Local News Solutions
The Lenfest Institute provides free tools and resources for local journalism leaders to develop sustainable strategies to serve their communities.
Find Your News SolutionThe Lenfest Institute creates solutions for the next era of local news by investing in sustainable business models at the intersection of local journalism and community in Philadelphia and nationwide.
The Lenfest Institute offers strategic advisory services, runs training programs and communities of practice, provides grant funding, and synthesizes best practices to support sustainable solutions for local news providers and their communities.
We support news organizations as they build digital products and develop solutions-oriented coverage that helps communities flourish.
We’re defining different pathways to sustainability for publishers to ensure they are reflective of the communities they’re serving.
We believe that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that one news solution cannot solve every challenge. We’re lending our operating expertise to offer strategic advisory services and building Communities of Practice for news professionals to collaborate and share best practices.
The Lenfest Institute aims to support a sustainable local journalism ecosystem that can catalyze a more transparent, connected, and equitable Philadelphia by linking residents to their neighbors, to news organizations, and to other information resources that allow them to flourish. In addition to serving as the non-controlling, nonprofit owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Institute supports dozens of news organizations across the city through grantmaking and training.
In 2019, the Institute launched Spotlight PA to provide high-quality investigative and accountability reporting for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians.
The Lenfest Institute supports organizations across the United States to help them build sustainable business models and serve their communities with reliable journalism. The Institute is also home to four Communities of Practice, which bring together journalism professionals to develop expertise, share best practices, and solve community challenges.
The Lenfest Institute was founded in 2016 by the late cable television entrepreneur H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest.
Lenfest donated his ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer and gifted to the Institute an initial endowment of $20 million, which has since been supplemented by other donors, for investment in innovative news initiatives, new technology, and new models for sustainable journalism.
Gerry’s vision – and our guiding mission – is that every community needs and deserves a great news organization.
Gerry recognized that local journalism was in a financial crisis, just when our democracy needed it most.
“Where better than Philadelphia,” Gerry asked, “to invent the future of a free press?”
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism is a non-profit LLC formed for charitable and educational purposes. It is the sole shareholder of The Philadelphia Inquirer, PBC
The Institute is an affiliate of The Lenfest Institute for Journalism Special Asset Fund of Philadelphia Foundation (Formerly The Philadelphia Foundation Special Assets Fund), a tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) and a public charity. Neither The Institute nor TPF control The Inquirer. Instead, The Inquirer’s Board of Directors is responsible for operational and key decision-making. The Inquirer remains a for-profit business, a “B-Corp” or Public Benefit Corporation.
Although the Institute technically owns The Inquirer, under the legal structure– and to protect its editorial independence – The Inquirer operates independently under its current management team and its Board of Directors.
The Institute owns 9,999 non-voting shares in The Inquirer. The charitable Inquirer Trust holds the one voting share of stock of The Inquirer. The trustees of the charitable trust are the same as the members of the Board of Directors of The Inquirer. The purpose of the charitable trust was to vest control of The Inquirer in the hands of its Board of Directors so as to ensure it would be operated independently from the Institute and maintain editorial independence.
The Institute’s Board of Managers governs the tax-exempt mission of the Institute. Although inherently connected to The Inquirer, these are independent bodies with independent missions and independent responsibilities.
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
100 S Independence Mall W
Suite 600
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 854-5600
The Lenfest Institute provides free tools and resources for local journalism leaders to develop sustainable strategies to serve their communities.
Find Your News Solution