Fundraising for Journalism 201: How to develop major gift project support and develop a community campaign

This session, designed for news organizations with more development experience, will help participants design strategies for seeking major gifts from individuals and foundations to support specific projects and develop broad-based community campaigns for their journalism.

The session will help publishers further develop their development plans in two key critical areas: Major gift project support and broad-based community fundraising.

The major gift session will walk participants through strategies for identifying prospects, building relationships with individuals and foundations, making a successful ask, dealing with rejection, and donor stewardship. Attendees will leave with a clear plan of action with tools and strategies for soliciting major donors to support their public-interest journalism.

The community campaign portion of the discussion will help participants build a template for how to develop a grassroots campaign to support their journalism. The session will highlight strategies for how to reach community members, develop effective marketing language, and how to use social media, email newsletters, and publications’ own websites and print products to ask for support.

This session is designed for people who have either begun to turn to philanthropy to support their journalism or attended our Fundraising 101 session. We will split the group in two and they will rotate through two discussions over the course of the session. Attendees will come away with sophisticated templates that will empower them to create strategies to attract new donors.

Suggested Speaker(s)

  • Annie McCain Madonia
    Chief Advancement Officer, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
  • Rebecca Forman
    The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism