Our mission

The mission of the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation is to promote and support sustainable community journalism in the Coachella Valley.

How we work

The non-profit Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation identifies needs in the local journalism ecosystem and seeks grants and donations from individuals and foundations to fulfill those needs. The CVJF is a 501(c)3 organization, and all contributions are tax-deductible. The organization is comprised of an all-volunteer board of directors.

Projects

CVJF launched in 2020. Our first project was to save the opinion pages at The Desert Sun. The newspaper’s corporate parent company had extended buyout offers to employees nationwide, including the Desert Sun’s opinion editor. These positions were no longer funded going forward.

Without an opinion editor, The Desert Sun would no longer have been able to print letters to the editor, editorial cartoons, Valley Voice columns, opinion columns, guest editorials or editorials from the Editorial Board. The Desert Sun also would have been forced to discontinue endorsements of local candidates for elective office. The CVJF sought to raise money to retain this important role because the loss of this forum would have been a significant blow to civic dialogue in our community.

The CVJF successfully raised funds to allow The Desert Sun to hire a new opinion page editor in 2021. The organization continues to raise funds to provide ongoing financial support for this important role.

The CVJF also was fortunate to obtain grant money to fund several internships at local news organizations in 2022, and the organization plans to continue to fund internships in the years ahead.

Going forward, the long-range goal of the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation is to build a financial endowment to expand our assistance to Valley news organizations. We welcome donations from the community and volunteers who can help us with outreach, fundraising, administrative tasks, and events.