The Associated Press, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Conversation announced today funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help the news organizations cover philanthropies and charities and their impact on society.
The funding includes a $2.75 million grant to The Conversation, which will act as a fiscal sponsor for funds to support AP’s coverage of philanthropy. An additional $2.2 million grant will be given to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Both grants will support the organizations’ collaboration to expand fair and accurate coverage of the nonprofit world to strengthen public awareness of the perspectives, approaches and people trying to advance the common good through philanthropy.
Each organization will regularly produce independent journalism and add staff to provide more robust news and analysis of the philanthropic world.
This builds on a 2020 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to The Conversation that helped launch collaboration among all three organizations to strengthen reporting, analysis and commentary about the philanthropic sector.
AP will add two journalists to its team already covering philanthropy: a reporter dedicated to covering disaster aid and relief, and a reporter who will cover Gen Z trends in giving and technology’s impact on philanthropy.
“This collaboration will give AP the ability to provide important and insightful reporting that goes far beyond philanthropy. We will cover all the aspects of education, health care, business, disaster relief and technology that are affected by private donations and volunteerism,” said AP Deputy for Newsgathering Michael Giarrusso. “We look forward to continuing to build on our work with The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Conversation, and are pleased that Lilly Endowment has renewed its funding for this effort.”
The grant to The Conversation will help it retain an editor assigned to philanthropy stories and will support the organization’s efforts to collaborate and conduct outreach and engagement around the joint reporting effort including the development of a philanthropy newsletter featuring the reporting and analysis produced by the three organizations.
“The Conversation is thrilled that Lilly Endowment will continue to fund this important collaboration with The Associated Press and The Chronicle of Philanthropy to explain and examine the important work of foundations and nonprofits,” said Bruce Wilson, chief innovation and development officer at The Conversation. “The first three-year grant proved the impact a grant like this can have on covering this sector and sharing it with broad and demographically diverse audiences.”
The grant to The Chronicle of Philanthropy will support the organization’s director of partnerships, three editorial team members, and bolster the organization’s fellowship program that awards local journalism organizations an opportunity to develop in-depth reporting around notable nonprofit and philanthropic topics of importance to their regions.
“We are excited that this grant will provide us even more opportunities to inform the public about the work nonprofits and foundations do every day to meet urgent challenges and enable us to partner with even more local journalists to train them to cover the social sector with sophistication,” said Stacy Palmer, CEO of The Chronicle of Philanthropy. “Going forward, we will be particularly focused on surfacing local nonprofit solutions with the potential to expand and transform communities nationwide.”
AP works with a variety of philanthropic organizations, including Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Report for America and others, to expand coverage and reach new audiences. In all such collaborations, AP retains complete editorial control of all journalism.
AP’s standards for working with outside groups are available online: http://apne.ws/lt9xQ2C
About AP
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day. Online: www.ap.org
About The Conversation
The Conversation US launched in October 2014 with funding from six foundations. It is an independent source of commentary and analysis from the academic and research community, delivered direct to the public. A team of professional editors work with academic scholars to unlock their knowledge to then be shared with the wider public. Access to trusted, independent, high quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism is critical to a functioning democracy. Our goal is to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues leading to a better quality of public discourse. Visit theconversation.com/us.
ABOUT THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has the largest newsroom in the U.S. dedicated to covering foundations and nonprofits. Founded in 1988, the Chronicle became an independent nonprofit in April 2023 after it spun off from its parent organization, the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers news, insight, analysis, and trends as well as professional development for people who work in the social sector. What’s more, its work helps the public better understand the consequential role the social sector plays in communities, the nation, and around the world, with the goal that such knowledge will prompt everyone to do more to engage with nonprofits. Its gift-acceptance policy is available online.
ABOUT LILLY ENDOWMENT INC.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. Although the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. Visit lillyendowment.org/
CONTACT
Nicole Meir
Media Relations Manager
The Associated Press
212-621-7536
nmeir@ap.org
