📑 Case studies

Short-term cycles undermining resilience

In Eastern Europe, a journalists’ union reported that although it had support from ten different donors at the same time, none of the grants lasted longer than a year. Several covered only a few months. This meant that staff spent more time managing applications and donor requirements than actually supporting their members. The absence of long-term funding cycles made it nearly impossible to plan strategically or invest in organisational development.

“We’ve had to diversify our funding and get to more donors [because] we get less money from each donor. In the past, we had only maybe five donors. Now we need to have 20 to cover the same type of budget. We are doing triple the work [that we did] before.” Anonymous, Transforming Media Development - Recommendations for effective funding and collaboration

Shifting donor priorities and “boom–bust” cycles

A Middle Eastern investigative outlet described how donor attention shifted dramatically over the past decade: from an influx of funds after the Arab Spring, to an abrupt reallocation to Eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These swings left the outlet struggling to keep staff and maintain operations once the donor spotlight moved elsewhere. The lesson here is that sudden exits or funding pivots can destabilise local media ecosystems for years.

“Media development organisations water down their approaches to go after every pot [of money] available. They have staff and salaries they have to pay.” Anonymous, Transforming Media Development - Recommendations for effective funding and collaboration

Equipment-heavy support with limited impact in North Africa

In one North African country, multiple donors funded equipment for local community radios — transmitters, studio technology, and IT tools. While the stations appreciated the hardware, no resources were allocated for salaries, safety, or long-term management. The result was overlapping technology with little ability to maintain it. Several radios went off-air once the donor projects ended. This case shows how equipment-only funding, without parallel investment in human and organisational sustainability, is rarely effective.

Core support as a stabiliser

In contrast, outlets that have received multi-year institutional support from donors such as NED and OSF noted that they were able to retain staff, develop internal policies, and invest in safety infrastructure. Beneficiaries described these arrangements as fostering a “sense of partnership,” where planning could extend beyond the immediate funding cycle.

Pooled emergency funds after crisis

Following the Beirut port blast in 2020, a coalition of Lebanese organisations worked with international partners to establish a pooled media support fund. By combining donor contributions, they provided emergency relief rapidly while also channelling resources into rebuilding newsroom capacity. This collaborative model reduced duplication and gave local organisations more influence over priorities.

✅ Summary — Key Takeaways for Implementers

• Short-term funding erodes resilience. In Eastern Europe, outlets dependent on multiple small, short grants spent more time managing donors than supporting journalism, undermining long-term planning and stability.

• Volatile priorities create lasting damage. In the Middle East, sudden donor shifts—from post–Arab Spring surges to post-Ukraine reallocation—left local outlets struggling to retain staff and sustain operations.

• Equipment without sustainability fails. In North Africa, hardware-focused aid produced quick wins but no lasting impact when maintenance, salaries, and management were unfunded.

• Core and pooled support sustain capacity. Multi-year and joint funding models, such as NED, OSF, and Lebanon’s pooled post-crisis fund, enabled outlets to plan strategically, retain staff, and strengthen ownership.

• Lesson: Stability requires predictable, coordinated funding cycles — transforming donor support from fragmented relief into genuine institutional resilience.