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.