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North Carolina Local News Lab Fund receives $150,000 gift from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust to support NC local news and information

The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust recently made a $150,000 grant to the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund at the North Carolina Community Foundation.

The gift expands the funding available in the current NCLNL grants cycle to $450,000 at a critical time for North Carolina residents and the local news and information organizations that serve them.

The pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate effects it is having on Black and Latinx communities due to systemic racism only underscore the urgency of supporting reliable, accessible local news and information in all our state’s communities.

“This timely grant to our pooled fund will allow us to expand our grantmaking immediately,” said Lizzy Hazeltine, fund coordinator for the NCLNL Fund. “Given the pressing importance of quality, inclusive local news and information, we’re grateful that this infusion expands the number of grants we can make in the near term.”

Applications for the current cycle are due no later than noon on Monday, June 15 and are available here.

For more information about the Fund, the current RFP or supporting NC’s local news and information ecosystem, email Lizzy Hazeltine at lizzy@localnewslab.org.

The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund was established at the North Carolina Community Foundation in 2017 by a group of local and national funders who believe in the power of local journalism, local stories and local people to strengthen our democracy. The mission of the Fund is to ensure that all North Carolinians have access to the news and information they need to make their communities thrive and determine their own futures.

The Fund pursues that mission with an ecosystem strategy that combines grantmaking with programming to build resilience and sustainability in the news and information network while encouraging deep service to local communities. The model also seeks to advance the effectiveness of philanthropy in this sector by aligning grantmaking with the pooled fund and creating opportunities for funders to learn about the importance of local news and information for vibrant civic life.

The Fund also supports NC Local News Workshop at Elon University, a support base for North Carolina’s news and information ecosystem.