By Kevin Davis, CEO, Investigative News Network |

Last winter was the third round of the INNovation Fund, a micro-grant program managed by the Investigative News Network to help with business experimentation in nonprofit and public-media newsrooms across the country.

Unlike for-profit organizations, nonprofit news organizations do not have equity to leverage when seeking capital for business investment. Furthermore, most grantmaking puts limitations on the amount of overhead allowed on any given grant.

Yet nonprofit newsrooms are expected to iterate and innovate to increase the amount of engagement with their target audiences, reduce their dependence on existing funders and diversify their revenue streams to become sustainable.