Beyond the Grant: Rebuilding the Economics of Multiracial News Media
Through a pooled fund and a community of practice, Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Journalism (REJ) Fund invests in, connects, and threads the BIPOC-led and -serving journalism ecosystem. Operating through a hub-and-spoke model that connects four interlocking forms of sustainability—team, economic, audience, and community—the Fund treats revenue sustainability as a care practice; one that requires consistent investment, responsive partnership, and space for experimentation.
Over six years, this model has proven catalytic. Since the Fund’s inception, many of its grantee partners have doubled or tripled their budgets, launched new products, and leveraged our steady, multi-year support to secure funding from national institutions. Others have built entirely new revenue engines from sponsorship and membership to events, training, and data products rooted in community value, not extraction.
Grounded in portfolio data from 90+ media outlets and reflections from 34 media partners, our new report, Beyond the Grant: Rebuilding the Economics of Multiracial News Media, distills five years of the Fund’s learnings practice, documents what works, and charts a concrete investment path for what comes next.
At a time when journalism, equity, and democracy are intertwined and under pressure, the REJ Fund’s work affirms a simple truth: financial health is an expression of community health. Dig into this report to understand how to fortify the systems that keep publishers whole; extend the support infrastructure our newsrooms and our communities need to thrive; and, in doing so, shift greater power and resources toward multiracial newsrooms as essential civic infrastructure.
