How fundraisers collaborate with newsrooms for organizational sustainability
How fundraisers collaborate with newsrooms for organizational sustainability
Over the past four months The Impact Architects, in partnership with the News Revenue Hub and the American Journalism Project, has conducted research into revenue generating roles at Civic News Organizations (CNOs). AJP, at its core, recognized that these revenue roles are necessary, but all too rare given the evolution of the news industry. The basic hypothesis of the research is that revenue-generating positions pay for themselves and are essential for long term sustainability. To reframe the “you have to spend money to make money” cliché, CNOs have to fund fundraisers to raise funds.
The full report contains case studies of successful fundraisers at exemplary CNOs (Honolulu Civil Beat, MinnPost, The Marshall Project, VTDigger, The Rivard Report, and Bridge), and it demonstrates the critical value of investing in revenue generating roles. Additionally, it identifies the skills these people have in common and the organizational structures that makes them truly exemplary.
There’s one critical ingredient in how organization operates that is necessary for fundraising success: communication and collaboration between business operations and editorial production. We hope that this deep dive will be useful for CNOs getting started on hiring their first revenue generating role, as well as those with an individual or team already in place.
There is often a tension in CNOs around the potential for collaboration across revenue generating teams and editorial teams that stems from the idea that there should be a firewall between the two. This notion hearkens back to the days of advertising bonanzas for newspapers, and an understanding that advertising shouldn’t influence editorial coverage. While this firewall might have been more like a chain-link fence, the notion of separating the two still holds.
However, we found that collaboration between fundraisers on the one hand and editors and reporters on the other was a central component of every CNO that participated in this research. While these teams agree that a firewall should be there, their experience suggests that it should be transparent — even a little porous. This finding embodies the evolving economics of the news industry that, more and more, relies on philanthropic funding and audience support. Because of that, it might make those more comfortable with the opaque and impassable firewall, the one that might have worked under outdated business models, uncomfortable.
But what does transparency look like, in practice? And how do these CNOs avoid the potential pitfalls of undue influence of those people and organizations that financially support the work on editorial integrity?
What collaboration doesn’t mean
First, collaboration between business operations and editorial production does not mean that reporters and editors become fundraisers. That’s not their job. The case studies and background research instead show a lot of working together on the part of fundraisers and editorial staff. For instance, several organizations said that reporters attended fundraising events, either as speakers or attendees. They were there to do what they are able to do better than anyone else: talk about their work. But in general, editorial staff do not make direct asks for money.
Second, collaboration does not mean that business operations has the authority to tell reporters what to do. For instance, MinnPost’s Director of Development, Tanner Curl said that it’s critical to have reporters involved in fundraising work, but it starts with him asking for their participation, not telling them to. It’s necessary to have reporter buy in, and an effective way for getting it is to involve them in a process rather than direct them to do something they aren’t comfortable doing.
Next, and perhaps most importantly, collaboration does not mean an infringement on editorial integrity. Every person we talked to fully understood how important it is for their organizations to remain editorially independent. For instance, two of the case studies are about selling underwriting and advertisements — Katy Silva from The Rivard Report and Dylan Woodrow from VTDigger. Both of them experienced the risk of losing sales due to critical reporting about the local business community, their core clients. But both Silva and Woodrow attributed this risk to the very nature of the job. It’s not self-evident for people without journalism backgrounds to understand the nuances of the firewall, but it is quickly learnable. Fundraisers succeed because they understand what it is reporters and editors do, and organizations succeed when reporters understand what fundraisers do.
Finally, collaboration is not necessarily going to be obvious or natural. It takes intentionality and the strategic establishment of communication channels between editorial staff and revenue generating staff.
What collaboration looks like
There’s one major requirement for successful collaboration between business and editorial: a shared understanding of the organization’s mission. Every fundraiser who participated in this research was attracted to their organizations because of a deeply held belief in the value of journalism and the positive impact it has in the world. And, while this research did not involve speaking with anyone from the editorial side, it is safe to speculate that this personal characteristic can go a long way toward building trust across teams. Fundraisers at CNOs are there because they want to sustain the important work journalists do, and success results from editorial understanding that they’re all working towards the same mission.
Second, collaboration requires communication — and communication in myriad ways. When Honolulu Civil Beat first transitioned to a nonprofit model and established a development team, it held weekly meetings that included everyone on the business side of operations as well as everyone from editorial production. The purpose was for every department to know what others were doing, and how everyone’s work complemented others.
Sometimes, communication happens more by chance or circumstance. For example, when Silva first began at Rivard Report, everyone on staff worked in one room at a coworking space. She said that the close proximity led to “enhanced respect” in both on her part for the editorial work and on the part of editorial staff for what goes into fundraising. As she learned about how a newsroom functions, the newsroom learned about what selling advertisements to support their journalism entails.
CNOs interested in making their first revenue-focused hire can’t rely on circumstance to create these communication channels. Building communication into organizational strategy will ensure that this necessary transparency between business operations and editorial production takes place, helping set the CNO on the path to sustainability. This is also a relevant finding for large organizations whose business and editorial sides might not have much contact at all. Fundraisers, reporters, and editors should know one another and understand their respective roles. If there are no existing opportunities or mechanisms for that familiarity, create them.
Summary
The importance of a transparent firewall is just one of the many useful findings in our full research report that cuts across the case studies, applying to small and large CNOs alike. Regardless of where an organization is in its maturity, there are a few critical points to remember:
- Collaboration requires a shared understanding of the organization’s mission.
- Well implemented communication strategies are key to successful collaboration.
- Reporters and editors should be involved in fundraising work, but they themselves are not fundraisers.
- Neither business operations nor editorial production should have authority over the other.
- Collaboration does not mean the infringement of editorial independence.
The need for transparency and collaboration between the business and editorial sides of a news organization is not a radical recommendation. Instead, it’s a necessity given the evolving economics of the news industry. Creating the channels for it to take place won’t happen without effort, but the payoff might very well be organizational sustainability.