Raising money is hard. Spending it is harder.
As difficult as it can be, fundraising might be the easiest part of the grant cycle
By Liza Gross, Vice President-Practice Change/Solutions Journalism Network
Grantmaking is increasingly becoming an essential part of economic sustainability for news organizations as well as freelance journalists. A growing number of philanthropic institutions, both national and place-based, are recognizing the value of supporting the work of news professionals.
However, with the exception of our colleagues in public media, most journalists are neophytes when it comes to raising money. In addition to the lack of practical skills to deal with funders and grant applications, there is a lingering discomfort caused by the conviction that it is somehow a sacrilege to have to “pass the tin cup,” as a great boss I once had jokingly liked to put it. Because journalism is mission critical to a healthy democracy, journalists believe its existence should not have to be justified. That’s why many resist engaging in the tedious cultivation of funders, a behavior exacerbated by the very genuine fear of loss of editorial independence.
It’s true that fundraising can be a hard and occasionally frustrating endeavor.
It also may be the easiest part of a grant cycle.
At the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN), we have seen an increasing awareness among journalists that they need to build fundraising muscles if their work is to be sustainable. There is also an urgent need to develop the capacity to spend those hard-earned funds strategically and with gusto.
It’s true that fundraising can be a hard and occasionally frustrating endeavor. It also may be the easiest part of a grant cycle.
Over the past six years, SJN has granted millions of dollars to news organizations as well as individual journalists, and a pattern is noticeable. We invest significant time and energy guiding journalists through the application process. We invest even more coaxing and prodding our grantees to spend their funds strategically and in a timely manner.
Most application processes require some sort of budget, even if it represents simply a bare-bones list of basic spending categories. Once the monies are in, it is time to double down on that initial plan and flesh it out with a timeline and specific actions attached that gradually spend down all allocations. Even if news developments eventually dictate a different course of action, it is easier to amend than start from scratch. That initial worksheet can provide an essential framework to minimize the potential for unpleasant surprises, like discovering there is no money left to take a crucial reporting trip.
This attention to budget management also helps reduce the risk of falling into the opposite trap. Because of shifting priorities, the relentless daily pressures of the news operation, or the fear of exhausting the pot too soon, many recipients reach the grant closing date with funds left over. This sets off a mad scramble to use the money without giving careful thought to the merits of the expense or to ask the funder for an extension, with the potential resulting loss of momentum for the project.
As hard as it is to resist the temptation, investing all incoming funds to cover immediate needs is not a solution. Many times, a leader’s first impulse is to use grant funds to beef up reporting staff. It is an understandable decision in these tough times of woefully depleted newsrooms, but it will not help over the long term if that salary cannot be sustained. A bet on some sort of innovation, like a creative audience engagement tool, may yield more durable positive outcomes.
Impact is a concept with a tarnished reputation nowadays. It seems everyone has become obsessed with metrics as “proof of success.” Perhaps a more useful approach to show the value of a journalism project lies in asking whether the reporting will make any difference and coming up with some specific arguments to answer that question. Even if those objectives are achieved only in part, or in a limited way, the effort is still worth tackling. Allocating some of the grant funds to support the expense of impact metrics is a wise investment.
Given all the work needed to get a grant, it can be quite elating when the effort pays off. Here is a brief note I received in 2017 — and have kept since — from an extremely talented and entrepreneurial publisher in Ohio after he learned that SJN had agreed to support his project with a grant.
“Please accept a deep and heartfelt thank you for believing in the work of our team and supporting it in this way. We will be mindful and careful stewards of your grant. Okay, now back to cartwheels.”
This was just one instance of this publisher’s many successful fundraising efforts, and he is equally as good as making it go as he is at bringing it in.
Understanding the whole grant cycle will help ensure fundraising becomes an integral component of a viable strategy to make journalism sustainable.
Liza Gross is vice president of practice change at the Solutions Journalism Network and directs the Local Media Project, a five-year effort is to establish financially viable, solutions journalism-oriented collaboratives — hubs that successfully build trust in all segments of the communities they serve and stimulate engagement of audiences with news and the public conversation.
Visit SJN’s website for more information about the organization and solutions journalism. Our resources include the Solutions Story Tracker, a curated repository of thousands of solutions journalism stories from across the nation and the world. You can republish some of these stories for free as part of the SoJo Exchange.
