February 25, 2019

The Institute for Nonprofit News is accepting nominations for the 2019 INN Emerging Leaders Council, an initiative to identify and support current and future leaders in nonprofit news. Generous support for the 2019 program year is being provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. The nomination deadline is March 15, 2019.

This program is intended for full-time staff at INN member organizations who have the potential to lead the nonprofit news sector throughout the next 20 years. We encourage the nomination of individuals who might be mid-level in their careers with the potential to lead their own or another organization, or leaders of small organizations that would like to develop their potential to run larger nonprofits.

In particular, we seek candidates who:

• Show the potential to someday lead a nonprofit news organization
• Express interest in the business of journalism and general leadership
• Is someone we want to retain in nonprofit news
• Reflect the diversity of the communities he/she serves
• Will invest his or herself in the peer group as well as draw from it

Throughout the one-year program, participants will come together twice in person for day-long trainings in news product development and meet monthly by video conferencing for learning and leadership development, as a means to actively build and broaden the pipeline of talent into business leadership for public service journalism, and to build the business skills of journalists in broader leadership roles.

This year, the program will emphasize building product development and design-thinking skills with participants working on a project that benefits their organization. Tran Ha of Tiny Collaborative, LLC will lead the design thinking training program. In addition to gaining design thinking skills, the group will work together on common leadership challenges.

The program will be coordinated and led as a peer organization. This cohort’s peer leader is Ebony Reed. Interested participants should be nominated by their Executive Director/CEO, or if they themselves are the director of a small organization, nominated by their board chair. Applicants will be asked to propose a project that can benefit from design-thinking approaches to meet public needs in new ways, launch a news product and/or expand their organization’s market or audience. The cohort will be selected from among the eligible nominations by a panel of INN and industry leaders. Selected participants will be notified in early April 2019.

The council will convene Tuesday, June 11 in Houston and are invited to also attend INN Days on June 12 and 13. Participants will receive a travel stipend of up to $1200 for the year-long program.

Nomination Form

Contact Information

If you have questions about the program, please email Fran Scarlett at fran@inn.org.