Democracy Fund/Press Forward

Strategic Planning
Written By Kristine Neil

How strategic coalition building led to the successful launch of a groundbreaking funding initiative for local news.

Limited access to local news and civic information continues to threaten our democracy. To tackle this challenge, Democracy Fund joined peer foundations, including the MacArthur Foundation and Knight Foundation, to create Press Forward, a national coalition of funders investing more than $500 million over the next five years to revitalize local news. Democracy Fund enlisted Mission Partners to support their work with Press Forward, including launch communications and coalition building.   

Mission Partners created an onboarding toolkit to ensure alignment across participating foundations, developed board slides and infographics, and advised Democracy Fund on the coalition’s governance. To help amplify Democracy Fund’s commitment to racial equity within Press Forward, Mission Partners led on developing a blog post for the foundation’s website.  

The strategic guidance and tactical support Mission Partners provided helped equip the Democracy Fund team to launch this groundbreaking initiative with their peers in September 2023. The Press Forward launch garnered significant media attention, with features in Poynter, Axios, the New York Times, and more.  

Kristine Neil

Fractional Web Partner

I'm Kristine Neil - a communications strategist who has spent 20+ years designing websites, first running a full-scale design and marketing agency, and now leading my own studio. I've been the creative director managing the work, the coder quietly fixing what others couldn't, and the strategist in the room asking why before how. Somewhere between the MBA and the other degrees, I decided web design was just one tool in a much bigger toolbox - the real work is figuring out what you're trying to say, who needs to hear it, and what's getting in the way. A website is just where all of that comes to life.

I mostly build on Squarespace, and after years deep in the platform I know how far it can go and when to push past its limits. These days, I'm especially drawn to working as a fractional partner - getting to know an organization over time and helping with whatever moves them forward, whether that's a full redesign, an ongoing hand with content and strategy, or just being the person who knows their site best. I write here about AI, UX, eCommerce, web strategy, and making the complex feel a little more human.

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