The Freedom of the Press Foundation has selected four independent news organizations, including The UpTake in Minnesota, that it will help raise money for through crowd-funding this month.
The UpTake provides grass-roots journalism with streaming coverage of the Minnesota Legislature, state Capitol events and other stories..
The Foundation hopes that by urging others to provide support, the news organizations don't have to spend as much time and effort on getting donations and grants, and can concentrate on their "transparency" journalism.
The other groups supported by the foundation this month are:
- WikiLeaks
- MuckRock News
- National Security Archive
Josh Stearns, of the foundation's board, said:
"We are interested in supporting organizations that bring more transparency to government, hold power to account and stand for the public’s right to know. The UpTake has shown, again and again, that they are willing to do the long, hard, grueling and often tedious work required to do those things. What’s more, they have shown they also are willing to train others to do them.
"We want to create a new base of support for non-profit journalism organizations so they don’t have to always be trying to get a million small grants,” said Stearns. “We hope to help them become more resilient and more stable by becoming a sort of one-stop shopping center for average citizens who want to come forward and support innovative journalists who are willing to take risks."
Jason Barnett, The UpTake executive director and co-founder, said:
"We’ve been doing on-the-ground transparency coverage since Day One, and we have the potential to do more, to expand to other regions and focus on the work of transparency and civic engagement you need for citizens to understand what is happening. Exposing the truth and revealing the information being held by the powerful are the core values of journalism."