Deep South Today is pleased to announce that it has received a $3 million grant from The Ford Foundation to be utilized for general support and institutional strengthening.
“We are tremendously grateful for this generous support from The Ford Foundation, which will further strengthen our core infrastructure and sustainability,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “Our newsrooms are providing essential local reporting and information to communities that otherwise wouldn’t have access to it, and the resources provided by Ford will ensure that this critical work will continue to expand and have impact where it is needed most.”
The grant is awarded through the Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative, a 12-year $2 billion initiative that supports organizations and networks through multi-year, flexible funding and institutional strengthening. By providing grantees with five years of general operating support, combined with targeted organizational strengthening support, BUILD aims to equip these organizations with the strategic clarity, people, knowledge, and resources they need to achieve impact and advance systems change over the course of years and decades.
The support from the Ford Foundation will be utilized to build Deep South Today’s resilience as an institution, taking advantage of its centralized infrastructure to further increase its efficiency and sustainability. This will include diversifying revenue streams, being more innovative with programming and business practices, and leveraging its scale to have more impact in the communities it serves.
About Deep South Today
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News. Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.
About The Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an independent organization working to address inequality and build a future grounded in justice. For more than 85 years, it has supported visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Today, with an endowment of $16 billion, the foundation has headquarters in New York and 10 regional offices across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.