Dear Reader,
I have exciting news to share about the Chronicle’s next chapter: We’re now a nonprofit organization, officially recognized by the IRS, and we will soon spin off from our parent company of more than three decades, the Chronicle of Higher Education.
We embarked on this change as part of an expansive growth plan because we know we need to find ways to serve you and others throughout this diverse sector even better — especially by providing insights tailored to your professional needs and the ways you want to learn.
At the same time, we are also committed to doing more to call the public’s attention to the crucial role nonprofits and foundations play in solving problems, reknitting our social fabric, and enriching the cultural and educational vitality of our neighborhoods, the country, and communities around the globe.
Becoming an independent nonprofit enables us to put a laser-like focus on making a difference to people who work to make our society better for all. And it means doing more to understand and explain the challenges people throughout the nonprofit world face and how best to overcome them.
That understanding has helped us produce coverage to advance the field in important and yet different ways. In our data and research work, we commissioned an exclusive survey to pinpoint the challenges fundraisers face — and report on what solutions might work. In our investigative journalism, we looked at how nonprofits helped fuel the opioid crisis. And in our opinion section, we lifted up a broad range of voices like Damion Cooper, a Baltimore nonprofit leader whose poignant essay Why Must I Relive My Deepest Trauma to Convince Donors to Fund My Organization? was among our best-read articles of the past year.
Since we told you about our transition to nonprofit status last spring, we have made significant progress in building our leadership team. Last month, our first-ever chief revenue officer, Rodney Mahone, started devising strategies to help us expand our audience and provide a suite of new products and services. We also named Sundra Hominik, a Chronicle senior editor, to serve as director of partnerships so we can build more ties to other journalism organizations eager to do reporting on the nonprofit world.
We’re also expanding our journalism team, recruiting candidates who can ensure we are increasingly responsive to the stories and needs of a sector that is evolving rapidly.
As I assured you when we first announced our plan to become an independent organization, our commitment to accuracy, integrity, and fairness remains unchanged.
And, as part of that commitment, we pledge to be as transparent as possible. We know that transparency is crucial for all nonprofits, but especially for journalism organizations, so we will always disclose information about our sources of funding, our governing board, and how we decide what support to accept from foundations and private donors. You can be assured that none of our supporters have ever had any role in deciding what topics or articles we report, and they don’t know what is in our articles until we publish them — just like you.
To help you learn more about our new nonprofit, we have posted on our website a copy of the form we used to apply to the IRS, and we’ll add our informational tax return to the site as soon as it is available.
We also plan to hold listening tours, opportunities for you to share your thoughts about our work and how we can do better. Stay tuned for details later this spring.
Thank you for reading our articles, attending our online briefings, and engaging with us in in other ways. We look forward to doing all we can to help you advance the common good.
Please feel free to drop me a line about any ideas you have about ways we can serve the nonprofit world better.
Stacy Palmer, Editor