Annual Report 2017

If we built it would they come? That was our concern prior to SJN’s inaugural Solutions Summit, which we convened in the shadow of Utah’s Wasatch mountains in early November 2017. It was our first attempt to bring members of our emerging tribe together.

Read the Letter from the Founders >

Our Impact

in 2017

Curriculum | Newsroom Practice Change | Journalist Practice Change | Knowledge Dissemination
Curriculum

Our core training in solutions journalism is the foundationof all we do.

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TOPLINE STATS

10,297

total journalists trained in person or online

4

languages in which Learning Lab can be accessed (so far)

Case Study: "Richland Source"

Newsroom Practice Change

Our partnerships with news organizations around the country—and now, around the world—form the backbone of the network.

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TOPLINE STATS

140  newsrooms with broad institutional and editorial support for solutions journalism

6 collaboratives, encompassing 57 print, digital, radio, and broadcast news outlets

44%

of engaged newsrooms regularly produce solutions journalism.

Added our first broadcast partner newsroom

Journalist Practice Change

How do we drive the adoption of solutions journalism among individual journalists?

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TOPLINE STATS

1,077

Hub members

7

local communities

44%

increase in Twitter followers, to 11,485

1,314  Facebook group members

14 journalism schools teaching solutions journalism

KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION

A critical mass of solutions journalism, distributed via the Solutions Story Tracker®, and targeted products such as SolutionsU®, drives more productive public discourse and change how citizens engage with social issues.

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TOPLINE STATS

2,800

stories

in the Solutions Story Tracker®, our searchable archive of solutions journalism.

56

non-journalism university courses integrating solutions journalism

6

student and faculty workshops, reaching nearly 350 teachers and learners.

40+

presentations at conferences and industry events, including the Obama Foundation Summit, the Google News Lab Summit, and the International Festival of Journalism

Spreading

the Practice

2017Financial

updates

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Total revenue was $5.3 million, up from $4.9 million in 2016.

Cash payments made to newsroom partners were $998,000, up from $964,000 in 2016.

Organizationalcapacity

updates

SJN continued to strive to meet best practices in non-profit administration.

• SJN launched an expansion that will enlarge our staff by 50% in 2018, with the biggest increases in our newsroom and finance/admin teams.

• We contracted with Angela Park, a respected consultant, to help launch an organization-wide initiative on diversity, equity and inclusion.• Honeyguide Media, which was previously fiscally sponsored by SJN, received its tax-exempt status from the IRS and became an independent organization.• SJN was pleased to retain EisnerAmper as its independent auditor in 2017. In addition, SJN continued to retain Kiwi Partners for selected accounting support.

Funding partners

Our People

Team & Members

Volunteer City Coordinators

Michaela Haas

Los Angeles Coordinator

Ruksana Hussain

Los Angeles Coordinator

Alison Krupnick

Puget Sound Coordinator

David Lippoff

Portland Coordinator

Gregory Scruggs

Puget Sound Coordinator

Sandi Villareal

DC Coordinator

Board Members

David Boardman

(Chair of the Board) is Dean of the School of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia. Previously, he was Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of The Seattle Times, the largest news organization in the Pacific Northwest.

David Bornstein

SJN’s co-founder and CEO, is a journalist and author who focuses on social innovation. He co-authors the “Fixes” column in the New York Times “Opinionator” section, which explores and analyzes potential solutions to major social problems.

Susan Davis

is an author, public speaker and a civil society thought leader on social entrepreneurship and sustainable development. For the last decade, Davis was the co-founder, President and CEO of BRAC USA, an independent North American affiliate of the anti-poverty development organization begun in Bangladesh.

Dean Furbush

(Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee) is former CEO of ScrollMotion, Inc., a New York-based technology firm. From 2007 to 2012, Dean served as President of College Summit, a non-profit organization that increases college enrollment and college success for students in low-income high schools, by transforming high school culture.

Nathalie Kylander

is a managing director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, an SJN funder. A biochemist, an MBA, and a PhD, she has worked extensively in both the private and social sectors over the course of her 30-year career, becoming one of the world’s leading experts on nonprofit brand management.

Barnaby Marsh

is the co-founder of Saint Partners and was a key creativity leader in the development of the $3 billion John Templeton Foundation. He currently holds visiting appointments at Harvard University and at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

Courtney E. Martin

an author, blogger, and speaker living in Oakland, is the author of The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream. She is the recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and a residency from the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre.

Tina Rosenberg

an SJN co-founder, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. She co-authors the “Fixes” column in the New York Times “Opinionator” section. She is a former editorial writer for the New York Times and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.

Trabian Shorters

is a social entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in diverse fields including national service, technology, non-profit, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. In 2011, he launched BMe Community, which builds caring and prosperous communities inspired by black men.

Board Members

Dominic Rovano

serves in an advisory role to the Finance and Audit Committee of Solutions Journalism Network. He is a member of the American Society of CPAs and the New York State Society of CPAs, serving as Vice Chairman of the NYSSCPA Employee Benefits Committee.