La Conner Community News operates through contributions from the community we serve, foundations and sponsors, but those donors do not have influence on our reporting any more than other members of our community.
We accept — and require — gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities. Our editorial decisions are driven by listening to our community about what they want from local news and within the expertise of our newsroom. We know that one thing the communities we serve value is our editorial independence.
We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and all sources of revenue, including content that might be sponsored and labeled clearly. When we accept donations, sponsorships, grants, or any kind of financial support, we do not imply endorsement or endorse donors, their products, services, or opinions.
We cede no right of review or influence of editorial content.
We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that decisions about how those donations are spent are made independently by our organization and are in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards. We are also members of Society of Professional Journalists, Online News Association, and Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.
Conflicts of interest
We all live together in the communities we cover and are connected in many ways, through schools, employment, family and friends. La Conner Community News does its best to prevent or be transparent about conflicts of interest in our reporting, particularly when reporters, editors, or the organization have financial interests in coverage areas. We are part of this community and encourage our staff and contributors to be involved in the causes and organizations they care about; our commitment to readers is that we will disclose that involvement when it is directly relevant to the reporting.
Donor and funder transparency
Many people support our work with small and large donations; we do not disclose in articles who is and isn’t a financial supporter unless they give more than $4,999 in the current year.
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $500 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Thank you to the donors who’ve given $500 or more since 2025:
Terry Armstrong, Mara Bohman, Jai Boreen, Gary Brown, Mary G. Burgin, Barbara Endrody, Geraldine A. Henriot, Gretchen McCauley, Linda Peterson, Dyann L. Provenzano, Richard J. Shorten, William Henry Taylor, Kathryn Aiken, Cherie Ware-Braley, Andrew Ashmore, Warren Anderson, Lynn Beebe, Irene Blanchard, Wayne Bradford, BJ Carol, Marguerite A. Holgate, Charles F. Norris, Colleen and Sam Nunn, Daniel T. O’Donnell, Marilyn Olson, Wende Sanderson, Allen and Chris Elliott, Aven Wright-MacIntosh, Amy Hong, Kathy Shiner, Leslie Smith, Michael Thuot, Jerry and Kathleen Willins, Teru and Mark Lundsten, Susan Macek, Joan Cross, Bruce Wick, Harold (Mitt) and Maureen Harlan, Beverly Haywood, Southern Newspaper Publishers Assn Foundation, Mary Wohleb, Institute for Nonprofit News, Beverly Haywood, Bruce Wick, Linda Talman, Duane Holmes, Leslie and William Smith, Tiny News Collective, Kathy A. Shiner, Lynn Beebe, Barbara Endrody, Susan Macek, Chuck Norris, Warren Anderson, Dennis Milliken, Jeanette E. and Christopher S. Smith, Kimberly Jo and Danny D. Robinson, Wayne Best, Nancy Elliot, Cherie Ware-Braley, Kathryn Aiken.