Since 2008, Mission Local, an independent news site based in the Mission District, has been focused on high-impact, enterprise reporting on everything from police reform to corruption at City Hall, housing, and the gig economy. Core to our mission is training the next generation of journalists who reflect the diversity of San Francisco.
Because we’re based in the city’s oldest (and arguably, best) neighborhood we also chronicle the lives and changes here, but often, what is happening in the Mission is happening across San Francisco.
Originally a project of UC Berkeley’s Journalism School, we struck out on our own in 2014. In the summer of 2018, we became a fiscally sponsored project.
We kept growing and in October 2022, the IRS granted Mission Local SF (EIN: 88-3177547) status as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (retroactive to July 1, 2022). All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
We’re delighted to have the help of a superb group of advisors on our Board of Directors. You can read about them here.
Throughout our journey, our goals have not changed. We aspire to be a model of local, self-sustaining, fiercely independent news – one that trains young journalists who reflect the diversity of the city.
We continue to believe sustainability comes from our readers. You keep us here doing excellent work. You can find a list of all of our supporters here.
If you prefer checks to online donations, you can make out checks to Mission Local SF and send them to 2489 Mission St. #22, SF, CA. 94110. Any questions? Call us at 415-275-4739 or contact me at lydia.chavez@missionlocal.com.
Site illustrations: The man above our What To Do listing and the sweeper at the end of each story are illustrations done by Rini Templeton, an activist artist who did thousands of illustrations and allowed organizations and individuals to use them as open-sourced artwork. She died in 1986 in Mexico City. Some of her illustrations are kept online here.
We want to hear from you! Send your tips, story ideas, and unique perspectives to tips@missionlocal.com.
We Promise to:
- Offer original, transparent reporting.
- Admit and correct our mistakes.
- Cover everyone in the neighborhood.
- Experiment on how best to make civic issues meaningful.
- Train a workforce that reflects the diversity of the city.
Our full policy on editorial independence is here. Our privacy policy is here.
Where we are
Our Address: 2489 Mission Street #22, 94110, San Francisco
Our Telephone Number.: 1-415-374-7329
Best way to reach us: info@missionlocal.com
Timeline
2023 November – Mission Local wins three awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. We are finalists for three awards from the San Francisco Press Club.
2023 August – Lion Publishers names Mission Local a finalist for the Outstanding Coverage Award.
2023 August – Mission Local celebrates its Quinceañera with a 15-day fundraising drive.
2023 August. Will Jarrett’s Killer Robots series wins the Institute for Nonprofit News award for Community Champion Award
2023 July – The Institute for Nonprofit News names Mission Local’s Will Jarrett is one of three finalists for his reporting on Killer Robots and the city’s U-turn.
2022 December – Mission Local picks up four prizes from the San Francisco Press Club, including two for Managing Editor Joe Eskenazi, one for police reporter Eleni Balakrishnan and one for a project produced by Molly Oleson, Sindya Bhanoo and Hélène Goupil.
2022 November – Mission Local’s data reporter Will Jarrett wins the SPJ of Northern California’s award for data journalism and Andrew Gilbert who contributes culture coverage wins for culture reporting.
2022 September – Mission Local wins the Online News Association award for General Excellence for micro newsrooms.
2022 September – Mission Local wins the Insight Award from the Institute of Nonprofit News for Garbage Odyssey by Lydia Chávez and edited by Joe Eskenazi and Sandra Salmans.
2022 August – Mission Local announces an inaugural board of directors to oversee its new nonprofit.
2021 July – Mission Local wins an APEX award for the pandemic project, “How Do We Survive,” supported by the Pulitzer Center.
2021 May – Julian Mark wins the Social Justice Award from the Ethnic Media Awards contest for his piece, “Maurice Caldwell had his conviction overturned a decade ago: city attorney says he’s a killer.”
2021 March – “Testing the Limits,” a series of heavily reported stories spread over the course of months earned Mission Local a semi-final nod in the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism.
2021 February – Julian Mark wins outstanding emerging journalist from the Northern California Socitey of Professional Journalists
2020 October – Mission Local wins Best of the Bay award for best website.
2020 March – Mission Local begins a texting service for monolingual Spanish speakers during the pandemic to send real-time news in Spanish.
2019 October – Our managing editor Joe Eskenazi is named journalist of the year.
2018 Fall – Mission Local celebrates 10 years!
2018 October – Mission Local wins three top awards from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists
2018 Summer – We’re in the process of becoming a fiscally sponsored, non-profit project.
2018 Summer – Joe Eskenazi, formerly with SF Weekly and SF Magazine, becomes Managing Editor
2017 Fall – Instead of covering crime, we focus on covering the SFPD and how it works.
2016 November – In the race for District 9 Supervisor, a civic engagement project – 43 Questions – runs for 43 weeks and ends in a public forum.
2015/2016 – The community helps photograph every block in the Mission for Good Morning Mission.
2015 October – Daniel Hirsch, Andrea Valencia, Laura Wenus and Lydia Chavez of Mission Local win the SPJ NORCAL Excellence in Journalism Award for Community Journalism for “their broad, in-depth coverage of San Francisco’s Mission District, with a strong focus on how housing issues affect residents.”
2015 March – Mission Local moves into a new space at 19th and Mission.
2015 January – The 108-year-old building where Mission local’s offices are located is damaged in a fire that leaves one dead and dozens of tenants and businesses homeless.
Mission Local produces numerous articles covering the fire including two in-depth investigative pieces on the owner.
The staff finds temporary refuge with neighbors Mission Bicycle and the data analysis team Wagon.
2014 October – We redesign and add new features. We also start selling business and reader memberships.
2014 September – CBS local names Mission local as one of the best local blogs in the Bay Area. We’re pleased, but we’re not a blog!
2014 June – We’re officially Mission Local Inc. We publish a print edition of historical pieces.
2014 February – Ed Wasserman, a new dean at Berkeley’s J-school decides that “The curricular value (of Mission Local) to our students is limited or even, at times, non-existent.” He stops funding for the hyperlocals during school breaks or vacations.
We disagree about the value, and spin Mission Local off as its own independent, media enterprise.
2013 March – Rent Increases mean Mission Local moves to 2588 Mission Street.
2011 Fall – Mission Loc@l becomes Mission Local.
2011 September – Streetfight writes about Mission Local as the “Hyperlocal That Gets Its Right”.
2010 Fall – Mission Local is a Finalist for SPJ’s National Mark of Excellence Award.
2010 May – Mission Local wins first place for Region SPJ on How Clean Are San Francisco Restaurants? – by Mission Loc@l Staff, University of California, Berkeley. The series changes the citywide restaurant inspection policy.
2009 Fall – We begin a collaboration with SFGate, posting our stories on their local blogs with link backs to Mission Local.
The concrete sculptures on 20th Street won’t budge from their space so we find new offices on Treat and 17th Streets.
2009 August – KQED notices our on-the-ground reporting of the changes on Mission Street.
2009 June – Mission Local wins Webby Award for the best student news site in the country.
2009 March – Mission Local begins translating all of its content into Spanish.
2009 January – We get our first office in the Mission on 20th Street, sharing 600 square feet with some enormous concrete garden sculptures.
2008 October – Launched as a project of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Great stories, but no one is reading us.