TEGNA Foundation

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OVERVIEW: TEGNA makes grants to support the communities served by its parent media company. Areas of focus include education, housing, racial equity, hunger and the environment. This funder also makes grants for journalism and media education.

IP TAKE: TEGNA’s largest area of giving appears to be journalism education, but its community grants program aims to be responsive to the needs of individual communities served by local TEGNA television stations. Community grantmaking is overseen by committees of local management and employees, while journalism grants are managed by the foundation’s national office. This funder has received mixed reviews on accessibility and responsiveseness, but it accepts applications on an ongoing basis. Knowing someone at a TEGNA operation will likely be helpful here.

PROFILE: TEGNA Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the media and digital company TEGNA, Inc. TEGNA is the parent company of over 50 television stations and was once the broadcast media division of the Gannett Company. This corporate foundation aims to “serve the greater good of our communities” and runs grantmaking programs for Community Needs; Media; Diversity Equity and Inclusion and the communities of the Washington, D.C. area. Grantmaking is national in scope, but focuses on communities served by TEGNA operations.

Grants for Journalism

Grants for journalism and media account for a significant portion of the TEGNA Foundation’s grantmaking each year. Grantmaking stemming from the foundation’s Media program support “freedom of the press, ethics in journalism, and education and training for the next generation of diverse journalists” and prioritize area where the foundation’s parent company operates.

Recent grantees include Asian American Journalists Association, the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Television Journalism, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida.

Grants for Education

The TEGNA foundation names education and youth development as primary areas of giving for their community and Washington, D.C. area grantmaking initiatives. The Community Needs giving program gives broadly to K-12 and higher education schools and programs and does not name specific goals for its education grantmaking.

Grantees include the University of Colorado, North Carolina’s Blue Ridge School, the Houston Independent School District and Arizona State University. Grants stemming from the Washington, D.C. appear to focus on youth development organizations rather than schools, with grants going to organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, D.C.

Grants for Housing, Community Development, Mental Health and Food Systems

TEGNA’s Community Needs giving program names hunger and “emergency assistance to families and individuals in crisis” as areas of focus. The foundation acknowledges, however, that it intends for its grantmaking to be responsive to pressing community needs in the areas it serves.

Grants have supported a broad range of organizations including the United Way of Texas, the Emergency Assistance Foundation of Jacksonville, the United Food Bank of Mesa, Arizona and Loaves and Fishes in Charlotte, North Carolina. In the D.C. area, the foundation has given to the United Way of the National Capital Area and the Central Union Mission.

Grants for Environment, Animals and Wildlife Conservation

This funder’s Community Needs and Washington, D.C. areas both name the environment as a grantmaking area of interest, although this is a smaller area of giving. The foundation does not name specific goals for its environmental grantmaking, but in a recent year it has made grants to organizations including the American River Parkway Foundation, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. This funder does not name animals as a giving interest but has made grants to organizations including Carolina Pet Adoption and Welfare and the York County Humane Society in South Carolina.

Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights

TEGNA established an employee-led committee to oversee its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion grantmaking in 2022. Early grantmaking from this initiative has prioritized underserved communities, diverse leadership and organizations that aim to effect lasting change in the communities they serve.

In recent years the foundation has given to Arizona’s Diversity Leadership Alliance, the Georgia Justice Project, the Latino-Hispanic American Community Center of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and 100 Black Men of St. Louis, Missouri.

Important Grant Details:

TEGNA’s grants mostly range from $500 to $200,000.

  • This funder gives broadly, and grantmaking varies significantly by geographic area

  • Grantmaking decisions are made by committees comprised of local management and employees.

  • For additional information about past grantmaking, see this funder’s recent tax filings.

The TEGNA Foundation accepts applications for funding on an ongoing basis. Applicants should download, print and complete the application form posted on the foundation’s website. Community, diversity and Washington D.C. grant applications should be submitted to general managers at local TEGNA television stations in one of the areas served by the foundation. Media grant applications should be submitted to the Tegna Foundation’s headquarters in Tysons, Virginia. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation via email at foundation@tegna.com.

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