News Literacy Project featured in The Chronicle of Philanthropy

The News Literacy Project is one five nonprofits nationally featured in a Chronicle of Philanthropy report that spotlights organizations that have thrived despite launching amid the deep recession that began in 2008.

The report, titled “Charities Started During the Recession Find Success Despite the Odds,” is featured in the April 11 edition. NLP is singled out for including, from the beginning, assessments of the project’s impact.

According to the article, nonprofits that weathered the economic downtown tend to be “nimble and hardnosed” and are likely to adopt best practices to survive.

Leslie Crutchfield, a consultant and the co-author of the book Forces for Good: Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, told the Chronicle that such charities are probably blessed with “a perfect marriage of a crackerjack idea and a highly committed founder.”

The article cites NLP as an example of a nonprofit that built “a strong and active board,” noting that Vivian Schiller, NLP’s founding board chair who was then the general manager at NYTimes.com, helped it win a $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation during its initial year.

In a sidebar, “Strapped for Cash, an Education Charity Creates Its Own Evaluation Tools and Wins New Grants,” the Chronicle singles out NLP for its early use of assessment.

The piece details how NLP developed assessment surveys for students and teachers from the start of its classroom program in 2009 and has improved them since then. It also noted that NLP was ready to capture classroom video and testimonials from participants.

“Funders want results,” NLP founder and president Alan C. Miller says in the article.