Readers from across Montana helped Montana Free Press, the state’s largest digital-first nonprofit news organization, hit record-high fundraising goals in 2024.
During MTFP’s fifth end-of-year NewsMatch fundraising drive, individual donors gave more than $203,000. In all, MTFP raised more than $2 million in 2024 from individuals, major donors, and philanthropic institutions to support and expand its newsgathering operations.
“This fundraising drive proved once again that Montanans, and people who care about Montana, understand how important access to independent local news is,” said Montana Free Press founder and Executive Director John Adams. “MTFP readers are showing year after year that high-quality local news has value, and that it can be sustained.”
MTFP exceeded its end-of-year $200,000 fundraising goal with the direct support of more than 2,700 donors who gave during the final two months of 2024.
This marks the third consecutive year that MTFP has set ambitious fundraising goals and exceeded them, showing that the groundswell of popular support for independent news in Montana continues to rise.
“This was again an ambitious goal, but readers across Montana — and even the country — made it clear that there’s a serious need for reliable reporting and they trust our newsroom to be that source,” said MTFP Membership Manager Claire Overholt. “We have such a strong team at Montana Free Press that this detailed, months-long effort was strategic, successful and even fun.”
In addition to surpassing significant fundraising milestones, MTFP has continued to expand its reporting across the state. The newsroom grew to 11 full-time reporters and editors who published more than 900 stories in 2024.
Contributing to that growth is the expansion of MTFP Local, MTFP’s community-based reporting. MTFP Local added two full-time reporters in 2024, Matt Hudson in Great Falls and Katie Fairbanks in Missoula, to report on local government and community issues. MTFP plans to continue expanding local reporting in underserved communities in the coming year.
MTFP also expanded and strengthened its statehouse coverage, which has long been the core of its reporting. Former longtime Lee Newspapers State News Bureau Chief Holly Michels joined the team in December as state editor. In her new role, Michels will direct MTFP’s coverage of the 2025 Legislature.
Also joining the state reporting staff on a full-time basis in 2024 is Zeke Lloyd, who is coordinating the Voter Priority Project, an MTFP initiative that received significant funding from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. The project includes in-depth public polling, data analysis and legislative reporting.
And finally, MTFP added Jacob Olness to the data reporting team this year, boosting the newsroom’s capacity to develop interactive journalism tools such as MTFP’s signature Capitol Tracker and Election Guides, expanding reader-centered visualizations and improving the newsroom’s capacity to analyze data.
“Our ability to continue to grow to meet the news and information needs of Montanans is a direct result of the contributions Montanans make to this nonprofit news endeavor,” Adams said. “The entire Montana Free Press staff is overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the readers who make this work possible.”
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