Case Study

How Every Voice, Every Vote fostered more than 200 instances of collaboration

December 1, 2025

An Every Voice, Every Vote partner meeting in November 2023.

This post is part of “Building a Thriving News Ecosystem,” a series from Knight Communities Network, a Lenfest Institute community of practice for local funders creating thriving news ecosystems.

On April 13, 2023, the pews of Philadelphia’s Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church filled for the Black Media Matters mayoral forum — a collaboration among The Philadelphia Tribune, FunTimes Magazine, The Philadelphia Sunday Sun, WURD, and Enon itself. Together, they ensured that perspectives from across the city’s Black community were reflected in print, broadcast, and digital media coverage.

Each partner was part of The Lenfest Institute’s Every Voice, Every Vote program, a citywide initiative designed to inform and engage Philadelphians around local elections. Remarkably, 99% of the collaborations during the program weren’t required by any grant agreement. They happened organically — the result of a program structure that prioritized connection, shared purpose, and trust among grantees.

That didn’t happen by accident.

*The Black Media Matters forum at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church.*

Back in 2018, through the Philadelphia Ecosystem Collaboration Fund, the Institute learned that even well-intentioned grant requirements could lead to partnerships that felt forced. Collaboration is essential, but it’s also hard — especially for local newsrooms and community organizations stretched thin on time and resources. For collaboration to work, participants must believe it will benefit everyone involved.

That’s why the Institute now invests in more than grant dollars. It invests in relationships — connecting like-minded partners, aligning goals, and creating space for collaboration to take root naturally.

One of the best examples of that approach is Every Voice, Every Vote. In 2023, the program brought together more than 70 media outlets, community organizations, and social media ambassadors to catalyze civic engagement during Philadelphia’s municipal elections. Together, they recorded more than 200 collaborations — none of which were mandated by grant agreements.

“We were and continue to be strategic in creating space for organic connections to be made during Every Voice, Every Vote gatherings and in-person meetings,” said Shawn Mooring, head of Philadelphia programs at The Lenfest Institute. “We are deliberately not paternalistic or directive in forcing collaboration. Instead, we strongly encourage it and create very intentional spaces for it to occur.”

Here’s how Every Voice, Every Vote fostered collaboration, and some lessons that funders can use.

The problem:

Collaboration often helps newsrooms work together to share resources and boost impact with their stories. However, collaboration takes time and energy, which is in short supply at local news organizations. Funders might offer grants to help newsrooms collaborate but that can lead to forced partnerships that don’t feel right.

What worked:

Convene regular virtual and in-person meetings.

Offer digital space for connections.

Coordinate shared research, messaging and content.

Build a program with aligned interests.

Convenings can lead to virtuous connections. The second round of Every Voice, Every Vote has bi-monthly virtual meetings with grantees and partner organizations. These meetings include updates from the Institute, along with helpful resources, project spotlights, and updates from partners — which take up the bulk of the meetings to help participants engage in each other’s work. Quarterly in-person meetings at the Institute’s office include limited programming, as the goal is to spark conversation among the attendees.

“The community the Institute fosters amongst Every Voice, Every Vote grantees has been an invaluable resource for finding partners for our events and increasing civic engagement amongst our audience,” The Philadelphia Citizen wrote in its interim grant report.

Portia Fullard, community engagement consultant for Every Voice, Every Vote, noted that the in-person meetings included big poster boards where partners could identify topics they were covering, such as education or public safety, and therefore find like-minded folks who were working on the same things.

“We wanted to be intentional, and create fun ways for collaboration to occur organically,” she said.

Between meetings, Every Voice, Every Vote partners have a Slack channel, email directory and Google Drive collaboration space, along with one-on-one meetings between grantees and Institute staff to facilitate strategic partnerships.

Mooring said the Institute relies “more on common interests and needs leading the day.” He mentions the Black Media Matters mayoral debate as an example, with former WURD host Andrea Lawful-Sanders as the MC.

“Out of that relationship a connection was established between Ms. Lawful-Sanders and Pastor Dr. Alyn Waller, and the two of them launched a podcast, The Truth with Alyn & Andrea,” he said.

In 2023, the Institute invested in public opinion research to understand the key civic issues that matter to Philadelphians. The results helped partners understand top priorities from residents for municipal candidates, quality of life issues, and potential solutions. Every Voice, Every Vote coordinated the release of the data with its partners, which included media coverage such as The Philadelphia Inquirer’s in-depth data analysis, deep dives into specific issues raised by the data, or social media graphics, as pictured above.

All Every Voice, Every Vote content was free to share or repost across the coalition.

“One of the first times (if not the first time) we ever republished another news outlet’s work was through this project,” said a staff member from Kensington Voice.

Lessons for others:

Bake collaboration into the culture of the project: Make sure that collaboration is part of the DNA of a project right from the start, with language that emphasizes that partners will be working together. As Fullard said, “We defined collaboration as part of the culture of the cohort. It was so important to communicate and emphasize that the purpose of Every Voice, Every Vote was about collaboration, and opening up the grant opportunity for media and community partners to create that space for collaboration.”

Don’t force collaboration: Sometimes grants for collaborations are well-intentioned but might force “shotgun marriages” that don’t work out. As Mooring pointed out, the Institute has deliberately avoided being “paternalistic or directive” when it comes to collaborations. This prevents awkward partnerships between organizations that might not have common interests and values.

Instead, create the space for collaboration to happen organically: Use virtual and in-person meetings to help people come together. Rather than over-programming such meetings, allow space for conversation among partners, keeping things loose and focusing on their work. Creating digital spaces on Slack and Google Drive helps partners connect between meetings. “It has been very helpful to work in collaboration with all of the Every Voice, Every Vote grantees and partners and… to share ideas, progress and get their input and advice,” said a staff member at WHYY public radio.

Create shared resources for partners: Rather than fund collaborations directly, the Institute now focuses more on creating resources for them. That includes encouraging content sharing, creating public messaging campaigns, and funding public opinion research that can inform reporting down the line.