Our mission to serve the greater good of our communities goes beyond keeping our audience safe and informed. TEGNA and our stations take an active role in helping make our communities better places to live and work.
In 2022, our stations and news teams strove to be the most trusted sources of news in our communities and to be agents of beneficial change in the markets we serve. Our local journalists are empowered to seek out the stories that matter most to their audience and pursue investigations that expose wrongdoing while continuing to maintain the highest ethical standards.
Each year, our stations identify pressing needs in their communities and partner with local nonprofit organizations to help address these issues. In 2022, our stations helped raise more than $100 million in support of diverse local causes that address specific needs in communities.
Through the TEGNA Foundation, we work to improve lives in the communities we serve by contributing to a variety of local charitable causes through Community Grants.
- In 2022, the TEGNA Foundation in partnership with local stations made 367 Community Grants totaling $1.89 million. Grants are distributed within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal framework, with the majority of 2022 grants supporting three major categories: Good Health and Well-Being, Quality Education, and Zero Hunger.
- Media Grants support training for the next generation of diverse journalists, education and development opportunities for journalists and other professionals in the media field, and protection of First Amendment freedoms. In 2022, we awarded $135,000 in Media Grants to 12 organizations that included two grants to the National Association for Hispanic Journalists to provide student support for the organization’s annual conference and support for a nine-month long Career Preparation Workshop series.
- Additional Media Grants went to the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education to support the 2023 Moot Court competition; Asian American Journalists Association for its JCamp and Voices student programs; Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Television Journalism to support boot camps, training, and online continuing education; and Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. for two Freedom of Information Act sessions and the Media Lawyer Brown Bag lunch session at the 2022 annual conference.
- Grants also went to the National Association of Black Journalists to support a professional development session at the 2022 annual conference and to support the 2022 Black Male Media Project; NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists to support the CONNECT: Student Journalism Training Program, a conference for LGBTQ student journalists; Native American Journalists Association to support student programming at their annual conference; Online News Association to support student/new professional scholarships for the 2022 conference; and the Radio Television Digital News Foundation for the 2022 student support at the 2022 conference.
- In 2022, TEGNA Foundation formalized its DE&I grantmaking by creating a new grant program and employee committee. 25 grants were made in the program’s first year, supporting nonprofit organizations throughout the communities where TEGNA does business. Grants focused on support for the LGBTQ+ youth and senior communities, programs supporting girls and women, support for the creation of the National Juneteenth Museum, and organizations creating opportunities for individuals of all abilities.
In 2022, we also launched a DE&I and community-centered impact investing initiative with CNote, an organization which helps companies invest capital in underserved communities at scale. TEGNA made investments in twelve Community Development Financial Institutions that aim to increase capital access and economic development in the communities TEGNA serves. Investments were made in the following institutions: ANECA Federal Credit Union, Bank of Cherokee County, Carver State Bank, Commodore Perry Federal Credit Union, Essential Credit Union, Freedom Bank, Hope Federal Credit Union, Latino Credit Union, Legacy Bank and Trust, Optus Bank, Self-Help Federal Credit Union and VCC Bank.
Our employees also give back to their local communities by volunteering for and donating to their favorite causes. In 2022, the TEGNA Foundation matched employee donations two-for-one to the nonprofits most meaningful to them. As a result, the Foundation approved more than 2,150 employee matching gifts. Their donations combined with TEGNA Foundation matches totaled more than $2 million.
Recognized by the Civic 50 as one of the most civically minded companies in the United States for a third consecutive year and, in 2022, named the Telecommunications Sector Leader.
Learn more about the TEGNA Foundation.
In 2022, we continued to build on a progress towards achieving our publicly stated and quantifiable five-year Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) goals. Our sustained progress is due to the collective efforts at all levels of our organization; from our Board of Directors to our front-line employees serving on local D&I teams, and everyone in between.
We know there is much more work to do, and progress takes a daily commitment. We are proud of the gains we have made in diversifying our workforce, creating a more inclusive culture, and our aim to increase representation of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) by meeting these 2025 objectives.
Click to enlarge
TEGNA is intensifying our evolutionary focus on being responsible stewards of our resources, recognizing the necessity for real progress on our planet’s environmental and sustainability challenges. We have enhanced our oversight, programs, reporting and accountability to further our commitment to minimize our carbon footprint and protect and preserve the environment.
In 2021, we took several steps to inform our long-term environmental goals and action plans, including completing a comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory that included our scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from our direct operations, as well as relevant indirect scope 3 GHG emissions across our value chain.
Read more about our stations’ coverage of environmental and sustainability issues in our 2022 10-K.
