2026-07-30T10:01:07-07:00 2025-12-31 990 2025-01-01 933138185 BEACON MEDIA BEAC 9198693080 PO Box 162 Hilsborough NC 27278 Matthew Hughes Finance 9199284480 2026-07-31 2025 2025-03-06 01:10:19Z Matt Hughes PO Box 1406 Hillsborough NC 27278 428012 0 X www.beaconmedianc.org X 2023 NC To promote public education, we will partner with existing media outlets across platforms to share the ideas and voices of those advocating for a more equitable democracy throughout North Carolina. Beacon Media aims to make these ideas and supporting information more available and accessible in communities where the media predominantly represents other viewpoints or limits information that citizens should be able to access. We will also syndicate other forms of stories and content related to our mission to inform rural and exurban area communities through local media outlets. In addition, Beacon Media will conduct an educational program for grassroots and other community leaders whose important voices are underrepresented in mainstream media and other public fora. Beacon Media will provide such persons training and workshops to help them develop better written and oral communication skills so that they become better public advocates for their ideas and communities. 7 7 3 0 0 0 218253 428012 0 0 0 0 0 0 218253 428012 0 0 0 0 88991 215504 15000 31130 36506 40461 67007 144452 313641 73801 114371 125050 237120 0 0 125050 237120 To promote public education, we will partner with existing media outlets across platforms to share the ideas and voices of those advocating for a more equitable democracy throughout North Carolina. Beacon Media aims to make these ideas and supporting information more available and accessible in communities where the media predominantly represents other viewpoints or limits information that citizens should be able to access. We will also syndicate other forms of stories and content related to our mission to inform rural and exurban area communities through local media outlets. In addition, Beacon Media will conduct an educational program for grassroots and other community leaders whose important voices are underrepresented in mainstream media and other public fora. Beacon Media will provide such persons training and workshops to help them develop better written and oral communication skills so that they become better public advocates for their ideas and communities. 0 0 146098 0 146098 Beacon Media's Radio + Digital initiative (social media and digital channels coupled with radio syndication) goes beyond the typical digital-only approach to ensure that our content and voices reach underserved audiences at the community level. This strategy across North Carolina offers a significant opportunity to reach underserved and under-communicated audiences, including rural, Latino, Black, and working-class communities, and present a vision for a more inclusive democracy. In 2025, Beacon began brainstorming for a new Radio + Digital show partnership with two young mayors from Western North Carolina, Preston Blakely and Dalton George. Both are excellent examples of the kinds of leaders and trusted messengers who Beacon Media is building around to ensure those who have the most at stake in our democracy have the platform and support to tell their stories directly and persuade new and often disengaged audiences that they, too, have a stake in our collective future. We began pre-production work and developed a partnership for a podcast called Do You Even Live Here? to deliver vital storytelling to rural audiences in Western North Carolina and grow and develop these key voices. We also continued progress on our El Faro Radio + Digital initiative, serving North Carolina's diverse, widespread Latino community in English and Spanish across the state. Beacon Media's Spanish and English-language Latino community media initiative, El Faro, has gained considerable momentum and began to develop key relationships and shift narratives beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025. The project, which is primarily social media-first across channels and is working to build into a regular podcast and grow its audience through a more robust social media presence, is designed to meet the urgent information needs of Latino communities across North Carolina. 42918 0 42918 Beacon Media continued to work with our Beacon Voices cohort throughout 2025, talented grassroots leaders whose vision and voice will lead to a better North Carolina. Beacon produces regular weekly columns and syndicates them to more than 100 newspapers across the state, reaching marginalized audiences in rural areas, along with Black and Latino communities. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we also began a push to increase our Voices presence and narrative on social media, including in Spanish and to North Carolina's Spanish-language newspapers and outlets. Beacon Media's Executive Director met frequently with those Voices to develop pro-democracy messaging and content to diagnose a difficult moment in American democracy and provide a vision for the future. Those Voices included but were not limited to the Rev. C.J. Brinson, Gwen Frisbie-Fulton, Stevie Brooks, Kimberly Jones, Sam Grote, Melissa Castillo and others. In late 2025, Beacon Media expanded its model to include planning for a new hyperlocal site alongside partner We Are Down Home in Franklin and Granville Counties, North Carolina. Aside from its El Faro Latino community media initiative, which delivers key reporting alongside values-based commentary in English and Spanish, the hyperlocal media model called County Beacon will allow for Beacon Media to contribute reporting of key civic information where it matters most: at the community level. 61712 61712 Beacon Media continued to make substantial progress toward its fundraising goals in 2025 and was able to onboard its first additional full-time employees, an El Faro Associate Producer and our Community Media Liaison to expand Beacon Media's programming and reach. Key investments from Way to Rise, Rural Democracy Initiative and the Marguerite Casey Foundation and individual donors across North Carolina allowed Beacon Media to continue and expand its mission to reach marginalized communities with the information and vision of a brighter future that NC's communities need to thrive. 0 0 0 250728 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 17 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 X Jeremy Borden 7037953824 PO Box 162 Hilsborough NC 27278 Justin Clayton Director 1 0 X 0 0 0 Akilah Ensley Director 1 0 X 0 0 0 Mike Figueras Director 1 0 X 0 0 0 Pope McCorkle Director 1 0 X 0 0 0 Brandy Bynum Dawson Chair 1 0 X 0 0 0 Kimberly Meyer Secretary 1 0 X 0 0 0 Brooks Fuller Treasurer 1 0 X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 303000 125012 0 428012 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 428012 0 0 0 X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 120000 114000 6000 0 0 0 0 0 78623 74692 3931 0 0 0 0 0 800 800 0 0 16081 13015 804 2262 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1504 1504 0 0 0 0 0 0 31130 31130 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 239 0 239 0 8545 5805 2740 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5246 1715 3024 507 0 0 0 0 5094 316 4674 104 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 46379 38881 4995 2503 313641 250728 26407 36506 125050 237120 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 125050 237120 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 903 0 124147 237120 125050 237120 125050 237120 X 114371 0 0 0 0 -2301 X 0 0 0 X 0 0 51312 218253 428012 697577 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 51312 218253 428012 697577 0 697577 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 697577 0 1 1 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED X X 1 Trost Strategies LLC 409 Caswell Beach Road Oak Island NC 28645 Assisted the organization with donor proposals to non-governmental funders and individual donors. 0 428012 30130 397882 428012 30130 397882 NC Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b The organization's executive director reviews the Form 990 prior to submission and Board members receive the submitted Form 990 for awareness and informational purposes. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 15 The Executive Director's salary is determined by the Board of Directors as part of its annual budgeting process. Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 No changes were made. Form 990, Part IX, Line 24e Additional expenses include: special event expenses, bank fees, government filing fees, payroll administration, printing and copying services, and dues & subscriptions. Form 990, Part XI, Line 9 Change in assets related to fixed assets on the Statement of Financial Position. The organization received an automatic extension.