Nine Midwestern news organizations completed the Medill-LMA Midwest Advanced Fundraising Lab, strengthening their philanthropic fundraising approaches to support sustainable local journalism.
Running from March through August 2026 as a collaboration between the Medill Local News Initiative and the Local Media Association’s Lab for Journalism Funding, the program combined expert-led sessions, personalized coaching and peer learning to help newsrooms diversify revenue, strengthen donor relationships and build fundraising infrastructure.
Participating organizations focused on challenges tailored to their newsrooms’ needs, producing measurable results and laying the groundwork for continued growth.
Highlights include:
- Capitol News Illinois developed a repeatable onboarding process and centralized impact-tracking system that helped secure a $10,000 grant for a student reporting project.
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel secured enough grant revenue through multi-year foundation partnerships to support eight reporting roles and initiated a partnership to launch a planned giving program.
- Injustice Watch hosted a lower-cost, repeatable Summer Social focused on judicial voter guides and community connection. The event drew 80 attendees, and brought in 32 new donors. It also surfaced the organization’s first known planned-giving commitment.
The program’s results underscore the importance of connecting journalism’s impact with donor engagement and consistent fundraising practices. In a post-program survey, 100% of participating news leaders said they expected the lab to improve fundraising efforts “a lot” over the next six to 12 months, while 70% reported existing fundraising benefits.
Together, these efforts offer practical strategies for strengthening community support and sustaining local journalism.