The Rochester Beacon has been selected to participate in NewsMatch, the nation’s largest grassroots fundraising campaign for nonprofit news. This year’s campaign starts tomorrow and runs through Dec. 31.
Now in its fourth year, NewsMatch is a matching-gift campaign that has helped nonprofit newsrooms nationwide raise more than $14 million. It pools gifts from local and national funders to match small-dollar donations by individuals to participating organizations. The campaign will match, dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 per donor.
“We are proud to be a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News and greatly appreciate the matching funds made possible through the NewsMatch program,” says Alex Zapesochny, publisher of the Rochester Beacon. “By contributing funding during this two-month window, our readers can have much more impact on our ability to enhance our local coverage in the year to come.”
You can make a NewsMatch donation to the Beacon online or by sending a check payable to Rochester Beacon Inc. to: Rochester Beacon, 312 Susquehanna Road, Rochester, NY 14618. To learn more about NewsMatch donations, go to the Beacon’s donation page.
Local and national foundations provide gifts to the Fund for Nonprofit News, hosted at the Miami Foundation. The fund then matches every dollar that newsrooms raise from individual donors during the NewsMatch campaign, up to a cap of $20,000 per participating nonprofit news organization.
“In the 12 months since the Beacon launched as an all-volunteer nonprofit organization, we’ve been able to grow significantly while keeping costs to a minimum,” Executive Editor Paul Ericson says. “But to achieve our goal of a sustainable business model for high-quality local journalism that all readers can access for free, we need to grow our base of financial support in the community. By doubling individual donations up to $1,000 each, NewsMatch offers a terrific opportunity for supporters of our mission.”
The Rochester Beacon is one of more than 150 participating news organizations. All are a 501(c)(3) or fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3), follow best practices in financial transparency, and publish original, high-quality reporting that is investigative or public service by nature. In addition, all are full members of the Institute for Nonprofit News.
NewsMatch is supported by Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the Dirk and Natasha Ziff Family Foundation, and the Present Progressive Fund at Schwab Charitable, along with supporting partners across the U.S. The Miami Foundation is the fiscal sponsor. INN and the News Revenue Hub are nonprofit partners.