2025 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit Schedule

Registration will be located outside the Woodland Ballrooms at the Inn at Penn

Location: The Inn at Penn, 3600 Sansom St, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Location: 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

The reception is a casual gathering with passed hors d’oeuvres and drinks — it’ll be an opportunity to re-connect with friends and meet new colleagues.

Press Forward Director Dale R. Anglin and Lenfest Institute Chief Advancement Officer Annie McCain Madonia will welcome attendees to the Summit.

Whether you’re a new journalism fundraiser or a development professional with years of experience, it’s not too late to improve your relationship to money. This keynote will offer practical strategies to help you:

• Challenge long-held beliefs about money
• Build confidence in journalism fundraising skills
• Collaborate, not compete, with other newsrooms
• Mallory Mitchell, co-founder of the fundraising coaching firm, Aligned Strategy Group, uses her deep knowledge, refreshing insight and relatable approach to lead fundraisers across the world in navigating the fundraising learning curve. Mallory is best known for her extraordinary commitment to advancing racial equity in philanthropy and, in 2021, she received the National Philanthropy Day Award from the Minnesota chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is also a co-founder of Community-Centric Fundraising Minnesota, a movement dedicated to evolving how fundraising is done in the nonprofit sector.

Meaningful fundraising is built on relationships, not just transactions. But how do you cultivate authentic connections with your individual donors? Join Kimberly Griffin, Chief Revenue Officer for the Mississippi Free Press, and Kimberly Spencer, CFRE, Director of the Colorado Media Project, for an engaging fireside chat exploring practical strategies for relationship-driven fundraising. Learn how to make donors feel like valued partners in your work, share stories of impact that resonate deeply, and build a sustainable community of support around the critical mission of free press. 

Attendees will leave equipped with fresh perspectives and actionable approaches to connect genuinely with donors and elevate your fundraising results.

Presenters: 

• Kimberly Griffin, Founding Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer, Mississippi Free Press
• Kimberly Spencer, CFRE, Director, Colorado Media Project/Press Forward Colorado

Location: St. Mark

Facilitators:

• • • • Una Kelley, Director, Philanthropic Development, The Associated Press
      • Preethi Kumaran, Manager, Consulting Services, Nonprofit Finance Fund
      • Alice Antonelli, Contractor, Nonprofit Finance Fund

     

Have you created a grant budget and waffled on what costs to include or how to navigate funding restrictions? Or, when you received a grant award letter, you felt grateful for the award, but were concerned that you didn’t receive all the funding needed to deliver on grant goals? Join this session to learn how the Nonprofit Finance Fund advises nonprofits on how to build financial health and resiliency – and avoid the Starvation Cycle, a vicious loop of underfunded costs and mis-matched grantee/funder expectations that leads to a long-term pattern of grantees doing more and more with less and less. We will cover foundational principles and tools that will help guide your funder communication strategies, so that you can ask for what you need with clarity and confidence.

As news organizations increasingly seek philanthropic support, it is important that newsrooms consider how that philanthropic investment can build – or inadvertently undermine – their financial health. It is easy to want to say yes to every grant opportunity or to take funding without fully considering the impact of what the funds are covering, and more importantly, not covering. Well-intentioned grants for both the funder and the grantee don’t always lead to more financially-resilient organizations or expectations from both sides being met.

Participants will leave with:

Increased awareness of how to work toward longer-term financial health
Grant budgeting skill building

Communication strategies with funders

How to get the best out of this session:

Bring a laptop for hands-on activities or note-taking.

Bring your organizational financial documents (e.g., budgets, income statements, balance sheets) to better engage in discussions and exercises.

Location: Regent

Facilitators:

Brandi Swicegood, Executive Director, Sunlight Research Center
Irene McKisson, Principal Executive, Arizona Luminaria

In-depth accountability and investigative reporting is expensive and labor-intensive. But we know our audiences crave trustworthy information that helps them take action in their communities. Let’s brainstorm about how we communicate the value of investigative journalism in a way that resonates with funders, donors, and our audiences. How do we convey the importance of investing in investigative work? How can we show our work in a way that engages audiences and brings them into the information gathering process, shining a light on the cost and the benefits? In this collaborative brainstorming session, we’ll move beyond traditional fundraising pitches to explore service-driven approaches that build sustainable support for local investigative journalism. We’ll work together to develop strategies we can experiment with in our own newsrooms to drive impactful journalism that also boosts the bottom line.

Participants will leave with: 

• The goal is for participants to collaborate on strategies that aim to drive investment in investigative reporting. We want to end the session with a handful of actionable strategies that participants can try in their news organizations. Ideally, the group would report back on what works and doesn’t and share their experiences.

Location: Woodland A

Facilitators:

Deborah Caldwell, CEO and Publisher, Religion News Service
Clare Dignan, Director of Philanthropy, The Connecticut Mirror
Stephanie Schenkel, Network Philanthropy Director, Institute for Nonprofit News (INN)
Alicia Pedersen, Membership Manager, MinnPost
Carolyn Jewell, Senior Manager, Collaborative Philanthropy, NPR
Sachi Kobayashi, Director, Collaborative Philanthropy, NPR

As traditional funding models shift, collaborative fundraising is emerging as a powerful strategy to support journalism’s most under-resourced beats—from religion to the environment and beyond. This session explores how newsroom partnerships are not only rebuilding specialized reporting across the country but also unlocking new streams of philanthropic support.

Join newsroom leaders and funders in a conversation about how transparency, trust, and an abundance mindset are at the heart of successful joint fundraising. You’ll hear behind-the-scenes insights into how national and local outlets are teaming up to pitch shared editorial missions, appeal to major donors, members, and niche funders, and increase their collective impact.

Whether you’re exploring a new collaboration or looking to scale an existing one, this session will help demystify the process of collective fundraising and offer real-world strategies you can take back to your organization.

Participants will leave with:

A practical roadmap for engaging multiple funders to support collaborative, specialized reporting across local and national outlets.

• Real-world lessons learned from public media and single-topic news sites that have successfully partnered to secure philanthropic support and produce impactful journalism.
• An understanding of the long-term benefits of collaborative fundraising, including increased efficiency, sustainability, and deeper public service.
• Insight into donor-centric approaches that resonate with today’s supporters—especially those who engage across multiple platforms and value measurable impact.
• A candid look at the challenges and expectations involved in collective fundraising, including transparency, shared goals, and resource coordination.

Location: Woodland C

Facilitators:

Megan Tackett, Aspen Daily News
Libbie Sparadeo, VTDigger

• An interactive session guiding attendees through the essentials of building a successful membership program, drawing from real-world examples from the Aspen Daily News Journalism Fund and VTDigger’s experience.
  • Participants will leave with:
  • In small groups, attendees will draft membership tiers and personas for their own organization, brainstorm strategies that align with their mission and goals, and share feedback with peers in a supportive environment.

Location: Woodland B

Facilitators: Andrew Finlayson, SmithGeiger

News organizations who seek memberships and donors need to understand the difference between the public they serve and the perspectives of those who are supporters. Drawing on research for non-profit public media teams around the country, SmithGeiger will share key insights into how these two “audiences” differ and where they intersect. The key to success in the future will be expanding the audience while still recognizing the needs and desires of those who provide the fuel (money) for success.

Location: Woodland D

Facilitator: Maria Salazar-Ferro, Director of Newsroom Safety & Resilience, The New York Times and President, ACOS Alliance

Whether it’s digital, legal, physical or psychosocial, safety is foundational to professional, independent journalism — and the fundraisers that support that journalism. This session will walk through key concepts including duty of care, threat modeling, and risk assessments.

• Participants will leave with:

Practical first steps and resources that will help local newsrooms, fundraisers, and journalists get started on actions that will make them more resilient to threats and attack.

Maria will also host one-on-one consultations with a limited number of participants — we will share details about how to sign up for a consultation soon.

Facilitator: Rosemary D’Amour, Senior Manager, Media Impact and Strategy, Impact Architects

Location: Suite 300

This session is only for Press Forward Local chapters and members of the Knight Communities Network

• In this session, local funders will be introduced to general concepts of impact, including individual, community, and institutional change. We will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with impact measurement for journalism and information, and methods to support grantees and media organizations in their own impact measurement. Impact Architects will lead participants in an exercise to generate examples of impact associated with local news and information, which will be distilled into a template impact framework to use as a starting point for their work with their grantees. 

Location: Woodland B

Facilitators:

Leonor Ayala, Chief Recruitment and Business Development Officer, URL Media
Patrick Boehler, Founder, Gazzetta

This workshop targets nonprofit executive leaders to help them build a framework for finding, attracting, and utilizing the right talent and visionary leader for their boards. It will also demonstrate how a board can work effectively with media executives by setting and aligning business and leadership expectations from the outset — including for how to raise philanthropic funds.

Location: Regent

Facilitators: 

Jesús Del Toro, Publisher, Director of Grants Development, La Raza Chicago/Impremedia
Emma Restrepo, Founder, 2PuntosPlatform Philadelphia

Spanish local media in the USA serves large and very specific audiences/communities — and it also has singular capabilities, structures, and challenges. 

However, local media and funders don’t always have a complete understanding of how to interact with and best support Spanish media in the US with a specific equity lens. This conversation will bring together successful grantees and experts to discuss their perspectives.

Participants will leave with: 

The main goals are to increase understanding and sensitivity regarding the uniqueness of Spanish media in the USA and how philanthropy and other stakeholders can support them. Media participants will receive useful tips about best practices related to interacting with grants and understanding foundations, and funders will receive insights to better understand the diversity of Spanish media outlets to support them more fairly and effectively. Sharing examples of successful grantee/grantor interactions and providing analysis perspectives for the future are also key goals of this panel.

Location: St. Mark

Facilitator: Allison Taylor Levine, Publisher and CEO, Spotlight Delaware

Many community foundations don’t have the discretion to make large grants (or even small grants) because most money is controlled by individual donors through donor advised funds and similar tools. But local newsrooms can partner with community foundations in different ways to access resources.

Before launching Spotlight Delaware, Allison Taylor Levine spent more than a decade at the Delaware Community Foundation and will share insights from her experiences.

Location: Woodland D

Facilitator: Ilka Villareal

This session will introduce how nonprofit newsrooms can leverage the Google Ad Grants program to increase visibility, engage audiences, and diversify revenue. Google offers eligible nonprofits up to $10,000/month in-kind search advertising-an underutilized resource that can help local journalism expand its reach and impact.

Participants will learn how to apply, maintain eligibility, and design effective campaigns to promote donor appeals, newsletter signups, events, and investigative content. The 30-minute presentation will be followed by discussion and Q&A.

Participants will leave with: 

• A step-by-step guide to applying and staying compliant.
• Sample campaign ideas tailored to nonprofit newsrooms.
• Tips on integrating Google Ads into fundraising and outreach efforts.
• An overview of additional Google for Nonprofits tools.

How to get the most out of this session:

This session is ideal for newsroom and communications staff, especially if you’re exploring low-cost strategies to strengthen your community-based reporting. 

Location: Woodland A

Facilitators:

Kathryn Dugal, Director of Marketing and Audience, Tradeoffs
Ellen Hiatt, Executive Director, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association

Asking for money can feel uncomfortable, but people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and they want to give where they believe they can make a meaningful impact. A successful fundraising plan is essentially a communications plan that aligns potential donors’ goals with your existing work – fulfilling both their philanthropic desires and funding the service you provide. Shifting our mindset to view fundraising as a communications task is the first and most crucial step in any fund development plan. 

In this session, we’ll explore how to align your messaging with the needs of your community and potential funders; how to leverage your newsroom’s audience data to support fundraising across platforms; and how to use insights on audience engagement to tailor your messaging. Learn how to leverage the storytelling you already do so well, to create the emotional resonance that drives your readers to become a part of the story through philanthropy. 

Participants will leave with: 

A clear understanding of the key elements of a communications plan and how they differ from traditional journalism work. 

Practical skills to develop and execute an effective “ask”—knowing how, when, and when NOT to make the ask. 

Strategies for using audience data from newsletters, social media, and website analytics to craft personalized fundraising messages that resonate across platforms. 

Actionable insights on how to analyze audience behavior and identify key engagement trends to build stronger, more meaningful connections with donors. 

A comprehensive approach to aligning your fundraising strategy with the needs of your audience, turning your communications plan into a powerful fundraising tool. 

Location: Woodland ABCD

Facilitators:
Michael Zwirn, Vice President of Development, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Flavie Fuentes, Vice President of Pro Bono Partnerships, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Ed Mahon, Investigative Reporter, Spotlight PA

Local newsrooms and news ecosystems require legal resources to ensure access to public records and public meetings, protect themselves from libel or defamation risk, and safely undertake investigative and enterprise reporting. But costs for legal services can be prohibitive for small newsrooms, and many independent and nonprofit newsrooms lack even basic libel coverage. In the past five years, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has substantially expanded pro bono legal services in partnership with local news ecosystems through the Local Legal Initiative (staff attorneys in Colorado, Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) and ProJourn (leveraging a national network of pro bono partnerships for pre-publication review and public access legal services in California, Washington, New York, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Illinois). Funding legal services for newsrooms requires a mix of local and national support, such as the national philanthropic support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for an endowment to launch the Local Legal Initiative.

Our panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with raising in-state support to leverage national investments. We will spotlight collaborations between local philanthropies, newsrooms, and national journalism support organizations like RCFP and the American Journalism Project working to ensure that local news ecosystems have the legal backing they need to succeed in keeping their communities informed and engaged.

Participants will leave with: 

Our goal is to spotlight the essential element of pro bono legal services, and the importance of securing both national and local funding support for legal services to ensure newsroom and news ecosystem sustainability. Initial investments in newsrooms alone do not ensure that these newsrooms can safely cover the stories vital to their communities; infrastructure investments including pro bono legal resources are also vital to the long-term sustainability and newsgathering impact of emerging news ecosystems.

Location: St. Mark

Facilitators:

Sean Fitzpatrick, Director of Philanthropy and Community Impact, Wick Communications
Madison Karas, Project Manager for R&D, Tiny News Collective

One of the hidden opportunities in philanthropic funding is the discipline of defining outcomes and measurements, yet the journalism industry has very few common benchmarks and metrics. Using The Civic Information Index as a model, what are other common data points the journalism industry can identify to bolster philanthropy pitches and measure positive impacts on our communities? Participants will collaborate to identify the framework for a common language we can all use in a variety of tactics, from conducting surveys to facilitating community needs assessments. Ideas generated in this session will be aggregated and published by the presenters after the summit.

Participants will leave with:

An understanding of shared impact outcomes sought and used by funders, journalists, and news entrepreneurs

Language to discuss impact metrics standardization with their teams and audiences

Contributions to a follow-up summary of ideas for a standard impact metrics framework in news2

Location: Regent

Facilitator: Nicholas Rinaldi, General Manager Canary Media

Canary Media and Energy News Network merged earlier this year to strengthen their reporting and bolster the combined organization’s funding model. This presentation from Canary Media’s General Manager will provide a look under the hood at how the merger helped re-shape the future for two organizations that were at inflection points in the evolution.

This session will share details about their experience and obstacles with fundraising and how this merger injected new energy into development efforts.

Participants will leave with:

Fresh ideas and strategies on how a merger, or even close collaboration/shared resources, could invigorate their newsroom’s fundraising.

Location: Woodland A

Facilitators:

Sachi Kobayashi, Director of Collaborative Philanthropy, NPR
Carolyn Jewell, Senior Manager, Collaborative Philanthropy, NPR

Join the NPR Collaborative Philanthropy Team as we get into the details of every step in a successful donor journey from the discovery of content to the ongoing legacy of a planned gift. This will include examples of language that successfully engages audiences in the mission of newsrooms of every size. We’ll save plenty of time for questions about big picture strategy, as well as discussing moves management plans for specific donor use cases.

The goal is to help new fundraisers approach fundraising from a more holistic, and donor-centric perspective. Additionally, we aim to give them concrete examples of best practices and small improvements at every step in the donor journey that can increase donor engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately giving. This is a problem that NPR and public media stations have been actively tackling as a top priority for the past 6 years, and we have a lot to share from our initial attempts and current growth.

Participants will leave with:

A basic understanding of the donor lifecycle and engagement funnel

Practice creating a user persona and hypothetically testing it through the funnel

Fundraising best practices for each step of the funnel, and ideas for engagement

Location: Woodland B

Facilitators:

Ron Van Ormer, Managing Director, The Ithaca Voice Inc.
Sarah Walton, Chief Philanthropy Officer, The Baltimore Banner

In a rapidly evolving media landscape, philanthropy has emerged as a critical funding model to sustain independent journalism. This session explores how newsrooms — regardless of size — can build and maintain editorial independence while leveraging philanthropic support.

We begin by providing a high-level overview of the philanthropic landscape today. Then, two presenters — representing newsrooms of very different scales — will share in-depth information on their programs and case studies of their approaches.
The Ithaca Voice, a nimble, community-focused newsroom, will offer insights into sustaining hyperlocal journalism with limited resources and strong community ties. The Baltimore Banner, a large, philanthropically-backed nonprofit newsroom, will share how it’s scaling impact, infrastructure, and reach while maintaining editorial integrity.

Following these presentations, the co-presenters will engage in a candid peer interview, comparing lessons learned, fundraising strategies, and editorial guardrails. The session will close with an open Q&A, offering audience members a chance to dive deeper into how philanthropy can work across newsroom contexts.

This session is designed for newsroom leaders, funders, and nonprofit stakeholders interested in the practical realities of philanthropic support — from startup to scale — while maintaining one clear editorial standard.

Location: Woodland D

Facilitators:

Glenn Burkins, founder and publisher, QCity Metro
Larry Lee, CEO, The Sacramento Observer
Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, president and chief revenue officer, New York Amsterdam News

There’s no denying that America has a wealth gap. So when it comes to fundraising in Black communities where generational wealth is lower, the challenges can seem insurmountable. What are the most effective strategies? What messaging works best?

This session will dive deeply into the nuances that are particular to Black audiences and potential donors. It also will offer strategies to overcome what some say is a cultural reluctance on the part of Black people to ask for money, even when money is needed.

Glenn Burkins, founder and publisher of QCity Metro; Larry Lee, CEO of the Sacramento Observer; and Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, president and chief revenue officer of the New York Amsterdam News, will share insights from their fundraising experiences and offer replicable strategies for newsrooms.

Location: St. Mark

Facilitators:

Dillon Bergin, Data Reporter, MuckRock
Irene Romulo, Co-Founder and Development and Community Engagement Coordinator, Cicero Independiente

In Cicero, an industrial suburb of Chicago home to mostly Hispanic and Latino residents, readers of the bilingual news outlet Cicero Independiente repeatedly voiced their concerns about environmental issues and air pollution. For years, the newsroom didn’t have a reporter who could tackle these issues. In 2021, MuckRock and Cicero Independiente started a collaborative reporting project about air pollution, using grant funding to install air quality sensors on residents’ houses. MuckRock’s team contributed public records research and data analysis, while Cicero Independiente reporters followed the findings on the ground. The series became one of Independiente’s most impactful projects: In the months after the series highlighted a major polluter, the facility shut down part of its most toxic operations. The series also brought more feedback from readers than almost any other project, and later won the MIT Knight Regional Science Journalism Award and SPJ New America award. This year, Cicero Independiente hired their first environmental reporter to continue reporting on the story that started in 2021. In this session, we’ll cover how the two newsrooms identified an area readers were interested in, raised money to tackle a project that fit readers interest and eventually turned that project into a new reporting position and a long-term beat that drives Cicero Independiente’s community-focused news.

Participants will leave with:

An example of how funding reporting that follows readers’ interest can be done in an iterative way, starting small and continuing to prove that expanding a reporting team will be the right decision for an organization and its readers. Participants will have an idea of how building capacity in this way can be done from start to finish.

Location: Regent

Facilitators:

Maya Chupkov, Media & Democracy Program Manager, California Common Cause
Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, CEO, J. The Jewish News of Northern California

One way to diversify revenue streams is to identify local government resources. Every city has a marketing budget that could be spent in part on local news. Some cities may be willing to establish a journalism fund. In San Francisco, a coalition has worked for three years to identify municipal funding sources. We began with a community assessment to identify areas of need across San Francisco’s underserved communities that are served by community and ethnic publishers. We then met with our supervisors to gain their support. They helped us identify challenges to government ad spending and suggested a journalism fund. We will share our process in this session, including materials such as our community assessment and budget resolutions. There will be plenty of time for q and a.

Location: Woodland D

Facilitator: Marcia Parker, Vice President, Philanthropic Partnerships, The New York Times

Marcia Parker is Vice President, Philanthropic Partnerships, at The New York Times, but prior to joining the Times, she spent more than five years as the publisher and chief operating officer of CalMatters, a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization that covers California and its state government. In that role, she co-managed business operations for a young news organization that grew into an outlet with 55 employees and an $8.6 million annual budget with support from dozens of prominent foundations and donors.

In this talk, Marcia will share key lessons from her time at CalMatters — and her work at The New York Times and as INN board chair — including:

How to approach networking with prospects
Building the right funding mix
Engaging your newsroom in fundraising
And more!

Location: Woodland B

Facilitators:

Madeline Chosich, Director of Digital, Marketing, & Strategy, Arkansas Times
Josh Barousse, Co-founder & Executive Director, San José Spotlight

Is civic engagement a core part of your organization’s mission? Learn how to effectively monetize your panels and events while educating and informing your audience. This session will feature panelists from respected newsrooms, including The Arkansas Times, who successfully transformed their fundraising strategy within a single year by launching a dynamic event series that taps into the current news cycle.

We’ll dive deep into the financial and labor investments required to turn such an initiative into reality. The session will be interactive, drawing on real-world examples and offering practical solutions to common challenges in newsroom fundraising.

Participants will leave with:

Methods for increasing and maintaining community involvement and turning event attendees into long-term supporters and loyal donors.A step-by-step guide for harnessing the news cycle to create compelling event series that drive fundraising outcomes.Tips on aligning your fundraising efforts with the news cycle for maximum relevance and impact.
An understanding of the budgeting, staffing, and resource allocation necessary for executing a successful event-driven fundraising campaign.
A playbook for creating post-event journeys that build lasting relationships with event goers, turning them into long-term supporters.

Location: Woodland A

Facilitators:

Tom Huang, Assistant Managing Editor for Journalism Initiatives at The Dallas Morning News
Janice Thompson, Founder and Director of Development at the Harpswell Anchor
Rusty Rae, Executive Director at the Oregon Public Information Partnership
Jeb Bladine, President / Publisher at Oregon Lithoprint, Inc

Newspapers of all sizes and business models are increasingly turning to philanthropic funding — both from institutional funders and individual supporters — as a revenue source to bolster their essential local journalism.

In this under-the-hood session we’ll hear from leaders from three distinct organizations: The Dallas Morning News, The Harpswell Anchor, and the Oregon Public Information Partnership about how they’ve built thriving fundraising models.

Participants will leave with:

An understanding of the options available for nonprofit fundraising;
A better idea of what model might make sense for your community and organization;

Location: Woodland ABCD

Facilitators:

Schultz & Williams

Many organizations are facing unexpected funding crises during these uncertain times. Contingency planning can help weather this challenge. This interactive workshop will provide strategies and tools to engage in contingency planning so you can better prepare for and navigate challenges that impact your mission delivery.

Bring your boxed lunch to eat during the session.

Location: Woodland ABCD

Facilitators:

Diana López, The Lenfest Institute
Joseph Lichterman, The Lenfest Institute

We’re going to wrap up the Summit with an interactive session to share our highlights and key takeaways along with next steps.

Thanks for coming to the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit. We’ll see you next time!