Giving Compass' Take:

• Christine Schmidt discusses how newspapers are partnering with private funders to produce education reporting to benefit communities. 

• Could education reporting in your community use a boost? Would funding this type of reporting advance your philanthropic goals? 

• Read about the importance of funder learning for education philanthropy. 

Local philanthropy dollars are seeping into local journalism — even into commercial outlets, operating in the traditional market where advertising has dropped so quickly that subscriptions can’t yet (if ever) catch up.

Your friendly, neighborly rich people are interested, though. Journalism philanthropy has quadrupled in the past ten years, according to recent nonprofit media reports, and 40 percent of revenue for news nonprofits comes from individuals and families. The commercial news space, starting with independent major metro newspapers and now spreading into the corporate chains, wants a piece of that action.

The Seattle Times was one of the first to significantly supplement its reporting budget using philanthropic dollars. Led by Sharon Chan, the Times worked with a local foundation to raise and shepherd $5 million for specific reporting projects. (Chan is now at The New York Times to perform a similar feat on a larger scale.) The Boston Globe recently built up an education investigative reporting team with a $600,000 grant from a local foundation here.

But can chain newspapers pull off the same trick that’s worked at locally owned papers in Seattle and Boston?

McClatchy is trying, following the playbook of building relationships with local philanthropists (and a local foundation to coordinate the tax-tricky donations) in order to support quality journalism that needs an extra financial boost. An early test: California’s Fresno Bee.

Read the full article about funding education reporting by Christine Schmidt at Nieman Lab.