Nonpartisan civic organizations — from libraries and neighborhood groups to good government organizations — strengthen democracy by serving as trusted pathways for people to get actionable information about local government, how to participate in it and how it’s supposed to work for them. These groups often fill gaps in the information ecosystem by reaching people who can’t consistently access (or don’t trust) traditional news media, which means civic organizations also serve and reach people whom journalists cannot.

Nonpartisan civic organizations are also conveners of community and can serve as third spaces for people to build connections that can catalyze community organizing. This makes these groups — and the spaces that support them — the perfect place for journalists to begin building trustworthy and reciprocal relationships that can trickle down from the most engaged community members to their networks of friends, families and neighbors.

By partnering with nonpartisan civic organizations, journalists can better ensure the information that reaches communities is accurate while also creating clearer pathways for folks to get the answers they need from public officials. These partnerships can be beneficial for newsrooms too, as civic groups can serve as conduits for community listening sessions, information needs assessments, and other ways to determine what citizens want to know about elections. Civic groups can also serve as a trust building proxy for uncertain community members: if the organization they love and trusts works with you as a newsroom, they will be more likely to want to engage with you.

Some examples of newsroom-civic organization collaborations include:

• Hosting a joint candidate forum
• Pop-up newsrooms addressing election questions or certain pivotal issues
• Working together to create and distribute voter guides in several languages
• Inviting organizers to write op-eds or reported essays
• Workshops on op-ed writing, records requests or how to contact public officials

Guides & Best Practices

Center for Cooperative Media
“Meaningful collaboration with non-news partners” by Heather Bryant
Part of a series on how to build and structure news collaboratives, this guide focuses on how to integrate non-news partners, such as civic and community groups, into your work. It includes real-world examples of successful partnerships and tips for managing expectations and creating shared understanding.

Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
“From News Attention to Action: A Key Role for Civic Organizations” by Madeline McGee
This report focuses on how civic organizations situated within larger information ecosystems can encourage young people to vote. It includes recommendations for how newsrooms can partner with civic organizations and vice-versa to reach young people, to teach media literacy and to encourage civic participation.

American Press Institute
“How community listening can help shape election-year coverage” by Susan Benkelman
This article explains why community listening is vital for planning meaningful election coverage; offers tips for how to start and sustain community listening; and includes examples of how community listening has helped shape coverage at different local newsrooms.

Free Press News Voices
“Don’t Just Engage. Organize! Tips for building deep relationships that enhance community trust in newsrooms”
This tip sheet walks newsroom leaders through strategizing outreach to community groups and through what to do during listening sessions organized in tandem with these organizations. The guide covers everything from what questions to ask to how to share power and how to follow up afterward.

International Journalists’ Network
“6 examples of newsroom-library collaborations” by Celeste Sepessy
Working with the local library system can be a great way for journalists to begin outreach with nonpartisan, information-sharing groups. This 2020 article offers examples of local newsrooms that collaborated with local libraries to organize events such as news literacy workshops and reporting classes for high school students.

Solutions Journalism Network
“A community event playbook for journalism collaboratives” by Alicia Bell
This 2021 guide produced in collaboration with Free Press walks news collaboratives through how to plan engagement events that may include non-news partners. The guide includes a breakdown of event types, follow-up strategies and lessons from Solutions Journalism Network’s event guide.

Nieman Reports
“Journalism and Libraries ‘Both Exist to Support Strong, Well-informed Communities’” by Eryn Carlson
This 2020 article features conversations with several librarians and journalists on the similarities between newsrooms and libraries as trustworthy information centers, the different audiences they reach and how both can work together to produce content that can cut through misinformation and polarization.

Assistance

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is dedicated to strengthening local news ecosystems by empowering small and mid-sized newsrooms to collaborate with one another — and with nonpartisan civic organizations—on community-first reporting. They have several guides on incorporating non-news organizations into collaboratives, building new partnerships and fostering equity, among other things.

Resolve Philadelphia is an unconventional journalism organization that helps newsrooms improve how misrepresented communities are depicted in media through reporting collaborations, a hyperlocal newsroom, an SMS service and a community engagement and consulting team that helps newsrooms reach new audiences and collaborate with civic groups.

Free Press News Voices works with communities, organizers and newsrooms on projects that help journalists meet the needs of diverse communities while counteracting extractive newsgathering practices. They have guides on community engagement strategies, equitable collaborations, hosting events and other related topics.

Additional Resources

Nieman Reports
“A new kind of partnership: Journalists and civil society organizations are teaming up” by Sarah Stonbely
Article

Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
“Media ecosystems and youth voting: Profiles of county-level support for civic participation” by Sara Suzuki, Abby Kiesa and Alberto Medina
Report

Roadmap for Local News
“The road map for local news: An emergent approach for meeting civic information needs” by Elizabeth Green, Darryl Holliday and Mike Rispoli
Report

Poynter Institute
“Want to bring in younger audiences? Partner with your local library.” by Melody Kramer
Article