March 21, 2025

About two-thirds of news organizations in the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) Network participated in the dedicated GNI Fundamentals Lab for INN Members from late 2023 through 2024.

At the end of every three-month lab, each of the 315 organizations was eligible for $20,000 in implementation funds from Google News Initiative to advance their sustainability goals – leading to a $6.3 million infusion of funding to support the sustainability of the nonprofit news field. 

It wasn’t just the funding that organizations appreciated about the program, which wrapped up at the end of 2024. The personalized website audits that every participating outlet received provided a roadmap for improvements, and often a place to start when organizations were deciding how to use their implementation funds.

“The highly specific suggestions offered to us in our audits have provided us with the backbone of our new action plan we hope to implement with the support of this funding,” said the New Pine Plains Herald, a local outlet serving towns in the Hudson Valley region of New York. 

So how did organizations spend the money? Three-quarters allocated their funding to a combination of audience development and small-dollar donations, taking a twofold approach to addressing readership and revenue goals. These were the two highest priority individual goals, too. Fewer than half decided to invest the funds in expanding or improving their advertising and sponsorship program. 

“When INN approached Google for support in building the business side of nonprofit newsrooms, we envisioned a program that could scale to support both small startups and more established, larger organizations,” said Jonathan Kealing, INN’s chief network officer. “It’s clear from the data that this effort succeeded by that measure.”

Participants in the GNI Fundamentals Lab for INN Members included organizations at every stage of development, from hyperlocal startups to longstanding national outlets. The program proved particularly popular with small-to-medium-sized organizations, with a little more than half having between 3 and 20 full-time equivalent staff.

Specific projects funded by these dollars often addressed pain points in the donation processing and/or content management systems (CMS), with several organizations spending to upgrade technology and visual design. Another popular way to use the funds was to redesign newsletters to try to drive conversions, using lessons learned from the training. Also a top priority? Spending money on audience acquisition, using paid lead generation strategies.

Most proposals took a combined approach, trying to boost both reach and revenue goals. Of these, 61 percent focused on website improvements and 42 percent on revamped newsletter efforts, but many are pursuing both.

“The goal is to not only enhance [our] reach and readership but also generate sustainable revenue through strategic email campaigns and products,” wrote Flint Beat, which covers Flint, Michigan.

Looked at another way, the implementation grants greatly increased the capacity in the field, with most funds going to either retain consultants, hire new staff or increase the hours of existing staff. Among consultants, more than twenty organizations made mention of using services from News Revenue Hub, followed by investments in Newspack, Blue Lena, Indiegraf and Blue Engine.

Newsrooms must provide a report on progress and insights six months after receiving funds, so the first reports are just starting to come in, with others expected in waves throughout 2025.

“When newsrooms are given relatively unrestricted cash, they know how best to use it to drive their sustainability,” Kealing said. “I’m positive that we’ll see the dividends from this project pay off for the next several years.”