About the Foundation

About the Foundation Photo credit: The Salt Lake Tribune

Our Vision: Informed Citizens, Strong Communities

From schools to elections, from the air we breathe to the businesses we grow, from laws that pass and the voices that are overlooked in the process, no community can know itself and no democracy can function without a shared understanding of what’s true and what isn’t. Local facts, stories and voices can and do change the way we live and work in Utah. The Utah Journalism Foundation is dedicated to sustaining and revitalizing the local free press, a pillar of our democratic society.

Our Mission

Our mission is to ensure that the people of Utah continue to be informed, engaged and empowered by local, independent watchdog journalism. We are building an endowment to sustain local journalism for generations to come.

What We Fund

The Utah Journalism Foundation identifies and provides grants to nonprofit organizations and projects which strengthen the capacity of independent local news organizations to reach broad, diverse audiences.

Our grantmaking will begin when the endowment reaches $20 million.

Through grants, the Foundation will identify and support:

  • editorial projects which inform the residents of Utah of critical issues they would not otherwise be aware of;
  • the production of content that would not otherwise generate sufficient revenues from traditional sources such as advertising and subscriptions to justify its production, yet provides great benefit to society;
  • the long-term sustainability of the state’s flagship daily, The Salt Lake Tribune;
  • efforts to identify and support the next generation of journalists, especially those from diverse and underrepresented communities, through scholarships; and
  • community engagement and education efforts of local news organizations, especially those targeting the diverse residents and regions of Utah.

In all that we do, the Utah Journalism Foundation endeavors to ensure that independent and local journalism survives and thrives at a time when our society and democracy need it most.

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