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Building Civic Partnerships as a Revenue Strategy for Community Media

Aug 13 at 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

​Instructor: Madeleine Bair, Founder, El Tímpano

​For the past five years, El Tímpano has developed a novel way to sustain and even expand its public-service journalism: civic partnerships. Through this model, nonprofits, government agencies, and other mission-aligned organizations contract El Tímpano to distribute vital information to “hard to reach” communities. El Tímpano began this work in 2020 with a $6,000 grant to support census outreach. In 2025, civic partnerships brought in approximately $350,000, making it El Tímpano’s second-largest source of revenue.

​In this session you’ll learn how to:

  • ​The basics of a civic partnerships strategy and how to determine if it’s right for you

  • ​How to retain editorial independence while earning revenue from civic and nonprofit agencies

  • ​The steps to develop a civic partnerships strategy in your organization

Details

Venue

  • The center for community media

Organizer