2023 Annual Report
East Lansing Info (ELi) is dedicated to providing high quality, nonpartisan news and information to the residents of East Lansing, Michigan. We aim to promote transparency, accountability, and civic engagement within our community.
As we reflect on the past year, we are grateful for the continued support of our readers, donors, staff and volunteers. Despite the challenging times that small nonprofits faced in 2023, ELi remained committed to delivering timely and relevant news coverage to the residents of East Lansing.
Below is a snapshot of activities in 2023:
- ELi staff helped create and attended the Shoptalk retreat in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Fifteen representatives from six hyperlocal news organizations met in order to build relationships among peer organizations that have similar characteristics and challenges. The report from this workshop can be found here.
- ELi hired reporters Mya Gregory, Mara Logan, Eli Taub and photographer Brian Wells. Molly Corcoran stepped in to manage ELi’s social media.
- Alice Dreger, ELi’s founder and longtime investigative reporter, transitioned out of her role as Publisher, Executive Director, and reporter in order to pursue other passions.
- The ELi Board of Directors hired Beth Peck to take on the role of Publisher and Executive Director. Beth, a longtime resident of East Lansing, brought years of nonprofit management skills to the team.
- ELi started the Investigative News Fund. This fund was created to help meet rising costs caused by the increased need for investigative journalism in East Lansing. The fund raised over $7,000 in a few months.
- We said farewell to Al Hargrave, Eli’s Development Director. Al started as a reporter, and finished her career with ELi working with donors and grantors to keep ELi sustainable. Al is currently attending law school at the University of Michigan, and we wish her well in all her future endeavors; we know there will be many!
- ELi’s annual campaign brought in over $120,000 in donations and commitments to support our reporting in 2024.
Our work would have been impossible without the backstage support of General Manager Jodi Mullett and Tech Managers Lisa Lees and Morgan Lees. Jodi, Lisa and Morgan are absolutely essential to the daily operations of ELi, and we are thankful for our strong administrative team that keeps us functioning.
ELi provided important coverage from the start to finish of 2023 through 393 original reports from seven local reporters and four photojournalists.
Wall to wall, 2023 was a busy year for news in East Lansing.
Weeks into the year, a student dropped a gun in front of a teacher following a fight at East Lansing High School, which triggered cries for a new safety policy from students, parents and teachers over the ensuing months. The ELi team brought stories that uncovered a concerning pattern of violence in the schools, the developing safety plan and expert testimony on how to address discipline in a school setting.
Sticking in the schools, it was a year of constant turnover in East Lansing. ELi brought in-depth reporting about the departure of East Lansing High School Principal Shannon Mayfield after it was found he lied about obtaining a doctorate degree, and why district leadership picked Ashley Schwarzbek as his eventual replacement. The school board saw revolving leadership, with our reporting team announcing the departure of three different members and introducing the community to the new members who replaced them.
City government saw a shakeup when former City Manager George Lahanas reached a separation agreement with the city. ELi monitored the search process, brought reports on the backgrounds of finalists, covered the meeting where Robert Belleman was voted to be the new city manager and broke down the details of Belleman’s contract.
It was another election year in East Lansing and ELi once again provided unrivaled coverage on local candidates. Over the months-long campaign season, we announced as candidates entered the field, what their priorities would be and provided a look at how campaigns were being financed and spending their resources.
As always, ELi offered coverage from city board and commission meetings that let our readers know about proposals and developments in the city in their infant stages. Many of these meetings are not broadcasted or covered by other media outlets, but offer insight on how proposals develop before reaching CIty Council.
Our reporters in 2023 included Alice Dreger, Dustin DuFort Petty, Luke Day, Mya Gregory, Sarah Spohn, Mara Logan and Elijah Taub. The reporting team was led by Managing Editor Julie Seraphinoff.
ELi’s stories contained powerful visual components thanks to four talented photographers who contributed last year. Dylan Lees was our main photographer, while Brian Wells regularly helped out, and Gary Caldwell and Quinn Martin each took on some important assignments.
For a more complete look at ELi’s work last year, check out our 2023 summary story here.
ELi is overseen by a voluntary Board of Directors.
In 2023 the ELi Board of Directors focused much of their time on the leadership transition at ELi. We thank Board President Chuck Grigsby, Karessa Weir, Cody Harrell, Nathan Andrus and Adan Tomas Quan for their steadfast service to the organization in 2023.
Currently, ELi is looking to add four board members. Those interested can apply here.
A look at ELi’s finances
Expenses in 2023 came to a total of $193,803.28.
The majority of ELi expenses went to pay their reporters and administrative team, representing about 92% of the total expenses at $178,850. ELi operates as a fully remote organization, with no brick and mortar costs or hefty overhead expenses. In 2023 operating expenses totaled $14,953. These expenses include things like accounting costs, bookkeeping software, subscriptions to news organizations like LION and INN, office supplies, postage, FOIA costs, printing expenses, website hosting, insurance, legal services, and event expenses.
Here is a breakdown of ELi’s 2023 expenses:
| Expense | Cost |
| Staffing | $178,850 |
| Insurance | $3,893 |
| Printing | $3,248 |
| Postage | $1,668 |
| Paychex | $1,571 |
| Meals/refreshments | $789 |
| Accountant | $689 |
| Subscriptions | $658 |
| Office supplies | $656 |
| Advertising/promotion | $460 |
| Reporting expenses | $401 |
| QuickBooks | $360 |
| Website | $234 |
| MailChimp | $177 |
| Professional development | $150 |
Our total income in 2023 was $167,375.
This included $26,891 in recurring donations, $91,303 in one time donations, $18,500 from Insider annual subscriptions, $7,180 from money raised for the Investigative News Fund, and $23,500 in grants (mostly NewsMatch).
Our year end campaign raised funds to sustain ELi for the coming year. Committed donors gave more than $42,000 in matching funds in order to encourage other donors, including new donors, to contribute. We were granted a $3,000 bonus from the Knight Community Fund because of our match contribution amount. We also qualified for the NewsMatch grant of $15,000, bringing our annual campaign total to just over $122,000. We attracted 42 new donors during this campaign. Though we did not meet our fundraising goal of $200,000, we are thankful to our donors and community who rallied behind us to make this campaign happen.
The entire team at ELi looks forward to serving the community and bringing the news in 2024! If you’d like to join us in sustaining ELi by making a one time or monthly commitment, please visit our Donate page. Thank you for your readership and your commitment to East Lansing!