LANSING, Ill. (January 5, 2024) – Over the years The Lansing Journal has developed a number of policies that are published as pages on our website. As a way to ensure our readers are aware of those policies, we plan to publish each of these pages as an article that will be delivered in the Daily News.
The Lansing Journal believes that communication should be straightforward and concise, and we try not to get embroiled in legalese, red tape, or complicated forms. Our policies do contain the necessary legal language, but we hope they also are helpful and clear guides to the way we conduct business.
Donor transparency policy
The Lansing Journal is committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support from people does not mean we endorse their products, services, or opinions. We consider ourselves blessed to serve a community of people who understand that.
We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals, organizations, and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects.
We are a for-profit news organization, but we do benefit from the fiscal sponsorship of Independent Arts & Media (IAM), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. They do not provide funding to The Lansing Journal, but they share their grant-seeking expertise. Our relationship with IAM allows us to apply for grants that require nonprofit status. Having a fiscal sponsor also allows us to extend tax benefits to donors who specifically donate through the IAM portal: https://thelansingjournal.com/donate/ Independent Arts & Media receives 10% of those donations. Gifts that are made directly to The Lansing Journal are not tax-deductible.
Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors, supporters, advertisers, or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the right to assign, review, or edit content.
We make public all revenue sources, occasionally publishing a list of supporters, including donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As an independent news organization, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials, or candidates seeking public office — though they are welcome to purchase advertising. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our fiscal sponsor’s board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
The Lansing Journal is a free newspaper because we believe it is important for people to have equal access to the information we provide. But there are costs involved with reporting, publishing, and delivering news, so we rely on advertising revenue and reader support to keep the news free for everyone.
We welcome gifts of any size. Our supporters understand that those gifts do not buy editorial influence or coverage. No matter who contributes money to The Lansing Journal, we report news that is important for our community, and we make sure it is balanced, independent, and accurate.
We invite readers to join our family of supporters — people who understand the importance of having an independent source of local news. The button below is linked to our general Support page, where supporters can choose their gift amount and may opt to become Monthly Supporters:
Related
- Advertising policy
- Comment policy
- Corrections policy
- Donor transparency policy
- Local Voices (Letters to the Editor) policy
- Privacy policy
- Sexual harassment policy
Questions about any of these policies may be directed to Melanie Jongsma, Publisher:
