New Media Ventures

The organization became an independent organization in 2024, having previously operated as a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Advocacy. It is closely aligned with its sister organization, New Rising Ventures, which serves as the organization’s educational arm. ^{3 4}

Background

New Media Ventures was established in 2010 as one of the first networks dedicated to investing in media and technology startups that promote left-of-center politics and policy. From 2010 until 2024, the group was fiscally sponsored by Tides Advocacy, a left-of-center advocacy organization associated with the Tides Nexus, and has been described as an organization that “washes” away the paper trail between its grants and the original donor. In 2024, New Media Ventures obtained tax-exempt status as a standalone organization, and its sister organization, New Rising Ventures, also became a standalone organization. ^{5 3}

The group positions itself as redirecting capital toward entrepreneurs and activists involved in left-of-center media, which it describes as “inclusive, ethical, and community-driven media.” It also operates an investor network of more than 250 individuals and deploys capital through grants to nonprofits and through convertible investments in for-profit companies. ⁴

Activities

New Media Ventures conducts open investment cycles and targeted funding initiatives, including accelerators focused on bilingual media for Latino communities and responsible artificial intelligence applications. Its portfolio prioritizes tools and platforms that support left-of-center electoral strategies, such as volunteer coordination, candidate recruitment for left-leaning campaigns, fundraising for Democratic-aligned entities, and media outlets targeting racial minority communities. ⁶

Groups receiving funding from the group include Mobilize America, ActBlue Civics, Run for Something, Blavity, and various bilingual news projects such as palabra and Factchequeado. The group has also backed organizations addressing down-ballot races, rural organizing, and AI-driven civic tools. The organization provides seed-stage funding, typically $50,000 to $100,000 per recipient, through unrestricted grants to nonprofits and early-stage investments in for-profits. ^{6 7}

In 2024, New Media Ventures collaborated with the Valiente Action Fund (VAF) to create the 2024 Latine Voices for Democracy (LV4D) Media Accelerator, a program to help support “Latino media and narrative projects” in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida. Additional investments in 2024 include Chorus AI, an AI tool to organize information from media sites and online sources; the Kinfolk Tech Foundation, a nonprofit meant to “empower stories of Black, Brown, and Queer communities through imagination and play”; AI4Abolition, a nonprofit that develops “AI literacy” for “advancing an abolitionist, equitable vision for technology”; and Data Nutrition Project, which develops “Nutrition Labels” for AI datasets. ⁸

Democracy Alliance

New Media Ventures has been a member of the Democracy Alliance, a collective of left-of-center donors and organizations that meet at semi-annual conferences for the purpose of providing a list of recommended recipients to major donors. In 2021, New Media Ventures was listed and described as a group that is a network of investors who support media and tech companies that “disrupts politics.” ⁹

Clients

Listed clients of New Media Ventures have included the Black Youth Project 100 Education Fund, the Center for Tech and Civic Life, Contest Every Race, the Sunrise Movement, Supermajority, Swing Left, the Movement for Black Lives, and Verified Voting. ¹⁰

Leadership

Jessica Salinas and Phillip Sanders serve as co-presidents of New Media Ventures. Salinas previously led the group’s investment team and has held roles in other impact funding initiatives. Sanders previously worked at Ernst and Young and Rockwood. ⁴

The board includes individuals with ties to left-of-center organizations, such as Daaiyah Bilal-Threats of the National Education Association (NEA), Dawn Laguens of Planned Parenthood, and Ross Morales Rocketto of Run for Something. ⁴