Tips for funding reporting beats from The Post and Courier
Jan Ross P. Sakian, American Press Institute,
Here’s an idea to steal and adapt: Dig into community feedback to identify and bridge coverage gaps. This is a series on Better News to a) showcase innovative/experimental ideas that emerge from the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative and b) share replicable tactics that benefit the news industry as a whole.
These insights were shared during a live Q&A session with alumni of the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program in April 2025. This piece features tips from P.J. Browning, a Tables Stakes alumna who participated in the 2017-18 Poynter program with The Post and Courier. In addition to serving as The Post and Courier’s president and publisher, she is also the CEO of Evening Post Publishing Newspaper Group, Inc.
More from API’s revenue Q&A series for Table Stakes alumni:
In 2021, The Post and Courier set a goal to raise $100,000 in 100 days to support its “Uncovered” investigative project, which reported corruption and misconduct in South Carolina. Readers responded by meeting the goal in less than a month.
“That was a realization of the importance of what we mean to readers, beyond them subscribing to the paper,” The Post and Courier’s president and publisher, P.J. Browning, said. “The value of our journalism is just incredible, and we should never underestimate that.”
Overall, The Post and Courier raised about $500,000. The funding helped offset costs such as FOIA request fees and travel expenses for reporters, and supported reporting collaborations with 18 community newspapers across the state.
Browning recalled early conversations with collaborators, when The Post and Courier asked fellow journalists at community newspapers: What’s that story you would tell if you had the resources to tell it?
This same approach of curiosity and working toward a clear vision has helped The Post and Courier raise at least $5.2 million in donations and funds from philanthropy since the 2021 challenge.
Funded coverage now supports 13 dedicated staff positions across several multiyear projects: an Education Lab, the Rising Waters Lab for climate stories and more investigations serving the public interest.
Fill in news gaps and expand your organization’s reach
The Post and Courier is currently working toward building two new beats: arts and culture, and health.
Browning noted how arts and culture coverage needs to be supported, especially because most papers have cut back on reporting due to limited resources.
“We know how important the arts coverage is; it ties into so many different aspects of life,” she said. “What we’ve learned through this is to ask. Ask for help,” referring to how The Post and Courier spoke with community members who are invested in making Charleston a “cultural center of the South” for potential funding.
The new arts and culture desk is set to launch in early 2026 with three hires: two reporters and a coordinator. The coordinator will also support the rollout and maintenance of a statewide events calendar by conducting targeted outreach to local entities in rural areas and cities, bolstering the organization’s strategic expansion throughout South Carolina.
Next, The Post and Courier is looking to grow funding to support health-focused coverage for the state.
Cultivate relationships within the community
Partnerships with community foundations that can handle the financial and legal needs that are part of fundraising efforts are essential, according to Browning.
As a for-profit company, The Post and Courier benefits from having another entity as the fiscal sponsor:
- Community foundations can manage money logistics, such as collecting donations and keeping track of records.
- Donations made through the fiscal sponsor can be tax-deductible.
- Foundations serve as a buffer between donors and the news organization, safeguarding against concerns about donor influence and maintaining journalistic integrity.
“My advice is to set up [relationships] with those multiple foundations first. They’re out there,” Browning said.
Partnerships can also help connect you with other foundations, potential donors and people who are likely to invest in your news organization. Browning emphasized that community listening continues to be important for prioritizing which projects The Post and Courier can fund next.
“I think it’s really born out of community needs and where there can be improvement,” she said, noting how conversations on the “living room” level — where people are gathering in small communities — can be valuable for networking and gathering feedback.
At the end of these small group conversations with potential donors, Browning suggests asking for connections to potential donors.
“I’ve learned to never leave that conversation without asking: Is there anybody else that you think would support the newspaper, who believes in us? Someone who might believe in this mission, that you could connect me with or help set up lunch?” she said.
Browning noted how several of The Post and Courier’s fundraising initiatives started from suggestions and conversations guided by community involvement.
Share the value of your work
More than 2,000 individual donors and at least 18 foundations have contributed to The Post and Courier’s coverage-driven campaigns in the past four years. Here are a few tactics that you can try to keep donors and readers looped into your organization’s impact:
- Register to read: The Education Lab landing page is not behind a paywall, but readers are asked to sign into their account (or register if they don’t have one) to get full access to stories. “The science behind that is we want to know that you’re interested in that content,” Browning said. The Rising Water and Education Lab, for example, both have weekly newsletters that readers can opt into.
- Keep donors engaged: The Post and Courier also produces a dedicated newsletter for donors, which includes profiles of donors and invitations to connect in person, such as a special year-end event.
- Communicate outcomes: The Post and Courier’s Education and Rising Water Labs are structured in three-year funding cycles. This means that donors can track coverage over time and have opportunities to reinvest. Browning said that communicating outcomes to donors by clearly sharing “here’s what we’ve been able to report on” has helped them secure another three years of funding for both projects.