Case Study

Telling your chapter impact story: How to make your case and build support

By Katie Hawkins-Gaar

February 26, 2026

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.

Capturing impact is harder than it sounds. How do you demonstrate — to yourself, your community, and potential funders — that your work truly matters? How do you show that the projects you’ve invested in are leading to real-world change? 

Newsrooms and community foundations have wrestled with these questions for years. Now, as the Press Forward network grows, the funders supporting local news are grappling with them, too.

For the past six months, my colleague Erin Mishkin and I have interviewed local news leaders, funders, and community members in Charlotte, North Carolina; Wichita, Kansas; and Lexington, Kentucky. Interviews in Tallahassee, Florida are underway.

Our role is to help these leaders articulate their impact: showing how investments in local news strengthen communities and why those investments matter.

Each city is part of The Lenfest Institute for Journalism’s Knight Communities Network, which supports place-based funders building sustainable local news ecosystems. They’re also home to Press Forward Locals — citywide and regional chapters of the national Press Forward network. 

Through conversations with veteran journalists, scrappy publishers, community influencers, and collaborative leaders, we’ve gained a fascinating view into each city’s news landscape. We distill what we learn into two core resources: an internal document mapping the chapter’s role in local news transformation, and an external one-pager that communicates impact to funders and partners.

As freelancers who partner with journalism-support organizations, we know how difficult — and essential — it is to make the case for investing in local news. Figuring out the right story takes time, but it’s worth every bit of effort.

We compiled what we learned below and also created templates to help you get started.

Access our impact storytelling templates Access our impact storytelling templates

Uncover your unique story

• Identify what sets your region apart — history, industries, culture, demographics
• Clarify the role your chapter plays within that landscape
• Look for themes that surface repeatedly in interviews

In Wichita, our impact messaging centered on innovation. After learning about Press Forward Wichita’s experiments with startups like the former Wichita Beacon and successful programs such as the Wichita Info Challenge, we leaned into that theme:

“From aircraft production to fast-food entrepreneurship, Wichita has always been a place where innovation takes hold — and local news is no exception.”

In Lexington, the focus was on community pride. The Bluegrass region is known for its namesake music, rolling hills, historic downtowns, world-class academics, and a deep sense of place. Kentucky also has 120 counties — the fourth-highest county count in the U.S. — underscoring the need for hyperlocal news.

“Too often, the stories that make Central Kentucky what it is go untold. […] Neighbors are left without the reliable, timely information they need to stay informed, engaged, and connected — to one another and the place they call home.”

In Charlotte, the defining theme was collaboration. The city is home to the nationally recognized Charlotte Journalism Collaborative and has the resources and density to support shared infrastructure and partnerships. And while we’re just beginning work in Tallahassee, early interviews indicate a strong sense of community and civic engagement. As WXTL ABC 27 news director Vicki Bradley told us, “I don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere where I had such a strong sense of community.”

Across cities, one thing is clear: every place has a distinct story — and that story resonates most with local funders. At its core, local news strengthens the communities we live in and love. (Our favorite way to surface this is by starting interviews by asking what people love most about where they live.) The more a chapter centers its community’s identity, the stronger its message. Press Forward also created a messaging toolkit based on nationwide research to help news organizations tell their story and garner support.

Press Forward's messaging toolkit Press Forward's messaging toolkit

Address the losses; find the opportunity

• Acknowledge declines: shrinking newsrooms, lost beats, diminished coverage
• Highlight what’s emerging or what could exist
• Frame your chapter’s work as part of a broader path forward

In places like Wichita, Charlotte, and Lexington community members mourn the reduced scope of coverage in their local newspapers and express frustrations about corporate ownership and diminished local presence.

No matter the city, the beats of local journalism’s decline are consistent: layoffs, shrinking coverage areas, and reporters stretched thin. Advertising revenue has dried up, and consolidation has hollowed out institutions that once served as civic anchors.

But that’s not where the story ends.

We also ask what gives people hope. In Wichita, it’s a more diverse local media ecosystem. In Charlotte, collaboration offers a path forward. In Tallahassee, community-focused models are expanding how local news is defined and delivered.

For chapters, the task is to tell both sides of that story: the reality of journalism’s crisis and the promise of renewal. Ground your messaging in potential — the collaborations, experiments, and investments that point toward a stronger local news ecosystem — while also acknowledging what’s been lost.

Go outside your network

• Interview beyond grantees and media professionals
• Consider an outside contractor to conduct interviews
• Provide space for off-the-record comments as needed

Press Forward Local leaders often connect us with editors, veteran reporters, and civic journalism organizers as interview subjects. For chapters that have already made grants, those grantees are often first on the list — after all, who better to describe the impact than the people directly supported?

But some of our most revealing conversations have come from people who haven’t yet benefitted from philanthropic support. These voices — from independent journalists, local influencers, and longtime residents — often share candid perspectives that help paint a fuller picture of the landscape. While many of these comments stay off the record or don’t appear in outward-facing materials, the insights are invaluable. They help chapters understand how they’re perceived, where trust needs to be built, and what opportunities exist for deeper engagement.

That’s also why it can be helpful to bring in an outside contractor to conduct interviews. People tend to be open and honest with someone who isn’t directly tied to the local network — especially when the goal is to assess impact or identify blind spots.

Take your time — and make it count

• Capture more material than you’ll use right away
• Build a “cutting-room floor” archive of quotes, insights, and transcripts
• Revisit and refresh your impact story every few years

Another thing all Press Forward chapters have in common? There’s never enough time or resources to get everything done. Impact mapping and messaging are essential — they form the foundation for the case to funders — but they’re the kind of work that can get pushed aside for more urgent priorities.

That’s why we record interviews, identify standout quotes, and collect far more material than a one-pager can hold. We collect it all in a “cutting-room floor” folder — an archive of insights and stories that chapters can revisit whenever they need fresh language or data.

As Courtney Bengtson, executive vice president at the Wichita Foundation — home of Press Forward Wichita — told us, “From the transcripts…we can use all of that stuff for other publications, for other projects, and that is perfect because from a capacity standpoint it saves us so much time.”

Even if a chapter can only do this kind of deep-dive storytelling once in a while (we recommend every two to three years), treat it as an investment. Capture as much as you can, and you’ll keep drawing from it long after.

Like much of the work in the journalism-support space, Erin and I are learning as we go. It’s too early to measure the impact of our own work — whether these stories will bring new donors or shift perceptions — but we’re hopeful. Every community we work with has compelling reasons to support and sustain its local news ecosystem.

If your Press Forward chapter is beginning to map its ecosystem or wants help crafting your impact story, The Lenfest Institute’s Knight Communities Network is sharing tools, templates, and lessons learned from across the network. Contact Kristin Traniello to learn more.