FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2024
Contact: fac@firstamendmentcoalition.org
San Rafael, Calif. — Today the First Amendment Coalition announced that the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation has committed $600,000 over the next three years to ensure FAC thrives as it continues to expand its work promoting and protecting a free press, free expression, and government transparency.”
This generous gift sets FAC on a path to serve even more journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens in their pursuit of government transparency and accountability,” said David Snyder, Executive Director, First Amendment Coalition. The need in our community is greater than ever before, and with this substantial support — this continuing vote of confidence in FAC’s essential work — we will be able to deliver for the betterment of journalism, government accountability, and democracy as a whole.”
FAC has quadrupled its staff since 2017, from two to eight, with JLFF providing crucial support throughout that time. With more staff, FAC has expanded its legal support for journalists, its education of journalists and the broader community, and its advocacy at both the local and state levels.
The grant will support essential infrastructure for a growing organization, including training for FAC’s staff and board and key financial, fundraising, and administrative infrastructure, including data-driven approaches to addressing the most pressing threats to First Amendment and open-government rights.
“We’re deeply grateful for the work the First Amendment Coalition has achieved since we began our support in 2015. They have shown smart, steady growth, using our match challenges to attract new donors as well as encouraging existing donors to increase their funding,” said Jonathan Logan, CEO of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. “I have loved to see FAC flourish and become one of the more important protectors of our democracy in the country. FAC is a leader, forging their way through today’s traumatic and deeply disturbing landscape, to stem the tide of ignorance, indifference, and violence.”
FAC has already put Logan’s investment to work by promoting part-time fundraising consultant Mary Needham to a full-time Development Coordinator position. Needham, a Bay Area native, has been able to hit the ground running, bringing her knowledge of FAC, database expertise, and fundraising experience to her new position.
The Logan grant will provide $150,000 annually in 2025, 2026, and 2027, plus an additional $50,000 each year as a matching grant to energize FAC’s annual fundraising efforts.
About the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation
The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports organizations that advance social justice by empowering world-changing work in investigative journalism, documentary film and arts & culture.