Outlet profile

CalMatters

U.S. center-left (nonprofit, California-focused)

Owned byIndependent 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Sacramento, California. No individual or company owns it, and a board of directors governs it. Neil Chase has been CEO since 2019.

FundingMostly philanthropic. It gets grants and donations from foundations and wealthy individuals, along with membership gifts, event income and fees from media partners that republish its work. It has said it received over $50 million in grants from about 100 funders between 2019 and 2025. Donors credited with $1 million or more include the Knight, Walton Family, James Irvine, Hilton, Blue Shield of California and California Health Care foundations, Ann and John Doerr, the Emerson Collective, and Simone Otus and Tench Coxe. In April 2026 it won a $9 million award from the Trust in American Institutions Challenge, backed by Reid Hoffman and run by Lever for Change.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

CalMatters (first styled CALmatters) was founded in 2015 by Simone Coxe, Chris Boskin and David Lesher. It began as a nonprofit that covered the California Legislature and state policy, and it works without a paywall. Dan Morain, a longtime Sacramento Bee editor, joined in 2018 as editor. Neil Chase became CEO in 2019. The outlet grew through foundation grants and now runs a statewide newsroom with reporters covering health, housing, education, the economy, the environment and elections. It also operates the Digital Democracy tool, which tracks legislation and hearings. Its content is offered free to hundreds of California news outlets that republish it, which gives it wide reach. Critics, including some conservative and libertarian groups, say its donor base is liberal-leaning and that its coverage favors Democratic policies. Media-bias raters generally describe its news reporting as fact-based, though its opinion section and story selection draw mild left-of-center characterizations. It describes itself as nonpartisan, and the fair reading is that its reporting is factual and accountability-focused, with a modestly center-left sensibility. During Trump's second term it has largely covered federal actions through their effects on California, such as immigration enforcement, federal funding, health care and tariffs, and these stories often show the state's costs and its legal responses.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-21; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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