Nonprofit newsroom revenue is growing, but the funding model remains concentrated. In the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) member data, the median newsroom reported $525,000 in annual revenue in 2025, while foundation grants supplied 48% of member revenue. Individual giving and earned income added important layers of support, and NewsMatch campaigns show the scale of coordinated audience fundraising.
Contents
- Revenue levels and field growth
- Revenue mix and diversification
- Foundation funding and donor economics
- Earned revenue streams
- Expenses and revenue capacity
- Campaigns supporting nonprofit news
Revenue levels and field growth
The following figures describe INN member organizations, primarily digital-first nonprofit newsrooms in North America. INN generally excludes public-media members from its main revenue and expense analyses because their accounting structures differ. Dollar amounts are nominal reported dollars, so the figures are not inflation-adjusted.
The median annual revenue reported by an INN nonprofit newsroom was $373,000 in 2021, according to Revenue & Expenses from the Institute for Nonprofit News. The median was about $477,000 in 2022 and $477,000 in 2023 in the same report series. The 2025 edition reported a median of $532,000 for 2024 and $525,000 for 2025 in the INN Index Report.
| Measurement year | Median annual revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $373,000 | INN Revenue & Expenses |
| 2022 | About $477,000 | INN Revenue & Expenses |
| 2023 | $477,000 | INN Revenue & Expenses |
| 2024 | $532,000 | INN Revenue & Expenses |
| 2025 | $525,000 | INN Index Report |
The median is a midpoint, not a total for the sector. A separate field measure found that more than 400 digital-first nonprofit newsrooms took in more than $750 million combined in 2025. For 2024, nearly 400 digital-first newsrooms took in an estimated $650 million to $700 million combined. The 2025 combined-revenue figure excludes startups without a full year of financial accounting, so it should not be read as a complete census of every nonprofit news organization.
The combined cohort revenue increased 14% from 2023 to 2024 and another 14% from 2024 to 2025, according to the INN Index Report and Revenue & Expenses. In 2025, 51% of members generated at least $500,000 in annual revenue. These figures indicate expansion across the measured member cohort, while the median data shows that individual organizations still operate at very different scales.
Revenue mix and diversification
Foundation grants remained the largest category in 2025, supplying 48% of total member revenue. Individual giving supplied 33%, earned revenue supplied 17%, and other charitable revenue supplied 2%, according to the INN Index Report. The four categories describe a fieldwide mix; they do not mean that every newsroom receives the same proportions.
The 2024 mix was similarly grant-heavy. Foundation grants supplied 49% of total member revenue and individual giving supplied 32%, according to Revenue & Expenses. The comparison suggests that the broad balance between institutional and individual support changed only modestly between 2024 and 2025.
Diversification has become more common. In 2025, 49% of members used at least four distinct revenue streams. The INN Index Report puts that share at 38% in 2022, an increase of 11 percentage points over the stated period. In the 2024 survey, 43% of members used at least four revenue streams, while 11% relied on a single revenue stream, according to Revenue & Expenses.
These measures capture the number of revenue sources, not their relative size. A newsroom can have four streams while still depending heavily on one of them. INN therefore also reports foundation reliance in three bands for 2025: heavy reliance means foundations supplied at least two-thirds of outlet revenue; moderate reliance means between one-third and two-thirds; minimal reliance means less than one-third. Those definitions are useful when interpreting diversification alongside the fieldwide percentages.
Foundation funding and donor economics
The median newsroom received about $200,000 in foundation revenue in 2025, according to the INN Index Report. Foundation dependence varied with organizational mission and audience. About 38% of heavily foundation-reliant outlets primarily served communities of color, compared with about 8% of minimally foundation-reliant outlets. Nearly 70% of minimally foundation-reliant outlets were local news organizations.
Individual giving has a broad base but a concentrated value profile. Major donors supplied 64% of individual giving in 2025. The median newsroom had five major donors, 12 mid-level donors and 317 small donors. The average major donor gift was $32,000, the average mid-level donation was about $1,600, and the average small donation was $110. All of these figures are for 2025 and come from the INN Index Report.
| Donor group, 2025 | Median number of donors | Average gift | Reported role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major donors | 5 | $32,000 | 64% of individual giving overall |
| Mid-level donors | 12 | About $1,600 | Part of the individual-giving base |
| Small donors | 317 | $110 | Broadest listed donor group |
The donor figures should not be added together to estimate a typical newsroom’s individual revenue. They combine medians for donor counts with average gift sizes, and the reported categories describe different parts of the fundraising base. Their value is comparative: a small number of major donors can account for most individual giving, while hundreds of small donors provide breadth and a relationship with the audience.
Earned revenue streams
Earned revenue represented 17% of total member revenue in 2025, up from 11% in 2019, according to the INN Index Report. The 2025 figure is a share of all member revenue, while the following figures describe the composition of earned revenue itself.
Advertising and sponsorship represented 43% of earned revenue in 2025, down from 47% in 2024. Subscription revenue represented 21% of earned revenue in 2025, compared with 19% in 2024. Events represented 10% of earned revenue in 2025, compared with 8% in 2024. Other earned income represented 23% in 2025. The source is the INN Index Report.
Subscription revenue also represented 4% of total member revenue in 2025. That is a different denominator from the 21% earned-revenue figure: the first percentage describes all member revenue, while the second describes only the earned-revenue category. Keeping those denominators separate avoids treating the figures as competing estimates.
The mix shows that nonprofit newsrooms use commercial activity as one component of a wider model. Advertising and sponsorship remain the largest named earned category, but subscriptions, events and other earned income together account for substantial activity within that category. The increase in earned revenue’s share between 2019 and 2025 also indicates that earned income became more prominent in the measured member field over that period.
Expenses and revenue capacity
Revenue growth depends partly on how much operating capacity a newsroom assigns to earning money. In 2025, editorial operations received 62% of operating expenses and revenue generation received 16%, according to the INN Index Report. Revenue generation’s share was 10% in 2019, showing a larger allocation to that function in the later measurement year.
Among outlets devoting at least 25% of their budget to revenue generation, 46% had operated for more than 15 years. Among outlets devoting less than 25%, 23% had operated for more than 15 years. These are group comparisons, not evidence that spending a particular percentage causes longevity.
The same 2025 analysis found that 41% of high-investment outlets generated at least $1 million annually, compared with 33% of low-investment outlets. The categories identify different levels of investment in revenue generation; the figures do not establish a causal return on spending.
Audience-growth marketing remained a small budget item by the reported median. The median audience-growth marketing budget share was 1% in both 2024 and 2025. For an earlier field reference, 2023 expenses included 14% for revenue generation, 7% for technology and 17% for general administration, according to Revenue & Expenses.
Together, these expense figures place fundraising and revenue operations beside the editorial mission rather than outside it. They also show why revenue totals alone do not describe financial capacity: staffing, technology, administration, audience development and reporting systems all compete for operating resources.
Campaigns supporting nonprofit news
Coordinated campaigns provide another view of audience-supported revenue. In the year-end 2024 NewsMatch campaign, 381 nonprofit outlets participated and secured more than $55 million in individual audience donations. Audience donations increased 18% from 2023 to 2024. These figures are reported in the NewsMatch 2024 Annual Report.
The 2025 campaign had a different reported measure of institutional support. INN secured a record $8.4 million from 22 foundations and other supporters for the campaign, and directed $7.1 million in unrestricted support to members, according to the 2025 Impact Report from the Institute for Nonprofit News. The $8.4 million is campaign support secured by INN; the $7.1 million is unrestricted support directed to members. They should not be treated as the same total.
NewsMatch results complement the broader INN revenue statistics rather than replacing them. The campaign figures describe participating outlets and campaign-period fundraising, while the INN revenue figures describe member organizations’ annual revenue and revenue mix. Read together, they show a field that is expanding in aggregate, still reliant on foundations, and increasingly attentive to individual donors, earned income and the internal capacity required to develop each source.