Six Years of an Ecosystem Approach

In 2017, a group of North Carolina and national funders launched the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund. Our goal was clear: to guarantee that all North Carolinians have access to the local news and information they need to make our communities and democracy thrive.

The intervening years have brought ashore powerful hurricanes, a global pandemic, and mounting threats to democracy. During this time, we deployed more than $4 million in direct grants and advised on nearly as much in aligned grantmaking. Our growing network of news and community organizations have approached these challenges with a collaborative, entrepreneurial spirit, while advancing solutions that meet the everyday information needs of our communities. We’ve woven a stronger, more connected coalition of trusted messengers who tell the collective stories of North Carolina as our communities, state, and world change.

Since we began this ecosystem work, we’ve continuously adapted our approach, evolving to pursue our vision more effectively and equitably. These shifts support a more nimble, diverse, and community-centered network. Some of these practices are:

• Providing general operating grants that allow our network to adapt and hire for challenging times and unexpected opportunities.

• Implementing a verbal reporting process that frees up our grant partners’ capacity and provides us with rich stories of success and learning.

• Expanding our understanding of the messengers in our ecosystem, and embracing roles across reporting and distributing news and information alongside correcting narratives.

• Framing our grantmaking around the assets and needs of marginalized people and places, leading us to support more leaders of color and close geographic gaps in our funding.

North Carolina’s news and information ecosystem is at its best when funders and field organizations work together to make sure that everyone in our state can find, trust, and use the information they need.

Our power, impact, and progress are rooted in our collective, collaborative approach. I have immense gratitude for many people who are at work alongside us. Thank you to the publishers, reporters, community organizers, health workers, and other funders who each have a hand in this shared work.

It has taken, and will take, all of us.