Four news outlets and a student newspaper to receive yearlong training to bolster coverage of nonprofit accountability and solutions

At a moment when the nation’s nonprofits and philanthropies are facing tectonic shifts because of economic, policy, demographic and environmental changes, it’s more important than ever that local communities understand what all that disruption means for residents.”

Chronicle chief executive Stacy Palmer

News organizations that are working to examine the impact of federal policy changes on their communities and the ways nonprofits are responding to new patterns of natural disasters caused by climate change in rural areas have been named to receive the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy & Nonprofit Accountability Fellowship.

The Chronicle’s competitive program was created to train journalists at local news organizations around the country to improve their coverage of the role of nonprofits, foundations and others involved in advancing the social good, one of the most under-covered — but crucial — sectors of American life.

The local newsrooms selected in this fourth year of the fellowship will each receive $30,000 to help advance their coverage of nonprofits and philanthropy. Teams will develop coverage that will help local residents, policymakers, donors and volunteers better understand how nonprofits work and what could help them do even more to solve problems. Journalists at each news organization receive training and mentoring from Chronicle editors and reporters and coaching from national nonprofit and journalism experts. Funding supports teams that include editors and reporters, with the goal that the journalists will share their learning newsroom-wide.

The organizations receiving this year’s fellowship:

• Black Voice News, a news organization that covers Southern California’s Inland Empire, which will report on the ways policies outlined in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — such as changes to health care, immigration, criminal justice, environmental justice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion — are affecting Black communities and how local nonprofits are responding.  The publication has been operating for nearly 52 years and covers the economic, cultural and social issues that define the lives of Black people in Southern California’s Inland Empire
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the largest daily newspaper in Wisconsin, which will examine the impact of government funding cuts on organizations that serve Wisconsin’s victims of domestic violence and other crimes. The newspaper has won several Pulitzer Prizes, and in 2024 it won a Gerald Loeb Award for coverage of landlord-tenant issues.
• 9 Millones, a Puerto Rico-based independent news organization, which will explore how the small size of Puerto Rico’s philanthropic community impacts the work of its nonprofits. It will also report on nonprofits that are using collective tenancy to fight displacement and that are experimenting with land trusts and banks as solutions. The news organization, which issues its coverage in English and Spanish, was launched in 2020 to report on health issues during the pandemic.
• Smoky Mountain News, a weekly independent newspaper in North Carolina, will examine the challenges that three nonprofits in the state faced during their ongoing response to Hurricane Helene and how they are preparing for a future with a higher likelihood of natural disasters and fewer federal resources. The newspaper covers four mostly rural counties in the mountains of Western North Carolina and has received several investigative and enterprise reporting awards from the North Carolina Press Association.

The Chronicle also made a special $10,000 award to The Breeze, the student newspaper at Chaffey College, in Rancho Cucamonga, California, to enable it to examine how the institution is using a $25 million unrestricted grant from the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in 2021.

“At a moment when the nation’s nonprofits and philanthropies are facing tectonic shifts because of economic, policy, demographic and environmental changes, it’s more important than ever that local communities understand what all that disruption means for residents,” said Chronicle chief executive Stacy Palmer. “We’re excited so many news organizations proposed ambitious plans for coverage and that we have the opportunity to work with journalists committed to exploring what matters most to their audiences.”

Past participants in the training program have produced essential coverage on a wide range of topics that affect their communities. The Flatwater Free Press in Omaha examined how Warren Buffett’s fortune will flow to the philanthropic priorities of his children. In Virginia, the Henrico Citizen examined ways nonprofits have worked to resettle a surge of refugees in their county.

Since 1988, the Chronicle has been the premier source of news, information, analysis and opinion in the nonprofit world. Nearly 350,000 nonprofit professionals, foundation executives, board members, fundraisers, donors and others working to advance the common good rely on it to stay informed, learn and broaden their perspective. As part of its bold plan to innovate and expand its coverage of the, the Chronicle became an independent nonprofit organization two years ago.

Applications for the next round of the fellowship will open in January 2026.