In September 2020, INN published a report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in Nonprofit News based on survey responses from 117 nonprofit newsrooms. Our topline finding: nonprofit newsrooms are more diverse than traditional newsrooms – but there is a lot of room for improvement, especially for racial equity.

Our hope is that this series of case studies exploring the work of INN members highlights actions and advice that other news organizations can adapt and use — as well as potential pitfalls to avoid. 

• How Reveal overhauled the way it hires, onboards and promotes employees to create a more inclusive workplace by Kelsey Gee, describing how Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting created and acted on a DEI plan, including revising hiring and staffing practices. (April 5, 2021)
• How nonprofit newsrooms track sources to ensure coverage reflects community by Vignesh Ramachandran, on how several nonprofit news outlets, including The Beacon, WABE and WFAE, implemented source tracking methods to better understand whether their coverage reflects the communities they serve. (April 29, 2021) 
• How Injustice Watch expanded its commentary to amplify Black essential voices by Ariam Alula, about how this Chicago-based news outlet launched its Essential Work series. (May 12, 2021)

The best way to be notified when we publish the next case study is to sign up for INN’s weekly INNovation newsletter. For questions about the series, INN’s research director, Emily Roseman at emily.r@inn.org. 

Read more about this work in our post on Medium.

This series of case studies was made possible with the generous support of Knight Foundation and thanks to INN’s general support funders and donors.

About INN’s DEI resources

In tandem with our DEI case study series, INN recently launched the Racial Equity and Inclusion in Nonprofit News Program (REINN) for its members. Supported by the Knight Foundation and led by INN’s Sara Shahriari and several expert partners (including Inspiring Change), REINN offers frameworks, tools and implementation support for members seeking to advance racial diversity, equity and inclusion in their organizations and their journalism. REINN is an evolving program based on member needs and participant feedback. Please reach out to Sara at sara.s@inn.org if you’d like to be involved.