The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and BlueLena have launched the INN Level Up Mid-Level Giving Accelerator, a six-month program that helps independent newsrooms grow the donors in the middle of their files.
The first cohort includes INN Network newsrooms Montclair Local, Cardinal News, Fresnoland, Pittsburgh’s Public Source, Arizona Luminaria, The Maine Monitor and Religion News Service.
The program is the first cohort delivered through BlueLena Advisory, the consulting division BlueLena launched earlier this year to help publishers build scalable, predictable revenue systems.
The opportunity in the middle
Most newsrooms aim their fundraising at two groups. They recruit small-dollar donors at the entry level, and they court major donors at the top. The donors in the middle tend to get overlooked. Yet that middle is where steady revenue lives, and where many future major gifts begin.
The national numbers tell the story. The Association of Fundraising Professionals reports that donors who give $501 to $5,000 account for about 16 percent of all charitable dollars while making up about 15 percent of donors. Giving USA’s 2026 report found that individuals gave $394 billion in 2025, 64 percent of the $617.2 billion Americans donated that year. Individuals still drive philanthropy. Few newsrooms, though, run a strategy built for the donors in between.
Nonprofit news felt real pressure in 2025. The 2026 INN Index found that the median INN member newsroom brought in $525,000 in annual revenue, about the same as 2024, even as the full INN Network topped $750 million in combined revenue, a 14 percent jump and the highest total the Index has recorded. More than a third of members reported losing charitable revenue they tied to the political climate. Yet individual donors gave a larger share of the total. Reader support, it turns out, can steady a newsroom when other funding wavers.
“Most publishers are not lacking ambition with fundraising, but they often need an executable strategy for the donors in the middle,” said Daniel Williams, CEO of BlueLena. “These supporters already give more than a small annual gift, but too often no one asks them to do more. This program equips development professionals with the systems and the skills to change that, and to turn reader trust into revenue they can count on.”
How the program works
The cohort runs for six months and is built for lean teams. It favors building over lecturing. Each newsroom produces real assets it can put to use right away.
Over three phases, participants audit their current fundraising, segment their donor files, design clear upgrade paths from small-dollar to mid-level to major gifts, and launch live mid-level campaigns timed to the fall NewsMatch season. The work blends full-cohort sessions, small-group labs, and one-to-one coaching, led by a rotating team of BlueLena experts. Newsrooms do not need to be BlueLena customers to take part.
By the end, each newsroom leaves with working tools: a mid-level prospect list, a 12-month upgrade plan, automated stewardship workflows, and a campaign with clear goals.
“We are thrilled to partner with BlueLena on a program that helps members draw attention to a donor group that is so often forgotten — those in the middle,” said Stephanie Schenkel, INN’s Network Philanthropy Director. “The Level Up Accelerator focuses on understanding this donor donor segment so that we can tailor engagement and build strong systems.”
CJ Ortuño, Principal Advisor at BlueLena Advisory, designed the program and leads its delivery. He brings more than 20 years of fundraising experience with nonprofits and newsrooms, including Chalkbeat, Borderless Magazine, the American Journalism Project and the Medill School of Journalism.
“The newsrooms in this cohort have already earned their communities’ trust,” said Ortuño. “Our job is to help them build a fundraising program worthy of it, one that is repeatable, predictable, and built to outlast any single staff member.”
