IDEAS Assesment
CASE STUDY
IG Executive Director Dan Egol with next-gen leaders Kunal Deodhar, Ana Lievano, and Alyson Fraser Diaz supported The Chronicle of Philanthropy by conducting a DEI assessment of the organization’s reporting from 2017, 2018, and 2019.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a preeminent source of information and practical advice for nonprofit professionals, foundation executives, board members, and others, has embarked on a multi-faceted initiative to center DEI in their reporting and editorial practices. A component part of this effort entailed assessing its recent reporting through the lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Background
Challenge
The Chronicle lacked a data-driven benchmark against which to understand the current state of its news, features, advice, analysis articles, and opinion pieces in terms of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In collaboration with The Chronicle's Editor and members of the reporting team, INW: Set an internal DEI baseline for the organization’s editorial content by reviewing the demographic composition of all individuals quoted in news pieces and authors of opinion content from 2017, 2018, and 2019. We then benchmarked that data against the broader field by comparing the Chronicle's outputs against the diversity amongst nonprofit leadership, boards, and foundation staff as well as that of another news organization; Created an extendable database to digitally house demographic information about each source to which Chronicle staff can contribute to track future trends and progress; Produced a report with recommendations for goals to improve The Chronicle’s editorial practices with respect to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Facilitated two virtual meetings with the entire Editorial/Reporting teams to debrief the assessment findings and associated recommendations for sustained engagement and next actions.
Approach & Solutions
Outcome
As a result of this assessment, The Chronicle now has an expandable database containing three years’ worth of data comprising over 1,200 news stories and over 300 op-ed pieces. Individual reporters and editors also have the means to run additional reports using this data to better understand the demographic trends of The Chronicle's reporting. Individual reporters are working with a DEI coach to further embed these values into their work and can use this assessment as a baseline to measure progress, individually and organizationally, going forward.