This two-week fundraiser benefits 47 small, grassroots newsrooms and media entities serving diverse communities and issues across the Chicagoland area. You can donate here right now and have your gift matched.
The Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA), a coalition of more than 80 local media entities, is holding its annual fundraiser running through Monday, June 19. The campaign theme is “Powering Independence,” which highlights the real-world impact of the self-started newsrooms that comprise CIMA’s membership, how they disrupt the areas they report in for change, and how CIMA supports these trailblazers. All donations will be matched by local foundations until funds run out. Third Coast Review has been a member of CIMA since its founding in 2020.
Over the past three years, CIMA’s fundraisers have raised more than $500,000 to support grassroots newsrooms in the Chicago area. These outlets and media organizations have created award-winning coverage of emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental racism in Chicago’s BIPOC communities, news podcasts on the LGBTQ+ community, and much more.
And unlike CIMA’s previous fundraisers, this year all the funds raised will be split evenly among the participating CIMA members, allowing members with larger readership and reach to help uplift their smaller peers. This year’s fundraiser has 47 participating members—more than any previous fundraiser — and 28 of them have budgets under $250,000 a year, making this fundraiser essential for their continued support.
Individually, CIMA’s 66 members representing 80 individual products reach anywhere from a few hundred readers to millions, for a combined readership of at least 8.4 million. Nearly 20% of members reach primarily Black Chicagoans, overlapping with around 13% of outlets that primarily reach Latinx communities. They also reach the LGBTQ+, immigrant, Arab American, Korean American, Polish American communities, and others. They reach all 77 community areas in Chicago with the majority covering the South and West sides, as well as suburbs including Cicero, Harvey and Evanston.
More than 20 percent of our member produce content in Spanish and others produce content in Arabic, Korean, Hindi, Cantonese, Tagalog and Polish. Fostering relationships among outlets of different languages will help expand the reach of all our work as members can share translation resources and share other outlets’ work.
Other outlets report on Chicago’s diverse and powerful arts and culture activities. Third Coast Review is part of this group, as are outlets such as New City, Pigment Intl, Chirp Radio, and the Chicago Music Guide.
True Star Media is another partner with a specialized mission. True Star is a digital platform produced by and for Chicago’s BIPOC youth. Last year True Star students created more than 1000 pieces of content such as articles, podcasts, video series and social media content. True Star provides mentorship and training in arts education, journalism, video production and editing, storytelling and social media marketing.
True Star and Third Coast Review are partnering in the CIMA fundraiser. Watch for our story on True Star and check out True Star’s interview with one of our writers, coming up soon!