Potter Challenge Fund aims to triple impact of Mizzou Giving Day for Missouri School of Journalism
COLUMBIA, Mo. (March 10, 2025) — In partnership with Walt Potter, MA ’81, the Missouri School of Journalism is launching the Potter Challenge Fund on Mizzou Giving Day, which runs March 12-13 from noon to noon. Potter has pledged to triple the impact of $25,000 in Giving Day donations, meaning the Challenge Fund could generate as much as $50,000 in matching funds from Potter. Click here to learn more about how to contribute.
The Giving Day drive is part of a larger, longer-term partnership in which Potter could provide up to $1 million in matching funds.
“I’m really thrilled that we’re going to be a big part of Giving Day because it focuses on smaller-dollar donations. Don’t think your gift is inconsequential because it’s 10 bucks or 25 bucks. Anything you do to help local journalism has value, and the Potter Fund is a great option because it’s what we’re all about.”
Walt Potter
“I’m so grateful to Walt for his enthusiastic support of hands-on learning and fact-based community reporting,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “The support of alumni and friends of the School helps us continue to lead the industry forward through innovation and world-class education.”
The money will go to the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism, established in 2010 and supplemented with a $1 million gift from Potter in 2014. Today, it’s best known for supporting the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s (RJI) Potter Digital Ambassadors program, which sends students to Missouri news outlets to train and strategize with newsrooms on their digital efforts. Traditionally a newspaper-focused program, this year’s cohort expanded into broadcast newsrooms as well.
“Walt and the Potter Fund have allowed us to make this program a success in Missouri and a model for other states facing the same challenges,” said Randy Picht, executive director of RJI, who noted the ambassadors’ efforts can be transformative in newsrooms low on time and staffing.
Potter and RJI are currently pursuing opportunities to expand Potter Ambassadors even further by collaborating with other Midwestern states. In fact, Potter sees collaboration as key — his ideas and support were crucial to getting RJI’s Digital on Demand Services program off the ground, a program that has now received a $2.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation to build a digital Learning Center for publishers.
“The nut graf says we will support newspapers in their transition from print to digital and help them make a living at it. I think that’s pretty good.”
Walt Potter
The origin of the Potter Digital Ambassadors, too, was rooted in collaboration. The program began as a series of conferences in which community journalists shared information and strategies around technology, coinciding with a national effort to extend reliable broadband access to rural areas. Now, he hopes to make Giving Day another collaborative success.
“I’m really thrilled that we’re going to be a big part of Giving Day because it focuses on smaller-dollar donations,” Potter said. “Don’t think your gift is inconsequential because it’s 10 bucks or 25 bucks. Anything you do to help local journalism has value, and the Potter Fund is a great option because it’s what we’re all about.”
Potter pointed to the mission laid out in the Potter Fund’s founding document 15 years ago, noting that it remains as timely today as it was then.
“The nut graf says we will support newspapers in their transition from print to digital and help them make a living at it,” Potter said. “I think that’s pretty good.”
For more information, visit Giving to Mizzou.
Updated: March 13, 2025