The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports journalism by funding documentary films, supporting authors and journalists researching nonfiction articles and books, preserving newspaper archives, and producing podcasts. Recipients of its grant funding include prominent left-of-center nonprofit journalism entities, including Institute for Nonprofit News, Report for America, and Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Jonathan Logan

Jonathan Logan is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a board member of the Center for Investigative Journalism/Reveal and is also on the board of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. ¹

Logan Nonfiction Program

The foundation created the Logan Nonfiction Program, a division of the Carey Institute for Common Good, which received $400,000 from the foundation in 2019 and $1 million in 2021. The program, also supported by the Open Society Foundations, has had as fellows Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg; Jessica Bruder, whose book Nomadland was turned into a film; and David Zucchino, whose book Wilmington’s Lie won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021. ²

Newspaper Support

The foundation supports two nonprofits that subsidize positions at newspapers. In 2019, the foundation, through Report for America, paid for reporters at the Baltimore Sun and Annapolis Capital Gazette. ³ Report for America lists the foundation as one of its major supporters, along with the Knight, Robert Wood Johnson, Joyce, Lumina, MacArthur, and Annie E. Casey Foundations, among others. ⁴

Nonprofit News Efforts

The Logan Family Foundation supports (along with the Knight, Hewlett, Walton Family, and Wyncote Foundations), NewsMatch, a program of the Institute for Nonprofit News that provided $6 million in matching grants to 77 nonprofit news organizations in November and December 2021. ⁵

Another journalism grant went to the Fund for Investigative Journalism, which received $125,000 from the Logan Family Foundation in 2019 to support a staff member of Inside Climate News. ⁶ The foundation in 2019 gave a $170,000 grant to The Nation Institute for a two-year fellowship. ⁷

University Programs

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports programs for documentary filmmaking at Spelman College ⁸ and “urban investigative journalism” at Temple University, which received a donation of $1.2 million from the foundation to create a journalism center that “focuses exclusively on … gun violence, economic inequality, education and health disparities, crumbling infrastructure and eroding trust in institutions.” ⁹

In February 2022 the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation donated $2 million to Howard University to preserve and digitize the Black Press Archives, a collection of several thousand reels of microfilm currently stored at the Howard University library. ¹⁰

Howard University Center for Journalism and Democracy director Nikole Hannah-Jones said the center would seek additional grants to support the preservation of the Black newspaper archive.  “For generations, the stories of Black people in America were not deemed worthy of telling by the newspapers delivered to the homes of white people,” Hannah-Jones said, adding that the Logan Family Foundation grant was “a tremendous gift not just to Howard but to the nation and the world.” ¹¹

1. “Jonathan Logan,” University of California (Berkeley) Journalism School, https://journalism.berkeley.edu/person/jonathan-logan/ (accessed March 4, 2022)
2. “Logan Nonfiction Program Awards $1 Million Grant,” https://logannonfiction.org/logan-nonfiction-program-announces-1-million-grant/ (accessed March 4, 2022) 2019 Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Form 990
3. ^[1]  Lilian Reed, “Report for America To Place Reporters at The Baltimore Sun, capital Gazette To Cover Underserved Communities,” Baltimore Sun, December 2, 2019.
4. “Supporters.” Report for America, December 23, 2021. https://www.reportforamerica.org/supporters/.
5. ^[1]  Sarah Soire, “The Institute for Nonprofit News Raised A Record $12 Million for NewsMatch in 2021,” Nieman Journalism Lab, January 4, 2022).
6. “Inside Climate News To Host 2019 Investigative Journalism Fellow,” press release from Inside Climate News, July 17, 2019.  2019 Jonathan Logan Family Foundation form 990.
7. 2019 Jonathan Logan Family Foundation form 990.
8. “Funding From the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation To. Support Students studying Documentary Filmmaking and Photography,” press release from Spelman College, September 17, 2020, https://www.spelman.edu/about-us/news-and-events/news-releases/2020/09/17/funding-from-the-jonathan-logan-family-foundation-to-support-students-studying-documentary-filmmaking-and-photography (accessed March 4, 2022)
9. “Klein College Establishes Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting,” press release from Temple University, July 20, 2021, https://klein.temple.edu/news/2021/07/klein-college-establishes-logan-center-urban-investigative-reporting (accessed March 4, 2022).
10. “Black Press Archives At Howard University Gets P[reserved, Digitized Thanks to $2M Grant,” press release from Howard University, February 22, 2022, https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/black-press-archives-howard-university-gets-preserved-digitized-thanks-2m-grant (accessed March 4, 2022)
11. “Black Press Archives At Howard University Gets P[reserved, Digitized Thanks to $2M Grant,” press release from Howard University, February 22, 2022, https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/black-press-archives-howard-university-gets-preserved-digitized-thanks-2m-grant (accessed March 4, 2022)