Four Lessons From a Nonprofit That Raised $11.5 million in Four Years

Feb. 4, 2010, Nieman Journalism Lab — On the morning of my second-to-last day as the editor of The Washington Independent, I was surprisingly nervous waiting for my boss to walk across the newsroom to meet me for what I pitched to him as an “exit interview” for my new job at the Nieman Journalism Lab. At 10:33 a.m. an email popped into my inbox titled, “I’m giving David the ‘wrap it up’ signal”; it was from my boss’ secretary, who sat just out of my view in our D.C. office. David S. Bennahum, CEO of the nonprofit Center for Independent Media, which publishes TWI and five other news sites around the country, is on the phone talking with a potential donor about his recent coup: a $352,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to launch his seventh news website, The Florida Independent, with two local foundations.