MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service received $350,000 in funding and plans to use the money to expand its efforts to cover the city's neighborhoods and people.
The non-profit news outlet said in a statement Thursday that the Zilber Family Foundation will donate $250,000 over the next four years. That money will be used to support the newsroom's operational costs.
NNS also will receive a $100,000 grant from Borealis Philanthropy and its Racial Equity in Journalism Fund. The grant money will be used to help the newsroom hire additional staff.
“For 10 years, the Neighborhood News Service has done professional and objective reporting about the ordinary people in our neighborhoods who do extraordinary things but otherwise would have been ignored,” said Ron Smith, editor and project director for NNS, in the statement.
“We are so grateful to still be here and to help fill information gaps in Milwaukee through a collaborative model for journalism that is embedded in serving readers and allowing them to help set the news agenda," said Smith.
The funding will help the newsroom with day-to-day costs while NNS aims to grow its endowment fund, a more stable and long-term source of revenue for the nonprofit.
“The idea behind creating the endowment is to reduce the need for constant fundraising, allowing us to focus more on the job of practicing great journalism for the community. An endowment would relieve the pressure of continually seeking funding for the next year, and so on," according to Smith.
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