The New York Times will now also be competing for philanthropic funding for journalism.

On the heels of the Guardian’s Monday announcement that it would be setting up a U.S.-based philanthropic arm to raise money from individuals and organizations, the Times announced on Friday that Times veteran Janet Elder will helm a new division focused on securing nonprofit funding sources for its journalism, as well as potential local partners.

NYT launches new philanthropic arm for outside support of NYT journalism & local news partners. Newsroom powerhouse Janet Elder to helm

— jimrutenberg (@jimrutenberg) September 1, 2017

From the Times’s press release on the direction of new initiative:

Some easy possibilities come to mind. The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, for example, has nurtured a generation of minority journalists who have enriched our newsroom. Perhaps with additional support the program can help develop talent for the industry as a whole. We also believe that The Times can help with the growing crisis in local news coverage by partnering with other institutions around the country. But mainly, we think there are journalism projects we are eager to pursue that could be more ambitious and have greater impact with outside support.

As was the case when the Guardian formally announced theguardian.org, some questions immediately arose about the increased competition for nonprofit funding of journalism:

Interesting. Will compete for foundation $$ with independent shops like ProPublica, who really need and deserve it. https://t.co/19TSEj3YDV

— Juleyka (@JuleykaLantigua) September 1, 2017