Focus Areas
Media Training
Archives
Youth
Representation in Media
Community-Centered Journalism
Media Policy

Broadcast, digital, and print journalism that accurately reflects the lived experience of communities of color can lead to increased civic engagement (e.g. voter turnout, everyday people running for office), minimize divisive narratives that foster polarization, and provide live-saving resources that build up our communities. Major news organizations’ newsrooms, in Philadelphia and beyond, are primarily led by and staffed with white journalists, with a disproportionate number of them from elite universities. 

These media organizations, because of their lack of diversity, select and report stories that do not reflect or dignify the lived experiences of communities of color. This creates a series of problems for the newsrooms and their communities such as perpetuating harmful stereotypes, loss of trust, an unwillingness to pay for the news which weakens the news business, and communities disengaging from civic life. 

IPMF imagines nuanced and solutions-oriented journalistic coverage that leads to improved policy making, reduced harm to communities of color, and fosters meaningful civic dialogue. The Journalism program aims to build resilient systems for communicating and sharing information by supporting the training of diverse newsroom leadership, community-connected news and information, and journalism that addresses systemic inequities and systems that need to change.

What We Support

    Projects

    $1,600,000 - Awarded March 2023

    Focus areas
    Community-Centered Journalism
    Description

    Three-year grant for continued support of Resolve Philly’s work to transform the news and information ecosystem in the Philadelphia region plus general operating support.

    $80,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Community-Centered Journalism
    Description

    A one-year grant to continue the organization's work with the Shift the Narrative collaborative which helps build power in local communities by bringing together journalists and communities members to learn from and work with one another on collaborative reporting projects, with the goal of building lasting trusted relationships and creating community-centered processes and narratives within newsrooms.

    $14,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Community-Centered Journalism
    Description

    Providing matching dollars to seven local newsrooms—NextCity, Hidden City Philadelphia, Spotlight PA, Prison Journalism Project, Delaware Public Media, WHYY News, WLVT News—in support of this year-end giving campaign.

    $225,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Community-Centered Journalism
    Description

    A one-year grant to support the incorporation of the Germantown Info Hub into a Community Wire Service—a network of hyperlocal bureaus meeting neighborhood information needs and serving as a mechanism for citywide authentic and accurate news coverage.

    $80,000 - Awarded August 2021

    Focus areas
    Community-Centered Journalism
    Description

    To strengthen the news ecosystem in Delaware and increase voices and coverage of underrepresented communities, particularly BIPOC and low-income communities, by creating a pipeline of BIPOC journalists, identifying geographic and demographic news deserts, and building infrastructure to address news and information needs.

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