Act Now – Give Today to Double Your Impact
The Local News Initiative is launching fundraising for a fall grant cycle that will deepen support for local news and long-term sustainability.
The first $75,000 in contributions to the 2026 grant round will be matched dollar-for-dollar by local and national donors.
Strong local journalism helps Southern Arizonans stay informed, make decisions, and understand the issues shaping our communities. To continue serving residents long-term, local news organizations need flexible funding to build sustainable revenue streams and strengthen their operations.
Your gift to the Local News Initiative will help strengthen trusted local news and information providers across Southern Arizona.
Give today to double your impact and help sustain local news in Southern Arizona.
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Strengthening Local News and Serving the Community
The Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona (LNI), an initiative at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona (CFSA), has a mission to support and reinvigorate local news by connecting reporters and news outlets to important services and providing grants.
The Local News Initiative has awarded $500,000 in grants directly to local outlets since 2024 and is working to continue that support.
Reliable local information helps people make decisions that matter, from updates about local schools to local elections or public safety. Explore our grant recipients’ fact-based news that keeps our communities informed and connected, and join us in strengthening local, reliable information with a charitable donation.
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2025 Local News Grant Recipients
Arizona Luminaria produces community-centered, bilingual journalism that digs deeply into the issues Arizonans care about most, including government accountability, equity, and public resources. The newsroom prioritizes in-depth, easy-to-understand reporting that helps residents better navigate the systems shaping their lives.
Founded by veteran Arizona journalists Irene McKisson, Dianna Náñez, and Becky Pallack, Arizona Luminaria brings more than five decades of combined newsroom experience in reporting, editing, community engagement, and digital innovation. As a nonprofit newsroom built to address coverage gaps, it is rooted in Southern Arizona and guided by a commitment to accessible, accountable, and inclusive journalism.
Website | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Newsletters
Votebeat Arizona covers the mechanics of elections in every county across the state, with significant reporting in Southern Arizona, particularly for historically underserved populations who face unique barriers to voting, including policy changes, language access challenges, and resource limitations. Votebeat Arizona provides the state’s electorate with reliable, nonpartisan reporting on how local elections work, helping them make informed decisions and more fully participate in the civic process — especially those vulnerable to misinformation and partisanship.
Recognized by Time in 2024 as the only news outlet in America dedicated exclusively to local election coverage, Votebeat brings deep, state-based expertise to one of the most complex and consequential aspects of civic life. Its nonpartisan, accountability-driven reporting equips voters, election workers, policymakers, and community leaders with reliable information essential to a functioning democracy.
Civic News Company Website | Votebeat Arizona Website | Newsletters | Instagram | Facebook
KAWC serves Yuma and La Paz counties with public radio programming that educates, informs, and entertains. From local news and public affairs coverage to music and arts programming, the station provides 24/7 service tailored to the region’s diverse communities. Its Student Newsroom reports on issues important to young people, expanding perspectives often underrepresented in traditional media.
Based at Arizona Western College, KAWC operates from studios designed to support both professional broadcasting and hands-on student training. With support from public media partners and community philanthropy, the station strengthens regional journalism while mentoring the next generation of reporters in Southern Arizona.
For more than 16 years, the Patagonia Regional Times has provided news coverage to eastern Santa Cruz County. The publication reports on local government, school sports, the arts, community events, nonprofit work, and everyday stories that connect neighbors. Its monthly print edition is distributed throughout the region, ensuring readers across its rural communities have access.
Written and edited by local contributors, the Patagonia Regional Times is dedicated to being a reliable, inclusive platform for civic dialogue and community engagement. Funded by advertising, grants, and reader support, it remains a steady and trusted source of information in an area with limited media coverage.
Somos Tucson delivers trusted, accessible information in Spanish for Tucson’s Latino and migrant communities. The outlet shares practical guides, community resources, and coverage of housing, government spending, the environment, urban development, and elections — all designed to combat misinformation and strengthen participation. Through its articles, “Periodistas” video podcast, and active social media presence, it creates space for robust civic involvement and Spanish-language conversations about life in Tucson.
Founded by the former editor of La Estrella de Tucson, Liliana López Ruelas, Somos Tucson launched in 2025 with support from the University of Arizona’s Bilingual Journalism master’s program and the Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona, in collaboration with other local reporters. Rooted in a bicultural, binational perspective, the newsroom is committed to ensuring Spanish-speaking residents have clear, reliable information that supports daily life and strengthens belonging.
Tucson Spotlight is a community-based newsroom that centers its reporting on solutions-focused coverage of local government, education, sustainability, social services, and politics, often through the lens of the Hispanic community. It spotlights undercovered topics and communities while providing Southern Arizonans with tools to better understand and engage with local issues.
As a nonprofit newsroom, Tucson Spotlight prioritizes transparency, independence, and community impact. It offers paid opportunities, professional mentorship, and editorial oversight to journalism students and new graduates, helping them gain meaningful newsroom experience while producing impactful reporting. Co-founders Caitlin Schmidt and Susan Barnett are longtime Tucsonans. Caitlin previously spent a decade reporting for the Arizona Daily Star before co-founding the Tucson Agenda and later Tucson Spotlight. Susan is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism’s bilingual master’s program and previously worked for La Estrella de Tucson.
Tucson Spotlight has newsletters in both English and Spanish; learn more on their website.
The Opportunity — Supporting local news is supporting a cause you believe in.
The way local news is funded has changed significantly over the last 20 years. What hasn’t changed is the important role local news plays in holding leaders accountable and ensuring neighbors are informed about decisions that affect them.
As advertisers moved to online platforms, eroding the traditional business model that once funded local coverage, the responsibility for sustaining local news is shifting. Today, readers, listeners, community foundations, and local businesses all play a role in covering the expense of gathering and sharing reliable, unbiased information.
In recent years, Southern Arizona has seen new, innovative news sources, founded by longtime community reporters who live in your area and are affected by the local issues they cover. Along with traditional news outlets, they are working to build community trust, increase transparency and awareness on how fact-based news is created, and move towards long-term sustainability.
Community support helps them reach more people on the issues that matter to our community. Supporting local news is supporting a cause we believe in.
The Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona (LNI) was launched in November 2023 by a group of civic leaders who partnered with CFSA. The $500,000 in grants they have already awarded have assisted outlets to:
- Expand access to trustworthy, bilingual local news with new outlets Somos Tucson and Tucson Spotlight, and publish hundreds of stories connecting residents to civic information, elections, health resources, and immigrant services
- Strengthen civic engagement and democratic participation through candidate forums, town halls, bilingual interviews, newsletters with above-average engagement rates, and explanatory coverage that helped residents make informed decisions
- Establish a student-run newsroom and develop the next generation of journalists in western Arizona
- Produce accountability journalism with measurable real-world impact, including investigations by Arizona Luminaria that prompted attorney general lawsuits, policy changes (such as updates to Emily’s Law), and public scrutiny of major development and infrastructure projects
- Provide coverage of undercovered communities, particularly Indigenous, Latino, immigrant, and rural, through culturally relevant reporting, Indigenous-led projects, and community-driven programming
- Build public trust and regional recognition for local news, reflected in growing readership and donor support, high engagement metrics, major state and national awards, and republishing of stories through partners such as the Associated Press
Donate by credit card here, or for information on other ways to donate, contact our Philanthropy Team at giving@cfsaz.org.
Press Forward Southern Arizona is a partnership between CFSA and the national Press Forward movement to revitalize sustainable local news that represents the communities it covers. The national coalition has invested more than $400 million to strengthen local newsrooms, close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage, advance public policy that expands access to local news, and scale the infrastructure the sector needs to thrive.
Arizona’s first Press Forward chapter, established in 2024 and expanded in 2026, is assessing the needs of reporters and communities they serve, engaging local donors and seeking national funding, connecting news outlets to critical support services, and innovating ways to achieve long-term sustainability.
Our effort works to engage the diverse population of Southern Arizona, including seven counties, rural communities, and seven Native nations within its borders.
For more information, contact our Community Impact team at community@cfsaz.org.
