Today States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, announced it has hired Caitlin Sigal as development director, a new role.
Sigal brings nearly two decades of experience in development, philanthropy and nonprofit news to States Newsroom. Most recently, she served as the associate director of institutional giving at StoryCorps, and previously she led the development team at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
“We’re very happy to have Caitlin joining our leadership team,” said Chris Fitzsimon, publisher and chief executive of States Newsroom. “We’ve grown fast, thanks to many donors big and small, but we see the challenges ahead for nonprofit news operations and we want to ensure that all of our journalists have the funding they need to do their work. Caitlin’s unique background in development and journalism is a perfect fit for our organization.”
Before pivoting to development, Sigal worked at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, a foundation committed to human rights and social justice causes. Caitlin began her career as a reporter for the investigative news outlet Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., where she focused on state-level reporting and analysis.
Sigal has a master’s degree in public policy from American University’s School of Public Affairs and a BA from the University of Delaware. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.
“I’m thrilled to be joining the States Newsroom team,” Sigal said. “I look forward to bringing my years of experience — both as a journalist and as a fundraiser — to this role. States Newsroom’s trusted, fact-based reporting fills a void in statehouse coverage, and I’m eager to help drive resources to sustain and grow this critical work.”
States Newsroom, founded in 2019, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is funded exclusively by the generous contributions of readers and philanthropists. Committed to supporting fact-based, non-partisan news to the public at no cost and ad-free, States Newsroom has reporters in all 50 capitals plus Washington, D.C. Its headquarters are in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.
About States Newsroom:
States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit news organization. We shine a light on policy and politics in state capitals around the nation and we provide that coverage for free, no pop-ups, paywalls or ads. In an era of rampant disinformation and news deserts, we provide nonpartisan coverage of the state issues that most affect people’s daily lives.
Leading studies cite States Newsroom as key to filling the void in coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to one study, the overall percentage of reporters working for nonprofit newsrooms in the statehouse press corps has more than tripled since 2014 and now makes up the largest portion of statehouse reporters in 10 states and the second largest in 17 states.
We run — or partner with — news outlets in all 50 state capitals.
We fully fund newsrooms in 39 states, each with its own website. They are:
Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com
Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com
Arizona Mirror – azmirror.com
Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com
Colorado Newsline – coloradonewsline.com
Florida Phoenix – floridaphoenix.com
Georgia Recorder – georgiarecorder.com
Idaho Capital Sun – idahocapitalsun.com
Indiana Capital Chronicle – indianacapitalchronicle.com
Iowa Capital Dispatch – iowacapitaldispatch.com
Kansas Reflector – kansasreflector.com
Kentucky Lantern – kentuckylantern.com
Louisiana Illuminator – lailluminator.com
Maine Morning Star – mainemorningstar.com
Maryland Matters – marylandmatters.org
Michigan Advance – michiganadvance.com
Minnesota Reformer – minnesotareformer.com
Missouri Independent – missouriindependent.com
Daily Montanan – dailymontanan.com
Nebraska Examiner – nebraskaexaminer.com
Nevada Current – nevadacurrent.com
New Hampshire Bulletin – newhampshirebulletin.com
New Jersey Monitor – newjerseymonitor.com
Source New Mexico – sourcenm.com
NC Newsline – ncnewsline.com
North Dakota Monitor – northdakotamonitor.com
Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com
Oklahoma Voice – oklahomavoice.com
Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com
Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com
Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com
South Carolina Daily Gazette – scdailygazette.com
South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com
Stateline – stateline.org
Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com
Utah News Dispatch – utahnewsdispatch.com
Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com
Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com
West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com
Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com
States Newsroom also has content-sharing agreements with 11 leading nonprofit newsrooms: CalMatters (California), Connecticut Mirror, Spotlight Delaware, Honolulu Civil Beat, Capitol News Illinois, CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont) and WyoFile (Wyoming).
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