News organizations are discovering that solutions journalism can, in fact, unlock new revenues. Stronger audience engagement actually can translate into economic value. And there is a growing class of funders that see great appeal in rigorous stories that explain what works. Among others, more and more philanthropic foundations are growing comfortable with the notion of supporting journalism, and many are eager to help foster public understanding of and discourse around key social challenges and corresponding responses.

Here are three approaches that are getting traction: Fund a project. Fund a beat. Fund the approach.

Fund a project:

The Daily Star, a daily in Tucson co-owned by Gannett and Lee Enterprises, had reported intensively on the state’s ongoing foster care crisis — including soaring numbers of child neglect cases and removals.

Bregal and her colleague Patty Machelor, who has long covered foster care and social services as part of her beat, wrote up a pitch that described the project and explained the need for external funding: $10,000 for reporters’ travel to five states; $6,000 to attend a conference on child welfare issues; and $10,000 to produce a series of community forums. They sent it to Clint Mabie, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. Mabie was a longtime source for the paper’s reporters. The community foundation awarded the Daily Star $26,000.

Fund a beat:

In 2013, The Seattle Times partnered with SJN to explore challenges and solutions facing public education. “Education Lab,” initially funded for one year by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Knight Foundation, included two dedicated reporters and a full-time engagement director, as well as parts of a department editor, photographer, and other newsroom staff.

 Fund the approach: 

Early in 2018 the Richland Source — an energetic, online-only news organization in Mansfield, Ohio — launched an effort to underwrite its solutions journalism for the next year. Publisher Jay Allred wanted to monetize those efforts — but rather than selling discrete projects, he positioned his pitch as support for solutions reporting across the paper. Allred sold “newsroom partnerships” — not advertising, and not sponsored content, but visible support for high-impact journalism. He promised supporters to steer all revenue into solutions reporting — leaving the paper flexibility to decide which projects and stories were priorities meriting resources.

Read the full article about driving revenue with solutions journalism from Solutions Journalism at Medium.