THE NON-PROFIT BUSINESS MODEL

“But while the overall funding for non-profit news sites presents a ‘robust picture’ according to a recent Institute for Non-profit News survey of 88 of the network’s media members, large donations by rich philanthropists and foundations generally have benefited only a handful of new startups and nationally focused nonprofit media.”

— Bill Birnbauer, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, Australia

It ain’t easy. Unless you are one of the established big non-profits, you are left with the crumbs and little chance of breaking into the big time to get significant foundation support. To supplement whatever funding you do get, your best chances for survival are to find other sources of revenue, including individual donors, memberships, and e-commerce. Philanthropic funding of journalism is happening, but it’s barely a drop in the bucket and what little is happening is heavily concentrated in the United States with a sprinkling in Europe and virtually nothing happening anywhere else in the world.

More than 93% of journalism-focused grant money goes to US-based organisations, leaving just 6% for Europe, and only about 1% for media outlets in the developing world, according to Media Impact Funders (MIF) and the Foundation Centre.