Rochester Beacon surpasses NewsMatch goal

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The Rochester Beacon once again topped its goal for NewsMatch, the nation’s largest grassroots fundraising campaign for nonprofit news. From Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, the Beacon raised nearly $25,000 from individual contributors.

It marks the fourth straight year the Beacon has surpassed its NewsMatch goal.

Approximately 130 donors contributed to the Beacon during the NewsMatch campaign. Of the total contributions, $15,000 is eligible to be matched dollar for dollar, bringing the total raised to roughly $40,000. A year ago, the Beacon raised $37,000 in donations and matching funds.

“The Rochester Beacon has experienced considerable growth in the past year in terms of the number of readers we are reaching,” says Beacon publisher Alex Zapesochny. “None of that would be possible without the generous and civic-minded efforts of our contributors to fuel our nonprofit digital journalism model.”

Adds Executive Editor Paul Ericson: “Our readers once again have demonstrated the kind of support necessary for nonprofit local journalism to be sustainable. With these funds, we will be able to continue offering high-quality news coverage and opinion that all can access for free.”

Articles are posted to RochesterBeacon.com each weekday and delivered to subscribers every Thursday in the Rochester Beacon Weekly Review email. In addition, the Beacon presents in-person and online events addressing important issues facing the Rochester community.

Launched seven years ago, NewsMatch is managed by the Institute for Nonprofit News, a nationwide network of more than 400 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 a cap this year of $15,000 per participating nonprofit news organization.

To be eligible for NewsMatch, donations must be made by individuals—personally, or through a business they own, a family foundation or donor-advised fund. They also must be made during the campaign period, Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

In the 2022 campaign, the number of participating organizations rose to 320 from 275 the year before.

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 since its launch include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, Google News Initiative, Meta, Dirk and Natasha Ziff, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and several other family and private foundations.

The Beacon welcomes comments from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name.

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