Nearly 200 nonprofit newsrooms across the country, including Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism in Birmingham, will participate in NewsMatch 2019, the largest grassroots fundraising campaign to support nonprofit news organizations.

The national call-to-action will launch on Nov. 1, 2019, when donations up to $1,000 to 198 nonprofit news organizations will be matched. Donors will be able to contribute between Nov. 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, at NewsMatch.org — the first and only one-stop platform for donating to nonprofit news — and directly on the websites of participating newsrooms.

“The incredible growth of nonprofit newsrooms and their supporters is inspiring to witness,” said Sue Cross, Executive Director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News, one of NewsMatch’s nonprofit partners in expanding community-supported news reporting. “This year’s NewsMatch campaign will ensure that people can easily find and support trusted and local news providers in the communities they care about.”

In 2018, NewsMatch helped 154 newsrooms raise $7.6 million from individual donors and a coalition of foundations and companies, making it the largest-ever grassroots fundraising campaign to support local news. Ninety-three percent of last year’s participants said the campaign helped them raise more money than they otherwise would have. In the three years since NewsMatch was launched, it has helped participating newsrooms raise more than $14 million. A sign of growth in public support for journalism, the INN Index 2019 study found individuals and families now donate nearly 40 percent of all the revenue going to news nonprofits.

Examples of success that grew from NewsMatch include:
• LkldNow, which started as a one-person operation in 2015. After participating in NewsMatch in 2018 and raising more than $29,000, it was able to hire a part-time development staffer. In 2020, it expects to hire two full-time staffers.
• The Texas Observer, which switched from subscriptions to member donations and raised nearly $140,000 in membership revenue in 2018.
• Oklahoma Watch targeted large-dollar donors and grew its revenue from major and mid-size donations from $7,500 in 2017 to $51,750 in 2018.

The 2019 campaign comes at a time when national media outlets including The New York Times, the Associated Press, and The Wall Street Journal have reported on the growing crisis in local news and the dire consequences for communities. Meanwhile, nonprofit newsrooms have been launching at a pace of more than one a month in the U.S. for more than a decade.

NewsMatch is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, Facebook Journalism Project, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, Natasha and Dirk Ziff, and Present Progressive Fund at Schwab Charitable, in partnership with The Miami Foundation, the Institute for Nonprofit News and the News Revenue Hub. REI Co-op recently announced new first-time support to NewsMatch. The Gates Family Foundation will again support Colorado newsrooms in partnership with NewsMatch through the Colorado Media Project.
Donors can easily find and support trusted reporting in their community and on issues they care about at NewsMatch.org.

Among organizations in the South selected for NewsMatch 2019 are:
Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism (BirminghamWatch); Arkansas Nonprofit News Network; Austin Monitor; Chesapeake Bay Journal; Borderzine; Breckenridge Texan; Carolina Public Press; Center for Sustainable Journalism; Centro de Periodismo Investigativo; Charlottesville Tomorrow; Daily Yonder; DCist; Enlace Latino NC; Florida Bulldog; Florida Center for Investigative Reporting; Foothills Forum; Georgia Health News; Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting; Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism; KOSU; LkldNow; Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting; Mississippi Today; MLK50: Justice Through Journalism; North Carolina Health News; NowCastSA; Oklahoma Watch; Rivard Report; Scalawag Magazine; Southerly; Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation; Texas Observer; The Austin Bulldog; The Current; The DC Line; The Frontier; The Lens; The Texas Tribune; The Tyler Loop; Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism; and WJCT.

These nonprofit news organizations are all members in good standing of the Institute for Nonprofit News. To be a member, an organization must be a 501(c)(3) or have a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, must be transparent about funding sources and must produce investigative and/or public-service reporting. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Visit newsmatch.org for more information.