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Donor Counts, Revenue Up Across 60+ Hub Newsrooms During EOY Fundraising 2025

After a busy end-of-year season, we’ve finished crunching the numbers on YoY fundraising data for 60+ Hub member organizations. These newsrooms encompass startups and long-time fundraisers, local outlets to national ones, and everything in between. These Hub newsrooms were able to finish the year strong with both donor counts and revenue increasing year-over-year, showcasing that support for news continues to hold steady even amidst tough economic conditions and competition for attention and dollars beyond the news space. 

How We Analyzed the Data 

We analyzed Nov. 1 – Dec. 31 year-over-year trends, as well as New Year’s Eve in isolation, across 61 newsrooms and 3 journalism support organizations. For our analysis, we looked at performance network-wide (analyzing all organizations that fundraised in both 2024 and 2025) by market cohort, and by business stage, a classification that reflects the maturity of a newsroom’s audience and revenue development programs. 

Our market cohorts are: 

  • Local newsrooms 
  • State newsrooms
  • National newsrooms 
  • Journalism support organizations (not newsrooms)

And our business stages, inspired by INN’s business cohorts, are: 

  • Early stage startup (0-3 years): Outlets within the first 3 years of launch. They are just getting off the ground, building out staff and solidifying mission. 
  • Late stage startup (4-6 years): Outlets that are past the first 3 years of launch – they’re solidifying and building out audience and membership programs. 
  • Sustainer (7-15 years): Outlets that have exited the startup phase. Sustainers have more mature audience or membership programs and are identifying one or two revenue streams or audience platforms that work for their organization.
  • Heavyweight (16+ years): Mature organizations that we may consider legacy; focused on maintaining their revenue base.

Unless otherwise noted, we restricted year-over-year revenue comparisons to gifts received under $10k to focus on membership and small donor giving trends. 

High Level Takeaways 

Comparison: Nov. 1 – Dec. 31 2025 vs. Nov. 1 – Dec. 31, 2024

In the first half of EOY fundraising, we saw donor counts were increasing, but revenue was down, raising flags that audiences were motivated to give but likely at lower amounts. However, performance shifted in the second half of the campaign. Hub newsrooms were able to finish the year strong with both donor counts and revenue increasing year-over-year. 

Bright spots:

  • EOY revenue for gifts under $10k was up +2% across all Hub newsrooms, especially promising considering this same stat was down in our first half of EOY fundraising analysis. The median Hub newsroom saw a +9% increase in EOY revenue YoY! 
  • Donors counts are up YoY by +2%. 
  • Local and state newsrooms continue to see gains in revenue and total donors.

Yellow flags we’re monitoring: 

  • New and first-time donors continued to fall across the board compared to 2024. In 2026, it’s going to be vital for all news organizations to double down on new donor acquisition throughout the year, not just in year-end campaigning.  
  • Fewer first-time (new) donors are offering support in monthly or yearly recurring gifts in 2025 year-end fundraising compared to 2024. 
Year-over-year revenue and donor change, 2025 to 2024

Finishing the year strong

Donor counts and revenue were up for Hub newsrooms during the year-end campaign, with total donors up +2% year-over-year. Local newsrooms saw the greatest growth in revenue increase on a median basis and as a group, and also saw the greatest growth in donors on a median basis. 

Data analysis note: We calculated revenue and donor trends by cohorts overall and by median growth. Trends in the median are more descriptive of a typical newsroom’s fundraising experience.

  • Local newsrooms’ EOY revenue is up +6%, and the median newsroom saw an increase of +16%. 
  • State newsrooms were up +2%, median up +6%. 
  • National newsrooms were down -2%, median down -9%. 

Revenue from gifts under $1,000 continued to make up a strong majority of giving in 2025, accounting for 75% of all revenue under $10,000. This is consistent with 2024 trends and a sign of broad-based donor participation across the field. 

Interestingly, local newsrooms saw a smaller share of revenue coming from $1,000 gifts, pointing to growing success in securing what we call “major member” contributions in the $1,000–$9,999 range.

This growth in major members is an especially encouraging signal. As new donor acquisition softened across the network (down 18.9%), deeper investment from existing supporters is emerging as a critical driver of sustainability. Recognizing this shift, the News Revenue Hub is expanding its major donor strategic support in the year ahead — helping newsrooms strengthen cultivation, stewardship, and upgrade pathways for their most committed supporters.

  • Startups saw promising growth, with EOY revenue for gifts under $10k up +7%, and on median were up +16%. We’re continuing to see momentum in revenue and donors for startups, especially in smaller gifts. 
  • Startups also saw the greatest increase in small gifts — revenue for gifts under $1,000 was up by +13% YoY, signaling increased enthusiasm at the grassroots level. 
  • Sustainers were down -0.3% (essentially flat), median down -3%. 
  • Heavyweights were up +2%, median up +11%.
Year-over-year donor and new donor change

The decline in new donor acquisition matches trends we observed throughout 2025, where revenue growth is being driven by existing donors vs. first-time supporters. Heavyweight newsrooms in particular saw the greatest YoY decrease as a cohort (-30%) in new donors compared to startups and sustainers. This may point to gaps at the top and middle of the funnel in converting readers to members during the EOY giving period. 

In other cases, this could indicate a strategy shift. Organizations that fundraise throughout the year may have seen more gradual new donor growth throughout the year instead of a spike during the two-month EOY giving period — something we intend to dig more deeply into in future analyses.

Zoom In: New Year’s Eve and average gift sizes

Comparison: Dec. 31 2025 vs. Dec. 31 2024

Similar to Giving Tuesday, New Year’s Eve can still play an important role in year-end fundraising, particularly in helping organizations clinch larger donations and contributions. Across the board, newsrooms saw their highest average gift amounts on New Year’s Eve — higher than Giving Tuesday — in their final push for support. 

However, revenue on the last day of the year (for gifts under $10k) was down by -7.6% year-over-year across all Hub organizations, which includes non-newsrooms. Donor counts were up by +8.1% across the board, but new donors were down both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total donor pool. 

New Year’s Eve, like Giving Tuesday, still stands out as an incredible opportunity to ask for those larger gifts, level-up current supporters to higher giving levels, and as a last chance to activate highly engaged subscribers. 

  • Local organizations’ New Year’s Eve revenue as a group were down -12% , and on median down -12%. 
  • National organizations as a group were up +8.5%, and on median were down -15%.
  • State organizations as a group were down -24%, and on median up +10%.
2025 year-end fundraising average gifts

Looking ahead to 2026

As we reflect on year-end fundraising with an eye to 2026, we’re heartened that the best practices we have developed and work with our newsrooms to deploy continue to show results in increased donors and increased revenue. The News Revenue Hub has spent nearly a decade running end-of-year campaigns with newsrooms of every size, mission, and maturity level. We’ve seen these patterns before. We know what works — and we know how to help you navigate donor behavior that’s shifting in real time. 

What’s next: 

  • Hub newsrooms — keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation to our annual State of the Hub, where we’ll dive deeper into these trends and announce new initiatives your organization can take advantage of. 
  • Want to work with us more closely? Apply for the News Revenue Hub’s Catalyst Subsidy Fund by January 31, 2026. The Catalyst Subsidy Fund will provide subsidized consulting services to 20 news organizations through two distinct program tracks: a Growth Track and an Innovation Track. Learn more about the program here. 

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