North Carolina Local News Lab Fund Invests $900,000 in 12 NC News and Information Organizations
The Fund’s latest investments provide essential support to the local news and community organizations serving NC communities at a time of heightened pressure and persistent need
August 7, 2025 - The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund today announced $900,000 in grants to 12 local news and community organizations. This latest round of funding comes as federal funding for public media has been eliminated and communities across North Carolina face growing barriers to accessing reliable information–especially in rural areas and as hurricane season intensifies.
These grants reflect a statewide strategy to support trusted sources, elevate local voices, and equip communities to stay informed and take action. This funding includes investments in public media organizations, field-strengthening capacity building, and multi-year support for local outlets and community organizations.
“Local journalists and trusted communicators in North Carolina are navigating increasing pressure with resilience, innovation, and care,” said Lizzy Hazeltine, Director of the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund. “These investments recognize the reality of growing threats and support the full range of people and organizations who help communities stay informed and engaged.”
Building the Capacity of the Field
Since its inception, the Fund has invested in two key ways: through direct funding to organizations that produce and distribute news and information, and through the tools, expertise, relationships, and connections that organizations need to serve their communities.
This year, as pressure on local teams continues to build, the Fund is expanding its support for organizations that strengthen and serve the field—organizations that create the conditions for others to adopt community-centered practices and tackle internal and structural challenges. These capacity-building grants help ensure more news and information organizations can access expert guidance, collaborative networks, and practical tools they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford alone.
The five organizations receiving capacity-building grants in this round are:
Charlotte Journalism Collaborative ($50,000): To bolster community-led journalism and collaborative reporting efforts in Charlotte.
Code the Dream ($35,000): To expand field-serving technology, such as its free version of UpState, which aids communicators in tracking and covering NC legislative updates.
NC Local ($170,000): To deliver critical tools, resources, and opportunities for shared connection to NC’s community of journalists and trusted communicators, such as the NC Local newsletter and NC News and Information Summit.
WNC Health Network ($50,000): To build public health communications capacity and expertise for communicators in the westernmost 18 counties of North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
You Can Vote ($35,000): To provide accurate, accessible, nonpartisan voting education and training to organizations and trusted communicators across the state.
Multi-year Support for Trusted Sources
The Fund also announced five two-year general operating grants to organizations serving distinct roles in the news and information ecosystem, each deeply rooted in the communities they serve. These are the first multi-year grants the Fund has ever awarded.
These organizations work across languages, geographies, and communities and use a range of distribution channels. They underscore the Fund's ongoing commitment to support leaders and teams who reflect and serve their communities.
Enlace Latino NC ($100,000 over two years): To provide essential coverage for NC’s growing Latino/Hispanic communities through digital news, WhatsApp messaging, podcasting, and other community-rooted distribution methods.
JMPRO Community Media ($100,000 over two years): To lead grassroots storytelling, on-the-ground coverage, and rapid response media in Western NC in Spanish, Mam, K’iche, and English.
NC FIELD ($100,000 over two years): To meet the information needs of farmworker communities in Eastern NC.
NC Health News ($100,000 over two years): To produce in-depth journalism covering health care and its impacts across the state.
WFAE ($100,000 over two years): To serve the Charlotte region with local news and information, including through investigative reporting and robust community engagement.
Continued Support for Public Media after Federal Clawbacks
The Fund renewed its support of three public media organizations to advance vital reporting and community programming, including the aforementioned two-year grant to Charlotte’s WFAE. These grants respond to immediate-term budget shortfalls for public media after Congress pulled back $1.1 billion in previously apportioned federal dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in mid-July.
In addition to WFAE, the Fund awarded grants to two public media organizations:
Blue Ridge Public Radio ($30,000): To serve as a critical source of local news, public programming, and emergency communications for Western NC.
WNCU ($30,000): To deliver emergency communication, foster the next generation of broadcast journalists, and deliver local programming and news to the Triangle community.
Nearly 50% of WNCU’s revenue is in jeopardy following Congress’s clawbacks, making it one of the most at-risk public media organizations in the state. The station operates out of North Carolina Central University, a public historically Black university in Durham.
Powered by a Growing Coalition
These grants are the second round of Press Forward North Carolina and the first round of Press Forward Charlotte’s investments—led by the Fund with co-chairs Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation—made possible through a pooled fund with investments from local, state, and national partners.
This fall, the Fund will invest a second round of grants to continue supporting news and information organizations across North Carolina. Invitations have already been issued.
For more information about the Fund, visit nclocalnews.org.
About the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund
The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund is a pooled fund established in 2017 to build a resilient news and information network that serves all of North Carolina. The Fund invests in a diverse range of news and community organizations so that everyone in North Carolina can find, trust, and use the information they need to thrive. As the home of Press Forward's local chapters in North Carolina, the Fund also deepens ongoing partnerships with regional and national funders while continuing to advance the vision of informed, connected, and thriving communities across the state. The Fund was founded by a group of local and national funders at the North Carolina Community Foundation and is now housed at NEO Philanthropy. Learn more at nclocalnews.org.