | Pull last year's reader, story and revenue numbers |
| February to March | Send letters of inquiry to 10 to 15 funders whose past gifts match your beats |
| April | Check Schedule A public support math with your accountant |
| May to June | Plan election coverage under the campaign activity rules |
| September to October | Run a fall member drive so reader money shows up before year-end |
| November to December | Report results to funders and line up renewals |
The Grantsights grant database lists open federal and state notices, which rarely fit a newsroom; check it before each fiscal year anyway.
Related Guides for News and Media Groups
The 64 foundations in this pull also give to other media and civic groups. If your station holds a broadcast license, read grants for community radio stations, which covers the end of federal public broadcasting money. Public access TV and maker studios are covered in grants for community media centers.
Newsrooms that run teen reporting clubs or partner with a branch library on news literacy can compare notes with grants for libraries. MacArthur gave Mississippi Today $150,000 in this pull; the MacArthur Foundation grants guide explains which of its programs accept inquiries. Newsrooms that hold live community forums often book a restored downtown hall, and the funders behind those buildings appear in grants for historic theaters.
FAQ: Common Questions
Is there a federal grant program for nonprofit newsrooms? No. Grantsights found none as of November 1, 2026; the money is private.
How many foundations give education grants to nonprofit newsrooms? 64 in the Grantsights search of 990-PF education grants pulled November 1, 2026.
How big is a typical foundation grant to a news nonprofit? The median was $75,000, with the middle half from $15,000 to $200,000.
Can a nonprofit newsroom endorse candidates? No. A 501(c)(3) can't take part in campaigns, though nonpartisan voter guides can be allowed.
Is advertising income taxable for a nonprofit news site? It can be, under the unrelated business rules in IRS Publication 598.
Why does Grantsights point newsrooms to the education list? Education leads among tagged newsroom gifts, and it fits school and civic beats best.
Sources
- IRS: The restriction of political campaign intervention by 501(c)(3) organizations (opens in a new tab)
- 26 U.S.C. 501, U.S. Code text (2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
- IRS: Instructions for Schedule A (Form 990), public support and the 2% limit (opens in a new tab)
- IRS: Public charities (opens in a new tab)
- IRS Publication 598: Tax on unrelated business income of exempt organizations (opens in a new tab)
- IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)
Last updated November 1, 2026. Published by Grantsights from public sources. See our editorial policy, how we build and check guides, corrections and how we make money.
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