Donor & Financial Transparency Policy

Salford Community Media CIC (SCM) is committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our journalism.

All funding obtained by our company is put directly back into both expansion of our services as well as into community causes.

Funding is primarily used to purchase new or upgrade our current equipment, funding of special community projects and covering the costs of the general running of our website, software licencing and other such related items.

We have no paid members of staff and operate solely thanks to our volunteers. Every penny of profit goes directly back to the community.

Although we accept financial support from third parties it does not mean that as a company we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

SCM intends to provide factual, unbiased reporting. Our opinion section is open to all to contribute to. Our editors, researchers, reporters and other contributors operate under principles of ethical journalism.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organisations and foundations to help with our general operational costs, coverage of specific topics and special community projects.

As a Community Interest Company we still subjected to the same taxes as any other UK based company.

Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give those supporters/donors opportunities to assign, preview or edit content.

We make public all revenue sources and donors who give £500 or more per year. 

We also maintain a private list of those who make smaller donations, some of which may be included on our donors page (dependent on their authorisation to do so).

As a news non-profit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office.

As a company we will not accept donations from sources who, are deemed by our board of directors to be unsuitable, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence as a respected media outlet.

A small amount of our funding may come from advertising revenue but it adds up to just a small fraction of our overall operating costs and so we have no alternative but to seek public funding to keep our ship afloat.

Why can’t we pay for all of this from advertising revenues?

While ad revenues are important to SCM, at this stage, we can expect to earn only a fraction of our revenues by advertising for local businesses, organisations and events.  

The news ecosystem across United Kingdom is broken. As much as 80 percent of ad revenues that used to flow to newspapers have moved online – primarily to social media and classified ad sites.

We have seen countless independent local news outlets either forced to closed down or become amalgamated into both regional and national titles. The old business model for local news is never coming back and so in order to survive and continue to provide a service, we have had to adapt.

Local news outlets such as ours, cover stories which regional news would not.

As a non-profit, we depend on the support of local community members like you to keep this critical work going. 

For a small, still-new independent news organisation like us, your contribution would be a big deal. It will help us deliver the kind of in-depth journalism you’ve come to expect, every day. It’s the kind of reporting that can make a real difference in our community.

Sponsorship opportunities

If your business, organisation, or non-profit would like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities with Salford Community Media CIC, please contact Carl Davison on 0161 820 2411 or via admin@salford.media.

As well as advertising we offer sponsorship opportunities within our content.

Transparency

Donors who contribute over £1,500 per year or offer non-financial assistance in maintaining our company, are eligible to be added to our supporters section.

List of funders who have contributed between £500 to £2,499 in 2023

None as yet

List of funders who have contributed more than £2,500 in 2023

None as yet

Our company is listed at Companies House - Company Number 14689576

We file a yearly report on our finances in accordance with the law.