It is widely recognised that we are living through a pivotal moment in European history. With declining trust in political actors and institutions; the exclusion of ever larger sections of the population from political participation; the rise of authoritarianism and the erosion of the rule of law; we can no longer take European democracy for granted.
Philea’s 2025 Democracy Briefer for Funders, which takes an in-depth look at the key indicators of democratic backsliding and the root causes driving it, stresses that access to reliable and pluralistic information is more crucial than ever at a time when our right to assemble and our freedom of speech are being compromised; when climate change demands urgent decision-making; and when equality and human rights are under attack.
Amid these challenges, the Briefer identifies independent journalism as a necessary condition for philanthropy to have an impact in all our fields of interest. It enables citizens to fairly participate in the democratic process, it holds power accountable, it exposes grievances, and it can restore a sense of community and foster empathy. Funding independent journalism is truly the key to restoring and reimagining European democracy.
Despite this, previous consultations conducted by Philea ‒ through surveys, registration forms, and both formal and informal discussions – consistently revealed that independent journalism is the topic foundations in Philea’s membership are least interested in. This raises many questions: Is journalism indeed overlooked, despite foundations across Europe acknowledging its importance? What are some of the concerns that prevent funders from investing in this area? On the other hand, which funders are investing in this field? What are their areas of interest, their approaches? Who else plays a key role in the journalism funding space?
Funding journalism and media in Europe
With the accelerating transformational crisis of media and journalism in Europe, many new funding initiatives are emerging. While this provides some hope for the sector, it comes with a familiar problem: Funders are often working in isolation, separated not only by geography but also by cultural and linguistic divides. Meanwhile, grantees consistently tell us how hard it is to access support and how fierce the competition has become.
From the perspective of Philea’s Journalism Funders Forum (JFF), it’s difficult to make a compelling case to new funders that the field needs more resources when we ourselves lack a clear picture of how funding is currently distributed.
As a peer‑learning network, we also want to make informed decisions on where our focus should be, whether that means tackling the barriers that prevent funders from offering core support, or ensuring that there is enough seed funding to help new initiatives take root.
This mapping is JFF’s first effort to provide a more systematic, albeit non-comprehensive, overview of some of the numerous funding efforts for journalism in Europe. By mapping out current philanthropic efforts as well as funding gaps, we hope to raise awareness among our larger membership of the crucial role that philanthropy can play in protecting European media pluralism in Europe, and where more efforts are sorely needed.
For us as a network, this study will serve as a benchmarking tool and help us visualise opportunities, identify potential peers, collaborations and inspiring practices, and help shape the plan of the network around the challenges and trends that emerge. For the larger Philea community it should make our sector’s engagement more tangible by presenting evidence on the size and modality of funding directed to media and journalism, as well as where funding is lacking, hopefully encouraging a greater number of funders to join this effort. As individual foundations, this mapping will indicate how we can strategically position ourselves in our engagement with peers, and with public and private actors. And it will help our grantees get a better idea of both the potential and the current limits of philanthropic funding for journalism and media in Europe.
By Nils Luyten, Philea
