$95,000 to support local journalism

The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque is honored to receive a $95,000 grant from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support its work strengthening local journalism across Northeast Iowa.

“Local news in our region and across the country is in crisis, and we are committed to helping sustain it through community philanthropy, partnerships with news outlets, and the critical support of funders like The MacArthur Foundation,” says Nancy Van Milligen, president and CEO of the Community Foundation. “Fair and accurate reporting on government, education and local issues is essential. An informed public is empowered to engage in the civic life of their communities and help these places thrive.”

The grant will support the Community Foundation’s role as the Press Forward Northeast Iowa Local. As Iowa’s first and only Press Forward chapter, the Community Foundation serves as a philanthropic resource for people and organizations who understand the revenue challenges news outlets face and want to increase their capacity to provide quality journalism around topics that matter in local communities.

Press Forward is a national movement – founded in part by The MacArthur Foundation – to strengthen democracy by revitalizing local news and information. A coalition of funders is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms, close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage, advance public policy that expands access to local news, and to scale the infrastructure the sector needs to thrive.

Press Forward Local chapters like the Community Foundation are a network of chapters across the country where funders bring new donors and foundations together to expand resources for local news. These 31 chapters are an opportunity for funders to create place-based initiatives, driven by the specific information needs of their communities.

The $95,000 grant is part of an effort by The MacArthur Foundation’s Board of Directors called Local News Big Bet, which launched in 2023. This initiative includes a commitment of at least $150 million in new grantmaking to local news over five years, and the potential of $25 million in additional impact investments. This latest round of grants brings the total committed to date to more than $90 million.

“Our grantmaking supports a range of organizations working to strengthen nascent and emerging local news ecosystems and their leaders, who innovate in these spaces, with tools, resources, and funding. This includes a cohort of newsrooms pioneering new paths,” said Silvia Rivera, MacArthur’s Director of Local News. “These investments are part of a collective effort to ensure that local communities have steady access to reliable and trustworthy information.”

Supporting local journalism builds on the Community Foundation’s 21-year history of community philanthropy, strengthening local organizations like nonprofits and schools that address some of the region’s most pressing issues.

“We support other community-good and democratic institutions such as libraries, universities and museums— journalism should be thought of in those same terms,” Van Milligen says. “Journalism is unlikely to recover using the old economic models and it's a vital part of democracy.”

The Foundation hosts charitable funds that support journalism in the Dubuque region, which collectively hold nearly $1 million. These funds include: