Tiny News gives third round of Immediate Needs grants to 22 member newsrooms

Tiny News Collective is excited to announce a third round of Immediate Needs Fund grants to support member newsrooms responding to urgent and emerging needs. Each of the 22 selected newsrooms will receive $5,000, for a total of $110,000, continuing the fund's mission to provide support that helps tiny news organizations stay sustainable in a time of economic and political uncertainty. The fund is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

As with the last round of grants, a team of media professionals served as grant reviewers, scoring applications based on a rubric identified at the outset. The criteria included the urgency of the request and the connection of the request to meeting a community or organizational need. Many thanks to Richard Brown of Wisconsin Watch, Nation Hahn, Ashton Lattimore, Nina Sachdev of Media Impact Funders, Chrissy Murray of Duke University, Tom Davidson of Penn State University and Anna Nirmala for their help.

This new round of grantees includes:

"With each round of this fund, we see the same story from a different angle: a newsroom on the edge of a breakthrough that just needs a small, well-timed boost to get there," said Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, executive director of Tiny News Collective. "These 22 outlets represent the full range of what tiny news looks like right now across the country — and what it takes to keep it going.”

Across this cohort, grantees will use the funding to stabilize operations, strengthen infrastructure and meet community information needs. Some examples of how the funding will be used:

To cover liability insurance
To buy a mobile reporting kit
To survey their audience
To pay a freelance writer or keep a reporter employed
To provide supervision and mentorship for interns

"Investments like these may be modest in size, but they carry outsized weight for the communities these newsrooms serve," said Silvia Rivera, director of local news at the MacArthur Foundation. "We're proud to back founders who show up for their audiences, giving these entrepreneurs the timely help they need to keep their communities informed during challenging times."

These grants from Tiny News illustrate the diverse requirements of local news founders operating on a modest scale yet delivering significant results. Through swift funding for core operations, reader outreach and community-driven initiatives, the Immediate Needs Fund enables these newsrooms to keep informing, engaging and strengthening their communities during pivotal times.

Along with the earlier Spark Fund and Immediate Needs Fund grants, Tiny News Collective has now regranted more than $320,000 to members in 2025 and 2026. Congratulations to all our grantees. 💖

Tiny News gives third round of Immediate Needs grants to 22 member newsrooms

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