Institute for Nonprofit News (INN)

Norine Dworkin, VoxPopuli

Norine Dworkin and her business partner started their “feisty” news site, VoxPopuli, in 2021, when they noticed that the local governments in west Orange County, Florida were running more or less unchecked. The nearest large paper, the Orlando Sentinel, had been hit with layoffs and no longer had the resources to cover politics outside the bounds of O-Town. And the community papers in the area seemed mostly concerned with Dairy Queen openings and the local prep school’s fifth grade play. Thus, VoxPopuli was born, and soon it was reporting a County Commissioner candidate’s violation of campaign finance law+ and the mayor’s lack of response to neo-Nazi activity in Dworkin’s hometown of Winter Garden.

But VoxPopuli’s founders came from pure journalism and writing backgrounds, and they soon discovered that running a nonprofit required a different set of skills.

“We were severely under capitalized when we started,” Dworkin said. “If I had to do over again, I would bring in one more person. There was me, and there was another editor. And we’re like, ‘Hey kids, let's start a website!’ You need a business person, and we really are not business people.”

Dworkin cited NewsMatch as a “big reason” she became interested in joining INN. Once VoxPopuli became a member, the funds it raised with NewsMatch became its operating budget. INN also became the new site’s fiscal sponsor, taking on the accounting and tax-filing work while granting VoxPopuli nonprofit status— a huge relief for Dworkin.

“I can take advantage of their expertise and focus on what I do know how to do, which is report, and investigate, and keep politicians on their toes. It's enough to run a newsroom, to add the nonprofit layer on top of it— it's mind boggling.”

Eventually, Dworkin was able to take advantage of another INN service, their weekly member newsletter, to help create a more stable foundation for her newsroom’s journalists. The newsletter alerted her to a $20,000 Google News Initiative grant, which she applied for, and was awarded. The money allowed her to hire a website developer to redesign VoxPopuli. Now, she says the news site looks better, runs faster, and attracts more support for the journalism it hosts. The grant and donations Dworkin has secured through INN, along with an additional grant she secured independently, has made it possible for VoxPopuli to grow instead of “operating on a shoestring.”

“Right now, we're in a really good position, so I can pay writers, and I can hire somebody who can hopefully keep the fundraising going.” Dworkin said. “This is the very first year that we've been in a position where we actually have some money.”

It’s good news for an outlet that might otherwise be facing a harsh 2025. Dworkin and VoxPopuli have already dealt with government officials attempting to shut her out of public meetings. Now, she’s concerned that a federal administration that is openly hostile to the press will set a dangerous precedent for state and local officials.

“What [Trump] does is he makes it easier for the people who have tried to muzzle us in the past to try to do so in the future, because it trickles down,” she said. “And in Florida, remember, we have DeSantis, who's like a mini-Trump. He's been trying to chip away at press freedom since the midterms. So with Trump in office, this just emboldens him and the rest of the Republicans.”

But Dworkin’s journalism is now buoyed, fit to weather assaults against the freedom of the press, by the efforts of her peers. Not only is she a member of INN, she also joined the Society of Professional Journalists after they stepped in to help keep her access to her local officials. She’s also part of a brand new, yet unnamed, consortium of Florida news outlets.

Joseph Jaafari, Lookout

“I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever wanted to run a news organization,” said the editor of INN newsroom Lookout, Joseph Jaafari. “I did this by chance and because it needed to be done. But I don't know the first f—king thing about business and running a news organization.”

Jaafari felt driven to start Lookout in 2021 after noticing a lack of serious reporting on LGBT+ issues, even as anti-LGBT rhetoric and legislation became more and more common. Lookout began as a personal project on Substack, where Jaarfari posted monthly updates covering Arizona’s LGBT+ community, until he received a grant from the American Journalism Project and was able to turn his project into an “actual newsroom.” A former colleague recommended INN membership and Lookout soon joined up, but Jaafari admitted that “the early days weren't really productive.”

While INN has many resources for its newsrooms to take advantage of—from webinars and templates to peer communities and cohorts—it doesn’t have the staff required to guide each member through the offerings. The institute’s current staff count is 22. Set that against almost 500 members, and it can be easy for INN newsrooms to feel like part of a mailing list instead of a real network. INN staff does hold office hours, but that requires members to dedicate time for reaching out.

That’s why Jaafari found the communal aspect of INN, connection to other newsrooms over direct support from the staff, to be the most valuable aspect of membership. And why he considers the network’s ListServ to be “the best resource that INN provides.”

“What's been super helpful is hearing from the experiences of others and how they managed [using INN’s resources] in the real

world. ‘Yes, we use this resource, but it didn't really work for us because [of this]. It may work for other people because of that,“ he said.

The community of INN newsrooms helps full in the gaps that its staff are unable to address, and, in turn, the staff sometimes brings in additional resources based on members’ discussions. Jaafari remembered when newsrooms expressing interest in a management platform called Monday.com lead to INN setting up a training session where members could learn how to use the site to build grant pipelines. Jaafari emphasized the communal aspect of INN as its greatest contribution to the journalism industry.

“I think in these times, recognizing that independent news is on the brink of collapse, there's so many smaller publications like us [where] it’s like you are six months away from probably having to close your doors if you don't find a new grant or figure something else out. And that level of ‘let's figure out how to help each other so we all survive’ is what sets INN apart.”

Jaafari believes that greater collaboration and connectivity is needed throughout nonprofit journalism in order for it to survive and fulfill its purpose. While forgoing commercial enterprise removes some barriers to cooperation, Jaafari says that competition is still a significant obstacle for nonprofit journalists.

“In order for you to do the news properly and effectively, you need funds, plain and simple,” he said. “We're vying for this pot of money that everybody else is vying for. And at some point it does kind of feel like The Hunger Games, where we're fighting tooth and nail to get scraps of money, to see ourselves survive. I definitely think that there are some instances where nonprofit news kind of shoots itself in the foot. There might be a couple scenarios where, like, Lookout would be better underneath a bigger nonprofit, so we're not gaming for each other's money, and we can absorb it into one organization. But, you know, that's a complicated aspect to all of it.”

Outside of INN membership, and participating in its Rural News Network, Jaafari fosters collaboration and shares funding through the Queer News Network, which he helped create. Originally, QNN’s mission was to bring together small, independent LGBTQ+ outlets to report on how candidates leveraged the community and its issues during the 2024 election. But now Jaafari plans on extending QNN membership to legacy newsrooms with broader areas of coverage, in the hopes of reaching wider audiences and promoting deeper coverage of LGBTQ+ issues within legacy media.

His imperative to those outlets and journalists in relatively stable, favored positions:

“The ones who can amass the wealth, spread the wealth, and give the microphone to the organizations that are doing the work— make sure that that work is elevated.”