How the UK can learn from impact media platforms in the USA and India

For my Fellowship, co-funded by the Rank Foundation, I spent two months researching impact media in the USA, India and Sri Lanka, travelling across many cities and regions. I visited over 50 impact media organisations, and met with over 100 inspirational individuals dedicated to strengthening democratic engagement, community voice, and social change through media.

I already knew from my work as Founder and CEO at the Media Trust and Together TV (The Community Channel), the world’s only community-owned charitable national broadcaster, that the UK faces real challenges in funding and sustaining independent social impact media platforms. My Fellowship gave me the opportunity to see how different funding models and governance structures are working elsewhere – and what lessons we might learn from.

What I found was a thriving and dynamic sector. In the USA, India, and more recently Sri Lanka, impact media is a vital force for good, sustained by passionate and entrepreneurial communities from diverse backgrounds. Funding models are evolving, with individual supporter contributions playing an increasingly significant role alongside grants from charitable foundations and impact investors. Entrepreneurial income models – through memberships, subscriptions, and social enterprise – are also growing.

The organisational structures of these platforms are often dynamic and flexible, designed to increase audience engagement and financial sustainability. Unlike in the UK, where there is a sharper divide between charitable and commercial models, many impact media organisations abroad take a blended approach, using governance and ownership structures that prioritise social impact while ensuring financial viability. In places where impact media is struggling, I saw how philanthropic intervention and entrepreneurial innovation have helped rebuild or launch platforms, ensuring communities retain access to independent media that reflects their interests and amplifies their voices.

To strengthen social impact media in the UK, I believe we should:

1. Inspire and enable UK charitable foundations, lottery distributors, philanthropists, and impact investors to fund and support social impact media.
2. Grow a culture of individual supporter contributions, helping impact media organisations to build sustainable income through donations, membership, community shares, social enterprise and subscriptions.
3. Support more entrepreneurial and flexible ownership and governance models, blending charitable and social enterprise strategies to enable financial growth.
4. Invest in measuring and communicating the social impact of these platforms to strengthen funding opportunities and partnerships.
5. Develop specialist infrastructure support for impact media in the UK, including best practice, training, policy and research, and global knowledge-sharing, alongside initiatives such as match funding and local impact media hubs.

I hope these recommendations will help reverse the decline in impact media in the UK and inspire new approaches to funding and sustainability. By fostering a growing, multi-layered network of creative, entrepreneurial, and socially driven media platforms, we can ensure that impact media continues to be a powerful force for democratic engagement and social change.

Caroline’s research summary and full report can be found here.

Caroline also supports social impact founders at all stages – find out more here.