The Inasmuch Foundation and Report for America each announced support for the nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism of The Maine Monitor this week, providing grant funding and a new Report for America corps member that will help The Monitor newsroom grow.
The Maine Monitor received a grant of $50,000 from the Inasmuch Foundation for its investigative reporting. The Inasmuch Foundation awarded $13 million to nonprofit organizations doing work in community and civic engagement, education, human services and journalism.
Report for America announced that The Monitor would be one of the 100 partner newsrooms in its 2025-26 cohort. RFA will provide partial funding for The Monitor to host an RFA corps member, who will join the newsroom next summer to report on religion, politics and society in Maine.
Those interested in applying for the position can do so on RFA’s website before February 3.
The Monitor has hosted several RFA corps members in past years: editor Kate Cough and senior public health reporter Rose Lundy are both alumni of the program. The Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News were also selected to host RFA members in the next cohort.
The Inasmuch Foundation earmarked $925,000 for journalism, which will also go to the Colorado News Collaborative, Deep South Today, Investigative Post, Local Journalism Initiative of Delaware, Local Media Foundation, Nebraska Journalism Trust, NewsMatch, Oklahoma State University Foundation, PublicSource, San Antonio Report, Searchlight New Mexico, The Beacon, The New Bedford Light and Tulsa Local News Initiative.
“As we celebrate 15 years of our work producing free, investigative nonpartisan news for Maine, we are excited to receive support from two such prominent organizations supporting local, independent news,” Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting executive director Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm said. “We are excited to use these program supports to continue to build our newsroom.”
