AI use, growth challenges, and funding cuts: A new report looks at the state of nonprofit news

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) released its ninth annual INN Index on Tuesday, detailing the state of nonprofit news in 2025 based on data from 412 member organizations. The report indicates a significant increase in AI adoption among these newsrooms, with 81% reporting AI use in 2025, a rise from 63% in 2024 and 34% in 2023. While AI is not widely used for direct editorial tasks like writing, common applications include summarizing or transcribing meetings (60%) and data analysis (36%).

AI is also being leveraged for fundraising and audience engagement. Twenty-two percent of INN members used AI to personalize emails to funders, and 18% used it to draft grant applications. For audience outreach, 26% employed AI for tasks such as drafting social media copy or personalizing audience emails. In terms of data management, 13% of members used AI to scrape data from websites, while 19% implemented measures to block web scraping of their own content.

The overall revenue for INN members, excluding new startups and public media, surpassed $750 million in 2025, marking a 14% increase from 2024. Despite this aggregate growth, the report highlights that individual newsroom revenue growth is plateauing. Authors Jesse Holcomb, Michele McLellan, and Ha Ta noted that the nonprofit news field is becoming increasingly localized and continues to grow, albeit at a slower pace, but persistent funding and audience challenges remain at the individual newsroom level.