North Carolina Local News Lab Fund Renews $1.27M in Support for 36 Trusted News and Information Organizations
September 29, 2026 – The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund today announced $1,270,000 in grants to 36 organizations across the state, continuing support for every grant partner that was part of the 2025 grant cycle. This year’s grants reflect the Fund’s commitment to sustained, steady investment in the trusted messengers and infrastructure that people in North Carolina rely on for their news and information.
The renewals come as North Carolina’s communities navigate compounding pressures: ongoing storm recovery, heightened immigration enforcement, and fast-moving federal and state policy changes affecting access to health care, food, housing, and the ballot box. The Fund’s grant partners are often where communities turn first for information they can trust and act on — even as funding instability, operational strain, and rising safety costs make it harder for them to do their work.
The Fund’s grant partners include trusted messengers who serve and partner with their communities in many different roles, from journalists to organizers to community health workers. They prioritize reaching people where they are, in the languages and through the platforms that resonate most with their community members.
“People need trusted, verified information to make sense of what’s happening, but the actions that come as a result of that information matter just as much. Local information allows neighbors to come together to hold people in power accountable, work through shared challenges, and actively participate in designing their future,” said Cierra Brown Hinton, the Director of the NC Local News Lab Fund. “News and information is about making sure the decisions that shape people’s lives don’t happen without them. No single organization or newsroom can do that work alone. That’s why we’ve renewed our support for a range of trusted messengers, with each organization playing an essential role that strengthens the broader ecosystem.”
These are just a few examples of how partners are informing their communities and equipping them to act:
Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR)’s reporting revealed that Asheville had allocated only a small fraction of a federal Hurricane Helene recovery grant to single-family home repair; BPR then followed up with a Q&A on the community’s most-asked questions, which led to the City Council revisiting the allocation.
NC FIELD’s in-person events and phone trees helped more than 2,100 families in eastern North Carolina access fresh food last year, and nearly 1,000 access necessary medication — reaching people other services often miss.
NC Health News was the first outlet to surface a proposed hospital combination before it could move through a county consent agenda without public discussion; the outlet has continued to follow up with concrete guidance on how local residents could make their voices heard before decisions were finalized.
In Charlotte, that same dynamic — informing communities and equipping them to act — has played out over years of debate on the proposed multibillion-dollar I-77 expansion. WFAE’s persistent investigative reporting tracked the project through multiple votes and reversals. The Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Morning Forum — whose digital production of the Forum is supported by the Fund — regularly convened members of Charlotte’s Black community who would be most impacted by the project. These are just two of many organizations across Charlotte’s news and information ecosystem engaged on this high-stakes issue as it continues to unfold.
These grants also include continued investment in the Fund’s capacity-building portfolio, fortifying the field through shared infrastructure — including access to trainings, data, expertise, tools, and peer-to-peer connection. Grant partners within this portfolio are essential to fueling ecosystem-level change through efficiencies, effectiveness, and opportunities to solve field-wide problems together, rather than in silos.
Among these partners are:
The Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, whose new Documenters program trains and pays community members to become citizen journalists. Documenters attend and report on public meetings that would otherwise go uncovered, then share takeaways to support local newsrooms’ reporting and encourage civic engagement.
Code the Dream, a tech-for-good nonprofit whose Upstate Tracker reduces duplicative efforts by helping trusted messengers easily track legislation and anticipate moments to alert their communities as bills move through the General Assembly.
The First Amendment Clinic at Duke Law, which offers pro bono legal services that strengthen local newsrooms by helping them pursue public records requests and reduce their risks of publishing accountability journalism.
NC Local, a nonprofit statewide news organization, which organizes community listening sessions to surface local information needs and spearheads an annual Summit and weekly newsletter that connects North Carolina’s news and information field — creating space to share what’s working and solve problems together.
Combined with investments in public media resilience earlier this year, the Fund has moved $1,445,000 this year to North Carolina’s news and information field — bringing its total investments to $7.7M since the pooled fund was established in 2017.
The Fund’s grants are selected by a group of state and national experts who bring deep knowledge about local news and information funding, expertise about North Carolina’s local news and information ecosystem, and a commitment to North Carolina’s communities. Learn more about the Fund’s selection committee here.
Fall 2026 Grant Recipients
Asociación De Mexicanos En Carolina Del Norte (AMEXCAN): $20,000
Blue Ridge Public Radio: $30,000
Border Belt Independent: $20,000
Casa Azul de Wilson: $30,000
Charlotte Journalism Collaborative: $70,000
Code the Dream: $35,000
Compañeros en las Montañas en Acción (CIMA): $30,000
Davidson Local: $20,000
El Centro Hispano: $30,000
Emancipate NC: $30,000
Enlace Latino NC: $50,000*
First Amendment Clinic at Duke Law: $30,000
Hola Carolina: $30,000
JMPRO Community Media: $50,000*
La Coalición Latinoamericana/Latin American Coalition: $30,000
Mountain Xpress: $20,000
Narrative Arts | Shoresides: $30,000
NC FIELD: $50,000*
NC Health News: $50,000*
NC Local: $150,000
North Carolina Housing Coalition: $20,000
QCity Metro: $30,000
QNotes Carolinas: $30,000
Qué Pasa: $30,000
Refugee Community Partnership: $30,000
Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum Broadcast: $30,000
Smoky Mountain News: $20,000
Student Action with Farmworkers: $20,000
The Assembly: $20,000
The Charlotte Post: $20,000
The Election Hub: $20,000
WFAE: $50,000*
WFDD: $30,000
WNC Health Network: $50,000
WNCU: $30,000
You Can Vote: $35,000
*Represents the second installment of a two-year commitment made in 2025.
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 and sign up for updates via its newsletter.
