By Elaine Díaz Rodríguez

At the end of 2025, we invited our members to pause and reflect with us by participating in our first-ever Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey. Our goal was to better understand how founders experience Tiny News Collective, what’s working, where we can grow and what support truly makes a difference when you’re launching and sustaining community-centered newsrooms. 

We chose the Net Promoter Score because it focuses on whether founders would recommend this community to others. Rather than measuring satisfaction in isolation, the NPS centers trust and lived experience by asking how likely someone is to stand behind an organization they’re part of. For us, that question gets closer to whether we’re truly building a community of support, instead of just delivering programs or services.

We’re sharing what we learned from this survey publicly as a way to reflect honestly on our work and contribute to shared learning across the journalism field.

“A key priority of our Strategic Plan is to ‘grow our membership in breadth and depth,’” said TNC Executive Director Amy Kovac-Ashley. “As we grow, our values require us to measure how effectively we serve our community. When founders recommend Tiny News Collective to others, it tells us we’re building a meaningful community of support. The NPS allows us to measure that trust and learn where our support needs to evolve.”

We heard from 43 founders representing 41 organizations — about half of our active membership — and the results were both encouraging and clarifying. Our overall NPS score was +53, on a scale of -100 to +100. Seventy percent of respondents identified as Promoters, meaning they are enthusiastic about their experience and would actively recommend TNC. Another 14% were Passives, feeling generally positive but not yet fully confident in their engagement, and 16% were Detractors, highlighting where expectations and experiences have not always aligned.

What came through most clearly in the comments is that our members do not feel alone. Again and again, founders described TNC as a place where they feel supported and understood as they navigate the complexity of starting something from scratch. One member shared that “the team at TNC has our back and I never feel alone as a founder.” Others pointed to town hall-style gatherings and peer connections as spaces where they could learn alongside people who truly understand their challenges. This sense of learning with each other rather than in isolation continues to be one of the most powerful aspects of the Collective.

Many members highlighted the value of our role as providing core infrastructure — fiscal sponsorship, legal support through Lawyers for Reporters and hands-on help with Ghost — systems that would otherwise be daunting to navigate independently. For some, access to these tools and guidance turned early ideas into working publications, even when the learning curve was steep. Others spoke about how coaching, workshops and expert guidance outside of editorial — especially in operations, fundraising and tech — helped them grow their leadership skills beyond reporting.

At the same time, our listening also underscored where we need to be clearer and more accessible. Some founders shared how early onboarding can feel overwhelming, filled with unfamiliar terms, compliance requirements and tech language that assume a level of fluency not everyone brings with them. Others told us they were excited by what TNC offers but weren’t always sure how to translate membership into concrete next steps or hands-on progress. We also heard concerns about membership fees as a barrier, particularly for founders from low-income or underserved communities.

These reflections energize us. They underscore that our impact comes from both the services we offer and how clear, accessible and connected those services feel to the founders using them. That’s why we’ll continue to refine how members move from joining to engaging to achieving outcomes and designing clearer learning pathways at the same time we protect the close relationships that sit at the heart of TNC, especially as our community grows.

This first NPS survey gave us a much-needed baseline and some immediate next steps. At the same time, it’s important to remember that the leaders building newsrooms alongside us aren’t data points; they are partners shaping what Tiny News Collective is becoming. Our work now is to ensure that every founder who steps into this community can find their footing faster, feel empowered sooner and stay rooted in connection as they grow.