Dear John,

 Ever since Covid’s severity became clear, our newsroom has been tracking its immediate impact on the mission and finances of every nonprofit and foundation. But our focus is also on the long-lasting impact of the health and economic crisis — especially amid the reckoning over racial justice.

I’m excited to tell you about a range of efforts we have under way that will help your organizations grapple with what comes next – including an ambitious new effort to raise the profile of nonprofits in this crucial moment of recovery and rebuilding.

Coming up next week are two live briefings I hope you’ll join:

Melanie Lundquist, a prolific donor who with her husband, Richard, has committed to giving at least half their fortune away through the Giving Pledge, joins my colleague Maria Di Mento on Wednesday (September 30) to talk about what big donors can do to help the nation rebuild and recover. Her insights will help you better understand how to talk to supporters about the ways they can make a difference, and you’ll be able to pose questions in the live briefing.

Lucy Bernholz, a Stanford scholar and author of our five-part Reimagining Philanthropy series, will be joined in conversation on Thursday (October 1) by two philanthropy leaders – Crystal Hayling, of the Libra Foundation, and Cheryl Dorsey, of Echoing Green. A second conversation about the series will be held in mid-October so watch your email for registration information.

We also tackled this issue in our latest magazine cover story, posted online this week, as Jim Rendon talked to dozens of nonprofits about how they’re reinventing themselves in bold and imaginative ways.

“The concrete is wet right now in a way that I've never seen in my career. There's a lot more opportunity now to reimagine,” Henry Timms, CEO of Lincoln Center told Jim.

His organization is shifting to become more of a civic institution, as well as a cultural one, and he thinks other groups need to think about similar shifts. “My prediction is, in three years' time, when we look back at this period, there'll be a real difference between those organizations who saw this as just a pause, and those organizations who saw this as a chance to reframe their work,” he said.

If you need help planning for the future with your colleagues, board members, or others, I hope you’ll listen to the briefing we did last week about how to plan in this time of turbulence.

A New Partnership to Elevate the Profile of Nonprofits

The Chronicle is embarking on a partnership to bring the vital work of nonprofits to a much wider audience. Working with the Associated Press and the Conversation — a nonprofit that serves as a link between the news industry and academe by bringing university research and commentary to a mass-media audience — we will expand the volume of fair and accurate coverage of individuals and organizations committed to advancing the common good.

Supported with a three-year, $3.6 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, our three organizations will work together to help Americans better understand how their donations and volunteerism make a difference. We believe such coverage is crucial to helping the public understand the importance philanthropy plays in the recovery and rebuilding work needed in the wake of the health and economic crisis as well as America’s reckoning on racial-justice issues. Read more about our plans in this announcement.

Enhancing the Chronicle’s Commitment to Diversity

Meanwhile, at the Chronicle we’ve been doing a lot of our own internal work to ensure we’re always improving our coverage to better serve you. This week we released an independent study that analyzed the gender, race, generation, and geographic location of those we quoted in our articles and the people who wrote opinion articles for us in the past three years. It is helping us set a baseline for improvement, but it is also a challenge to the nonprofit world because as it changes so, too, will the diversity of the people we quote.

You can read a letter from me about why we did this study – one of the first comprehensive reports like this to be conducted and disclosed by a media organization – and more background.

We’ve also been hard at work retooling our website so you’ll find information much faster – plus get other benefits we’re excited to tell you about. Look for another update from me soon.

As we get deeper into a crucial period for all nonprofits and foundations, with everything from a national election to year-end fundraising season setting the agenda, we’ll be doing all we can to help you keep up with the insights you need to carry out your essential missions.

Stay well and stay strong.

Stacy Palmer
Editor
Chronicle of Philanthropy
1255 Twenty-Third St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037

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