IPS has three major sources of financing:
income from the market
grants from multi-lateral and national development co-operation budgets
project funding
IPS headquarters and regional centres undertake a host of marketing activities with the dual aim of securing a steady flow of income from market sources and increasing readership. Besides selling news stories and columns to traditional outlets across the world, many activities are also underway to reach out to individual readers and organizations. For example, in 2006 the IPS marketing team introduced the Premium Service subscription option, a special package aimed at non-media clients who want to have access to the full IPS news service - including archives of past articles - and the Columnist Service.
Moreover, IPS receives financial support in the form of grants from members of the Core Group - governments and institutions that have a sustained relationship with IPS. With many of these donors, IPS implements important communication partnerships to carry out specific activities and organize special events. At least three such partnerships were undertaken in 2006, and more are in the pipeline for 2007.
Last but not least, global and regional IPS projects are conceived to gather extra resources for specific reporting, capacity-building and networking and dissemination initiatives. Project financing from sources like private foundations, international institutions and civil society organisations is enabling IPS to develop and enrich its work around global themes and support the local priorities of IPS regional centres. For a list of IPS supporters, please click here.
Once a year, representatives of many of these governments and organizations meet to discuss the main challenges in the communication field and the role of IPS in this process, thus providing one invaluable strategic support towards the accomplishment of IPS’ mission. The latest Support group meeting was held in Venice, Italy, on Thursday 29 November 2007, with invaluable patronage from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local authorities of Venice.
A breakdown of IPS revenues and expenditures during the 2005 and 2006 financial years is provided below.
IPS preserves its journalistic integrity through maintaining a wide diversity of revenue sources, and working only with backers and initiatives that explicitly accept editorial independence.
