News philanthropy + historical societies: A win-win partnership

They say journalism is the first rough draft of history. In Southern California, the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation is pioneering collaborations with five local historical societies to help support the journalists of today — while working to ensure that the stories of yesteryear are preserved and rediscovered.

Founded in 2020, our foundation is a 501(c)(3) grassroots nonprofit dedicated to strengthening local journalism in the Palm Springs area. We support print, digital and broadcast newsrooms through about $100,000 in annual grants for reporting and editing positions, plus internships.

For example, when a local daily newspaper was going to eliminate the opinion editor’s job to save money, we stepped in to fund the position and keep letters to the editor, guest columns and the community-led editorial board alive. We’ve provided a portion of a reporter’s salary at the local alt-weekly newspaper, and awarded a travel grant to a TV reporter so he could report on a story of local interest in Washington, D.C. Currently, we’re helping a new startup digital outlet in the city of Indio raise $24,000 in launch funding.

Our foundation also sponsors annual awards honoring local journalists, hosts professional development workshops and organizes public events promoting news literacy. And, we put on networking events like happy hours for local journalists to foster a collaborative regional media ecosystem.

Our all-volunteer foundation has been growing, but so have local newsrooms’ needs. We want to fund more positions and make a bigger impact. But to do that, we need more money. Much more money.

To accelerate our fundraising efforts, we launched our Fourth Estate Membership Program in 2024 to attract donors who could give at a sustained level year over year. It felt risky — after all, when you ask people to give $500 to $5,000 yearly, you want to deliver value in return.

Fourth Estate members get tickets to our events, including our journalism awards luncheon. But what else might make a compelling incentive to join?   

We struck upon historical society partnerships because many people who care about quality news are also history buffs. Our local daily newspaper, The Desert Sun, runs a weekly history column that’s popular with readers. Once we began contacting history groups in our nine-city region, our imaginations were sparked.

The cornerstone of the collaboration is membership partnerships. When someone joins CVJF’s membership program at the “supporter” level or higher — $500 annually — they can receive a free annual membership in one of five local historical groups:

• Palm Springs Historical Society
• Desert Hot Springs Historical Society
• Historical Society of Palm Desert
• La Quinta Historical Society
• Coachella Valley History Museum (Indio)

These historical society memberships range from $25 to $50. When a CVJF donor opts in, we remit the full membership fee directly to the selected historical society along with the new member’s name, email and phone number. After that, it’s up to the historical society to follow up and get the new member onboard.

It’s a cost-effective strategy: For just 5-10% of the $500+ donation, our foundation offers a meaningful benefit that incentivizes membership growth, strengthens local institutions and aligns with our mission. Plus, we don’t have to do anything else!

The historical societies have been very receptive. What, they say? You will give us money and help us find members? We are in!

We started with the Palm Springs Historical Society in January, and since then, about 20% of our new Fourth Estate members have opted into that historical society offering. With the four other societies coming on board this spring, we are optimistic that the percentage will rise, since many of our Fourth Estate members live in cities outside of Palm Springs.

So far, CVJF has about 115 Fourth Estate members. Many of these local history groups are even smaller, so adding 10 to 20 new members would mean a 15-30% growth in their own membership ranks — a significant boost. Hopefully, in the coming year, CVJF will add scores of new members — and steer many of them to join our historical society partners, too.

While the joint memberships are a valuable incentive, the collaboration is envisioned as much more. We are exploring joint programming including:

• Training for journalists on how to use historical archives to deepen reporting and add context to current issues.
• Public events and presentations on the history of media in the region, co-hosted by journalists and historians.
• Meet-and-greet events at local museums where journalists can interact with the public. For example, the Coachella Valley History Museum will soon host a meet-and-greet with the journalists behind the startup digital publication the Indio Post.
• Community oral history projects to document untold narratives from valley residents.

Although our foundation supports multiple newsrooms, it is easy to envision a single local newsroom that offers subscriptions or paid memberships executing a similar partnership with one or more local history groups.

Key takeaways for those interested in replicating this model:

1. Identify aligned missions. Historical societies and journalism organizations share a commitment to public knowledge and democratic engagement, but you need to connect the dots explicitly. For example, point out that news articles are key components of archives at museums, and museums can help reporters with important context and background to stories.
2. Be prepared to do some legwork. In our area, historical societies are generally a labor of love run by volunteers. Tracking down the right person may take time. Going to meet in person with the board or the director to explain the proposed partnership can pay huge dividends.
3. Offer reciprocal value. Memberships, access to archives and co-branded programming can benefit both partners and the community.
4. Build for long-term impact. Consider how joint efforts like training, events and oral history can have ripple effects.
5. Insist on co-promotion. Like any good partnership, this should be a two-way street.

As the landscape for local journalism continues to evolve, we hope that partnerships like this can be part of the solution. History needs journalism and journalism needs history. Together, we can ensure our communities are well informed today — and well remembered tomorrow.

Julie Makinen is secretary-treasurer of the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation. Email her at julie@cvjf.org