Community Foundations and Journalism : A case for support

Justification of research project

This project comes at a time of growing concern about the fallibility of our democratic institutions, coupled with increased awareness that news and information, especially on a local level, need to be part of the solution. Given that these concerns have been developing for some time, much has already been written about the challenges and possible solutions. In the last couple of years alone, that includes a guide for philanthropists looking to support journalism, published by the Inspirit Foundation, Philanthropic Foundations Canada, the Local News Research Project and PhiLab (Hibon et al., 2023); a companion guide for journalists seeking foundation support, published in partnership with the Canadian Association of Journalists (Hibon et al., 2024); an exploration of the kinds of communityserving journalism projects that are philanthropically funded across Canada, produced by the Inspirit Foundation (Inspirit Foundation, 2023); and Public Policy Forum’s recent report on the importance of local news (Phillips et al., 2025).

Research question

Which Canadian community foundations support local journalism and how do they do so?

Research purpose

This project aims to build on the existing body of work. To achieve that, we focus on one area we feel remains underexplored: community foundations – specifically, the quiet ways in which they have been supporting journalism across Canada, and how that support can be developed into a movement.

Research approach

Building on existing work, the research paper will present a brief review of the literature.

Then, a series of interviews will identify a number of case studies of Canadian foundations currently engaged in this work.

Finally, we will provide recommendations about how this work can grow into a movement.