For the third year in a row, the Rochester Beacon surpassed its goal for NewsMatch, the nation’s largest grassroots fundraising campaign for nonprofit news. From Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, the Beacon raised more than $20,000 from individual contributors.
Some 180 donors contributed to the Beacon during the NewsMatch campaign, up from 160 a year ago. Of the nearly $23,000 in total contributions, $14,000 is eligible to be matched dollar for dollar, bringing the total raised to approximately $37,000.
“Local print journalism has been struggling financially for years across the country,” says Alex Zapesochny, publisher of the Rochester Beacon. “We believe that the Rochester Beacon represents the non-profit journalism model of the future, and we are eternally grateful to our contributors for investing in this critical civic mission.”
Adds Executive Editor Paul Ericson: “The funds generously donated during the 2021 NewsMatch campaign will allow us to continue to provide high-quality content that all readers can access for free. Community support is critical as we work to build an enduring model for nonprofit local journalism.”
Articles are posted to RochesterBeacon.com each weekday and delivered to subscribers every Thursday in the Rochester Beacon Weekly Review email. Over the last 12 months, the Beacon has posted roughly 300 articles by its writers and community contributors. In addition, the Beacon presents in-person and online events addressing important issues facing the Rochester community.
Launched six years ago, NewsMatch is managed by the Institute for Nonprofit News, a nationwide network of more than 300 independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organizations. 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 the $14,000 cap.
In both 2019 and 2020, the Beacon also reached its campaign goal of $20,000 in individual donations.
All NewsMatch participants are 501(c)(3) organizations 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 INN.
Key funders to NewsMatch over the last five years include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, Google News Initiative, Facebook, Dirk and Natasha Ziff, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation, and several other family and private foundations. The Miami Foundation is the fiscal sponsor. INN and the News Revenue Hub are nonprofit partners.