Boston’s oldest nonprofit community newspaper has cause to celebrate in its 50th anniversary year. At The Fenway News Association’s 2024 annual meeting last week, Treasurer Steve Chase said, “We’re in good shape, which is a bit of an historical anomaly.”
A fundraising campaign started by the free, hyperlocal Fenway newspaper has raised over $17,000 since 2021, helping the nonprofit organization pay off a $16,000 outstanding balance with their printer.
This allowed The Fenway News to resume putting out its monthly newspaper in April 2022, for which printing had been on pause since March 2020.
Donations were received through a GoFundMe campaign and through the local charity fiscal agent, FENSFund, which collects and distributes tax-deductible contributions for local nonprofits at a 5 percent fee.
The Fenway News Association is also seeking pro bono legal aid to assist with achieving a 501(c)(3) charity designation itself.
The key difference between The Fenway News Association’s current nonprofit status and the 501(c)(3) charitable organization designation is the tax-exempt status that comes with 501(c)(3). This would allow donors to make their tax-deductible contributions to the paper directly.
The fundraising push kicked off in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic cut into the advertising efforts of Fenway's mom-and-pop stores and restaurants, once the paper’s day-to-day revenue generator. A grant from the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust stepped in to pay for a page of advertising for local businesses during the pandemic.
Even after lockdowns, many of the struggling mom-and-pops from those pages have been replaced with larger corporate establishments that had resources to deal with pandemic hardships.
For much of the last 50 years, the paper was supported by the advertising of those small, independent businesses. The national chains that have since replaced them don’t market with the same community focus.
“You’re not talking to the owner over the counter anymore,” Chase said in an interview. “CVS took a lot of business from the local pharmacies, but we’re too small for them to advertise with us.”
Chase said advertising revenue within the last year has started to look up, but the paper will still rely on a steady stream of donations to manage the nonprofit’s carefully minimized expenses.
“You could say that we're now more like a public broadcasting model. We rely on the folks who read us to support us with donations,” The Fenway News Association said in a statement made over email.
The Fenway News Association is primarily operated by a team of volunteers. The paper’s expenses consist of an editor, who was able to receive a raise thanks to the donations, a bookkeeper and printing costs.
With their optimistic financial status, the paper plans to continue improving its online presence.
At the annual meeting, Editor Kelsey Bruun also called for local businesses and organizations to submit events for the paper’s monthly calendar and for new writers from the area to bring fresh ideas to fill the pages.
