The Pivot Fund Pod – Details, episodes & analysis

This NotebookLM podcast episode discusses strategies for nonprofit media organizations to engage their boards of directors in fundraising. The conversation features the Pivot Fund's board chair and two nonprofit CEOs who share their experiences and tactics for recruiting diverse board members, setting clear expectations, and fostering strong communication. They emphasize the importance of storytelling, leveraging board members' networks, and creating a mutually beneficial board experience. The panelists also address challenges, such as underperforming board members and navigating economic downturns. Finally, they offer practical advice on managing board recruitment and fundraising processes.

In this episode, produced with Notebook LM, our AI hosts explore Tracie Powell and The Pivot Fund's research on the changing American news landscape by focusing on the state of Michigan.

Increasingly, The Pivot Fund finds citizens are moving away from traditional news sources and instead seeking reliable information from independent outlets. Powell's research with The Pivot Fund reveals a rising demand for local, trusted news providers. Michigan's independent news sources, such as El Central, Planet Detroit, and Flint Beat, play an instrumental role in providing news that resonates on a local level, often overlooked by larger media outlets.

The Pivot Fund's findings extend to the broader Midwest landscape. Powell contends that local journalism's future hinges on smaller and independent news sources.

Reference links:

• Kalamazoo’s Independent News Source – NowKalamazoo
• Detroit news, Michigan environmental news, information | Planet Detroit
• Flint Beat | Your Community, Your Voice, Your News - Flint Beat
• News Platform Fact Sheet, 2024 | Pew Research Center
• EL CENTRAL Hispanic News

BIPOC news leaders have a hard time overcoming racial bias to find funding and support.

Black women are starting businesses at the fastest clip of any other racial group. Many of these startups don’t reach their full potential — or fail — in part because they can't raise the capital to start or sustain their businesses.

In that spirit, The Pivot Fund held an intimate conversation between Amethyst J. Davis, the founder and publisher of the Harvey World Herald, and Wendi C. Thomas, the founder and publisher of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit based in Memphis, Tennessee. Though at different points in their journeys, Davis and Thomas discuss their difficulties and challenges as startup newsroom leaders.

Panelists included:

• Amethyst J. Davis, The Harvey World Herald
• Wendi C. Thomas, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

About The Pivot Fund

The Pivot Fund is a new venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOC-led community news outlets through grantmaking, development support, and strategic consulting. For more information on The Pivot Fund, visit www.thepivotfund.org. 

The Pivot Fund CEO Tracie Powell and Northeastern University associate professor Dr. Meredith Clark discuss the unique difficulties BIPOC-led news organizations and startups face.

This conversation is moderated by Melanie Sill, the founding executive director of the NC Local News Workshop at Elon University.

The Pivot Fund is a new venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOC-led community news outlets through grantmaking, development support, and strategic consulting.

For more information on The Pivot Fund, visit www.thepivotfund.org. 

Raising funds is hard! But it doesn’t have to be. In this panel discussion, we review strategies for turning members of your board of directors into effective fundraisers by tapping into their wealth of knowledge, connections, and resources.

Panelists included: 

• Kyra Kyles — CEO of YR Media
• Elisa Lees Muñoz — Executive Director of the International Women’s Media Foundation

Jamaal Glenn, The Pivot Fund’s board chair, moderated this discussion.

This conversation was sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

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The Pivot Fund is a new venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOC-led community news outlets through grantmaking, development support, and strategic consulting. For more information on The Pivot Fund, visit https://thepivotfund.org.

The Pivot Fund Pod is edited and produced by ZMC Podcasts. 

Economists are forecasting a “mild” recession in 2023. That’s driven by inflation, higher interest rates, and a tight labor market. What can news publishers and entrepreneurs do to prepare for an economic downturn?

Listen for an assessment of the current economic climate for journalism and advice on how small and bootstrapped newsrooms can survive a recession.

Panelists included:

• Glenn Burkins — Founder and Publisher of QCityMetro.com in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Anita Li — Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Green Line in Toronto, Canada
• Justin Rushing — Director of Growth and Partnerships at inewsource.org in San Diego, California

Zuri Berry, the principal producer and owner of ZMC Podcasts, moderated this discussion.

This conversation was sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

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The Pivot Fund is a new venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOC-led community news outlets through grantmaking, development support, and strategic consulting. For more information on The Pivot Fund, visit https://thepivotfund.org. 

The Pivot Fund Pod is edited and produced by ZMC Podcasts. 

What does it mean to be Black media? And how can media that targets Black audiences be culturally competent?

The Pivot Fund and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press hosted this conversation on Feb. 23, 2022, about Black media ownership and the support systems they need to be successful and serve the Black community.

Tracie Powell, The Pivot Fund's CEO, moderated the discussion with Kamesha Laurry, an attorney and fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Panelists included: 

• Joseph A. Torres, co-author of "News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media" 
• Sara Lomax-Reese, co-founder of URL Media and president and CEO of WURD Radio
• Cheryl Thompson-Morton, director of the Black Media Initiative at the Center for Community Media at City University of New York
• Hiram Jackson, the CEO of Real Times Media

Resources: 

• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press hotline: 1-800-336-4243.
• rcfp.org 

The Pivot Fund is a new venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOC-led community news outlets through grantmaking, development support, and strategic consulting.

For more information on The Pivot Fund, visit thepivotfund.org.

The Pivot Fund Pod is edited and produced by ZMC Podcasts. 

Dr. Marisela Martinez-Cola, professor of sociology at Morehouse College, and Meena Thiruvengadam, an audience development consultant and former global head of audience engagement for Bloomberg, discuss the demographic changes currently underway in the South and how publishers can connect with new Black, Brown, and Asian community members. 

The conversation was hosted by The Pivot Fund on September 21, 2021, and sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Martinez-Cola and Thiruvendgadam were joined by Sonny “Messiah” Jiles, the publisher of the Houston Defender, and Cierra Hinton, the executive director and publisher of Scalawag magazine.

The Pivot Fund Pod is edited and produced by ZMC Podcasts. 

S. Mitra Kalita, the publisher of Epicenter-NYC, talks about leaving behind a high-profile job at CNN and a guaranteed paycheck to launch her own brand.

Kalita joined The Pivot Fund on Oct. 27, 2021, to discuss how she’s part of the movement to reimagine community-centered journalism and how Epicenter-NYC grew newsletters into an empire.

This conversation is co-moderated by The Pivot Fund's chief executive officer Tracie Powell and Liz Alarcón, the founder and executive director of Pulso, a nonprofit media start-up that shares news, history, and culture stories by and for Latinos.

The Pivot Fund Pod is edited and produced by ZMC Podcasts. 

Board development might be one of the driest topics of conversation when it comes to entrepreneurship. It's also one of the hardest things to do, especially in the journalism business, where many publishers want to recruit people who are in the industry and have a working knowledge about news media and the ethics that govern it. However, despite its lack of appeal, building a strong board of directors is critical to a news outlet's success and sustainability.

That's why The Pivot Fund hosted an important conversation about board development with BoardSource affiliate and nonprofit consultant Glenda Hicks and Josué Rojas, an artist and former publisher of El Tecolote, the longest-running bilingual newspaper in California. Rojas also serves on the advisory board for El Tímpano.

The Pivot Fund Pod is edited and produced by ZMC Podcasts.