As reported on the Boise State University website, on Monday, May 13, Boise State Public Radio launched a crowdfunding campaign “Rachel Reports for America.” Using the university crowdfunding platform Pony Up, the public media station is seeking $60,000 to fund a multi-year reporting initiative in the Twin Falls and Sun Valley region.
The station was selected by Report for America to place a journalist in South-Central Idaho. Report for America recruits and trains young journalists and deploys them into news organizations across the country, helping bolster reporting in regions that are often overlooked. The national group provides partial funding, with the rest of the costs raised by the local communities.
Report for America corps member Rachel Cohen will pioneer a news bureau outside the Treasure Valley, with a focus on areas covered by the radio network in the Magic Valley and Wood River Valley. Cohen, who graduated with honors from Middlebury College, held internships at NPR in Washington, D.C., and at New Hampshire Public Radio.
To bolster donations and encourage participation, community advisory board chair Laurie Ahern and her husband Paul are matching all donations up to $30,000 from May 13 to June 17.
For more information or to donate to the campaign, visit RachelReportsforAmerica.org.
