Our biggest challenge at GothamSchools is to support ourselves financially without compromising our mission of producing fact-based, constructive, and non-ideological journalism about public schools. We tackle this challenge by developing a diversity of revenue sources and always making it clear that we will not let any of our philanthropic funders influence our editorial product.
We began as an independent project of OpenPlans, a nonprofit foundation that focuses on civic engagement and open government. OpenPlans offered us financial support from our start in 2008 to 2010. We have gradually transitioned to a more diverse set of funding sources, ranging from major individual givers to dozens and dozens of contributions from readers and supporters to a new paid education jobs board that provides a modest amount of revenue each month.
Some of our funders take clear positions on education policy, but all understand that their beliefs do not influence our editorial decisions. The positions include a wide range: One major funder, Ken Hirsh, has supported organizations such as Teach for America and charter schools, while another supporter, the American Federation of Teachers, is the second-largest national teachers union.
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