Pivotal milestones in 2022, and how we’ll advance our shared vision in 2023

Dear friends,

2022 brought the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund through a number of pivotal milestones in expanding our network and grantmaking. Every day it seems we have another reason to celebrate the future-shaping work of our partners.

This year, the Fund awarded more than $1.5M to 31 organizations, expanding and deepening our network in number, dollars, type of organization, and reach. Together, we:

• Reinforced the strength and resilience of the news and information ecosystem. We invested in 17 news organizations and 14 community organizations. More than half of these partners are Black-led or Hispanic/Latino-led.

• Broadened our reach. The Fund’s grant partners reach communities in more than 59 counties, from the Qualla Boundary to Corolla. Through our ongoing support of the NC Local News Workshop, we reach dozens of newsrooms and practitioners beyond our direct grant partners.

• Co-created a shared vision for NC’s news and information ecosystem. With longtime partners and newcomers to the state, we put pen to paper on the common values that drive us.

• Grew our coalition of funders. Burroughs Wellcome Fund joined as a funding partner, and with a $1M gift from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, we celebrated the single largest gift in the Fund’s history.

It’s fitting that these breakthroughs coincide with another key milestone for the Fund: five years since our founding. When the Fund launched in 2017, our mission was to transform North Carolina’s news and information infrastructure. Five years later, news and community organizations have forged new collaborations to meet communities’ needs.

In this growth, we feel momentum. Yes, we partly measure progress by the dollars we distribute, but we map our ultimate measures of success back to our “why”—ensuring that everyone in North Carolina can thrive. Together, we’re working toward a network that reaches and reflects all of NC, news and information that has utility in people’s lives, and is sustainable at the individual, organizational, and systems-level.

On March 18, 2022 the NC Local News Lab Fund, NC Local News Workshop, a planning committee, and dozens of partners dug in in a Shared Vision Session, where we co-created and affirmed that a critical mass of us share this vision. During the session, A Visual Approach created this graphic recording.

You’ll see these four principles—Reach, Reflection, Utility, and Sustainability—show up across our partner network. These objectives are why we support organizations that are narrowing gaps in news coverage, disrupting dominant narratives, sparking questions, and strengthening our information ecosystem.

Among our 2022 grant awards, here are just a few examples of these principles in action:

Code the Dream’s students build community-responsive technology that reaches communities who otherwise aren’t being served, from rural farmworkers to families experiencing homelessness.

Enlace Latino NC, Refugee Community Partnership, and JMPRoTV, among other grant partners, expand language access and ensure that diverse communities across the state  and their needs are reflected in the news.

Toxic Free NC provides farmworkers with information and tools they can use to reduce pesticide exposure in their lives today, while advocating for limits of toxic chemicals overall. 

And critically, the NC Local News Workshop advances true sustainability in our news ecosystem, the kind that extends far beyond the financial solvency of one newsroom. Supporting individuals’ needs and collaborating across disciplines positions all of us to do this work for decades to come.

As we head into 2023 and our sixth year, investment in North Carolina’s news and information ecosystem is growing, which will lead to more collaboration and good work. We will continue to build relationships, make connections, and open doors—as ever, in service of our shared vision and of North Carolina’s people. 

We’re keenly aware that systems change is only possible when we move forward together. And together, that’s what we are doing: we are building what’s possible.

We hope you’ll join us as we continue that work in 2023.

Onward,
Lizzy Hazeltine
Fund Director
North Carolina Local News Lab Fund