SECOND ROUGH DRAFT—April 27, 2023—Our freedom of information (FOI) laws are among the best tools for enterprise journalism in this country; they have fueled a broad range of excellent stories. But much of the time, the laws don’t work—they may…

BKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY—April 3, 2023—Culture Pass, the library program created in 2018 to provide cardholders free access to cultural institutions, announced the winner today of a book display contest. Nearly 100 libraries—representing every borough—participated in the competition, designing displays for…

BARUCH COLLEGE—April 3, 2023—The only competition for excellence specifically in NYC public high school journalism – The Newsies at Baruch College – has announced the award program’s 2023 winners[…] Developed at Baruch, The Newsies Best in NYC Public High School…

CITY PARKS FOUNDATION—March 23, 2023—City Parks Foundation is pleased to announce that the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund (NYC Green Fund) recently granted $510,000 to 10 innovative projects advancing equity and community involvement in parks and open spaces. The…

THE CITY—March 28, 2023—Newer city lifeguards are getting a permanent raise — and all public pool and beach watchers could net an attendance bonus — as the Parks Department and a new multi-agency task force hope to avoid another critical…

AMERICAN BANKER—March 10, 2023—Community news organizations are often integral to the vitality of a community. Studies, and common sense, have indicated that communities that lack good local news have less civic involvement, more corruption, higher taxes and lower voter turnout.…

NEW YORK TIMES—March 13, 2023—How much for parks? That was the subtext of a conversation with Adam Ganser, whose answer puts him at odds with Mayor Eric Adams, and it was hardly surprising. Ganser is the executive director of New Yorkers…

SHALOM HARTMAN INSTITUTE—In a frenzied media cycle, Identity/Crisis delves into the big ideas behind the news from a uniquely Jewish perspective. Host Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, talks with leading thinkers to unpack current events effecting…

SHALOM HARTMAN INSTITUTE—December 21, 2022—What is the responsibility of Jewish leaders to address mental health in the Jewish community? Yehuda Kurtzer talks with Yael Kornfeld, campus social worker at Hunter College Hillel and a Jewish professional on the frontline of the mental health…

INSIDE PHILANTHROPY—December 6, 2022—Chances are, you are thinking hard about your choices this giving season. As leaders at two New York City news organizations focused on deep, impactful and useful coverage of local communities and issues, we know that many…

NEW YORK TIMES—November 29, 2022—Take Greg Smith, a reporter for a local nonprofit news organization in New York called The City, which I have donated to. At 5 p.m. on the Friday before Labor Day, he got a text from a source at New York’s public housing authority. The drinking water in a large public housing complex in Manhattan had tested positive for arsenic, and city officials had known about it for two weeks. It was only after Smith asked the housing authority and City Hall for comment on his scoop that the city hustled to provide bottled water to the thousands of tenants living in the complex...

EJEWISH PHILANTHROPY — October 26, 2022 — The pandemic put chaplains before the public eye as the country’s “spiritual first responders.” Media reports shined light on their important work, more typically unseen, and on chaplaincy’s evolution into a vocation that is…

GOTHAM GAZETTE — August 26, 2022 — In this week’s late August primary, the second primary this summer in New York, voter turnout barely cracked ten percent in New York City. The first primary of the summer, in June, saw turnout drop by nearly half from…

UNITED NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSES—August 17, 2022—United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH) is a policy and social change organization with a mission to promote and strengthen the settlement house movement’s neighborhood-based, multi-service approach to improving the lives of low- and moderate-income…

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY— July 28, 2022 — It was the landmark 1993 handshake between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel prime minister Yitzchak Rabin that inspired Eli Evans to invest, for the third time, in “Sesame Street.” As an executive…

The Trustees and staff of the Charles H. Revson Foundation mourn the passing of Eli N. Evans, its founding President. Through his great generosity of spirit, love of Israel and the Jewish People, profound belief in the promise of American…

ROTHSCHILD CADETS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT— March 31, 2022 — Shaun Donovan shares his experience developing affordable housing with students and practitioners in Israel.

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL— March 2, 2022 —With roads blocked and public transportation either shut down or commandeered for military needs, providing care to needy members of Ukraine’s Jewish community has never been more fraught. But social workers in Ukraine…

THE TAKEAWAY — March 23, 2022 — How do non profit newsrooms thrive? Richard Kim, the new Editor-in-chief of TheCity.nyc joins us to discuss his new position, the world of nonprofit newsrooms and how they can compete with their big money…

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW — February 28, 2022 — In 2004, the number of newspaper newsroom staff topped 71,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since then, it has declined by more than half. If we want to make up that…

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL — January 19, 2022 — When the Sabbath ended this week, I turned on my phone after a 25 hour pause in notifications and news updates. The first message that appeared was from Imam Abdullah Antepli…

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW— December 22, 2021 — In 2019, New York City saw the launch of THE CITY, a local nonprofit news platform built with considerable foundation and donor funding; one of the publication’s goals has been to engage with New York communities…

LIBRARY JOURNAL — December 06, 2021 — Center for an Urban Future (CUF) released its most recent report, “Branches to Recovery: Tapping the Power of NYC’s Public Libraries to Rebuild a More Equitable City,” on November 30. The report, funded…

DAILY NEWS — December 01, 2021 — Although many other entities will be pivotal to creating a more equitable city — including schools and hundreds of community-based nonprofits — libraries are uniquely equipped to help in so many critical areas, from expanding access to early education and closing the digital divide to strengthening minority-owned businesses and bolstering the language, literacy and technology skills needed to access the good jobs of tomorrow.

THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY — November 16, 2021 — In New York City, the Charles H. Revson Foundation supported an effort that resulted in the city delivering $9.9 million — more than 80 percent of the city’s ad budget — to community news organizations. This helped ensure that publications such as the Haitian Times and the South Asian Times, which were struggling with ad-revenue losses, could continue to deliver critical Covid-19 safety information to readers.

THE NEW YORK TIMES — October 30, 2021 — If you built a laboratory solely to concoct the most inept, opaque and self-dealing election board imaginable, you would have a hard time outdoing the real-life specimen currently functioning — or…

SECOND ROUGH DRAFT — October 7, 2021 — Two weeks before the June 22 Democratic primary that everyone knew would be tantamount to the election of the next mayor of New York City, Politico New York published a story raising doubts about…

THE BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE — September 9, 2021 —“A national embarrassment.” “A disaster.” “Wins at screwing up.” These were just a few assessments of the New York City Board of Elections (NYC BOE) after its most recent in a long…

Revson President, Julie Sandorf's and Dean of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Sarah Bartlett's piece "How New York City Is Saving Its Local News Outlets" was published in The New York Times on May 20, 2021.

CENTER FOR INCLUSION AND BELONGING — April 25, 2021 — Two years ago, I joined a Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom local chapter in Manhattan. The Sisterhood brings together equal numbers of Jewish and Muslim women in intimate chapters of between 10-20 members,…

Revson Senior Program Officer, Martha King piece "If We Want to Strengthen Democracy, Let's Start in Our Back Yard" was published in Philanthropy New York on April 14, 2021.

The Revson Foundation is proud to support THE CITY, a new nonprofit news organization, who received the Punch Sulzberger Innovator of the Year Award.

MEDIUM — March 30, 2021 — How THE CITY’s Open Newsroom initiative is creating a “two-way street” of information sharing on issues like food insecurity, tenants rights and unemployment. Audience engagement in journalism can refer to everything from social media…

Revson President, Julie Sandorf's piece "Pooled Journalism Funds Could Help Save Local Newspapers" was published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on March 3, 2021.

THE NEW YORK TIMES — March 2, 2021 — After 50 years of fieldwork in the Negev and Sinai deserts, an Israeli researcher donated his rare archive to the National Library of Israel. JERUSALEM — When Clinton Bailey first began…

The American Jewish Historical Society announces winners of its “New Colossus” national poetry contest, part of the Emma Lazarus Project. Hear the middle school, high school, and college winners read and speak about their winning poems here.

Revson Program Officer, Elizabeth Leiman Kraiem piece "The Gate of Healing" was published in eJewish Philanthropy on September 22, 2020.

MEDIUM — April 20, 2020 — During the pandemic, local news publishers and journalists have become essential sources of trusted information The horrific spread of the novel coronavirus across America has prompted an outpouring of questions from confused citizens in…

Reuven Blau, a reporter from THE CITY, a Revson grantee, was interviewed on CBS News about the city's proposal on the anti-semitic attacks in NYC.

MEDIUM — December 16, 2019 — These pieces highlight the best of collaborative journalism, community engagement and national-local partnerships This selection of 13 local stories that made a difference in 2019 highlight the strategies that can help local journalism both…

Revson President, Julie Sandorf's piece "Eyes Upon the Street" was published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review's Winter 2020 Issue.

The Revson Foundation is proud to support THE CITY, a new nonprofit news organization, who won three EPPY awards and whose reporter Christine Chung won Newswomen's Club of New York Front Page Award.

MEDIUM — November 5, 2019 — Local foundations are known for directing grants to nonprofits in their towns, but not as much for supporting local news. That equation is changing, as more place-based foundations see watchdog journalism faltering. Many times…

Revson president, Julie Sandorf, writes in the New York Times, on the important role philanthropy should play on helping to finance the reinvention of local news as a public service.

THE NEW YORK TIMES — August 13, 2019 — It’s been one year since public library cardholders in New York’s five boroughs were given expanded — and free — access to the arts through the citywide Culture Pass initiative. Since the…

AM NEW YORK — August 12, 2019 — The Culture Pass program offering free admission to New York City library cardholders is an “enormous success,” according to city and library officials. Since it launched in July 2018, the program has given out more than…

Julie Sandorf, President of the Revson Foundation, writes in Crain's New York on the critical need to protect NYC public libraries' funding, and the important role our libraries will play in helping all New Yorkers participate in the 2020 Census.

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW —  April 29, 2019 — Last September, during a heavy downpour in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, Luis Sánchez Almonte was buried alive. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Sánchez Almonte, who was 47, had been living in northern…

Commissioned by the BPL, SITU created a kit-of-parts that realigns century-old library spaces with 21st-century programming. Made up of adjustable infrastructure and furniture systems, the system creates flexible spaces to support the huge range of programs hosted by each branch. Across BPL’s 59 libraries, these spaces host close to 70,000 programs annually. Modular and scalable by design, the system is a pathway to revitalize community spaces in neighborhoods across Brooklyn.

BLOOMBERG —  April 25, 2019 — The City, a website covering local news in America’s biggest metropolis, debuted this month with a bank account some of its nonprofit peers could only dream of. Backed by almost $10 million from philanthropies and individuals,…

THE SEATTLE TIMES —  November 19, 2018 — In a story most Muslims believe authentic, the Prophet Muhammad stands up as a Jewish funeral procession goes by. His companions wonder why he shows such respect. “It is only a Jew,” they…

THE NEW YORK TIMES — November 20, 2018 — Tuesday is the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. It’s the 12th of Rabi al-Awwal, the day most Muslims believe he came into the world some 1,400 years ago. I first met Muhammad in August…

A major new nonprofit digital news organization focused on New York City, called THE CITY (@TheCityNY), is about to begin staffing up with top New York City journalists, and it will launch later this year with the mission of adding…

The Revson Foundation is proud to support the publication of Eric Klinenberg's new book, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. 

URBAN OMNIBUS —  September 7, 2018 — Where do you go to get help? A branch library system is an ideal physical infrastructure of aid: in New York City, 209 branches are dispersed throughout the city, yet central to neighborhoods’ identities; they…

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS — July 22, 2018 — It’s hard to believe nobody thought of it sooner: A New York City library card can now get you into 33 museums free. The Brooklyn, New York and Queens libraries launched Culture Pass,…

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS — August 20, 2018 — Mary Walter-Brown came to New York the other day on a mission to help save our local journalism. She may seem an unlikely savior to New Yorkers. A graduate of Northern Kentucky University,…

THE BRIAN LEHRER SHOW—  July 20, 2018 — Linda Johnson, president and C.E.O. of the Brooklyn Public Library, talks about the new program that lets all three library system card-holders visit major NYC cultural institutions for free. Listen to the interview here.…

With support from the Revson Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and the New York Community Trust, NYC’s three public library systems  have joined together to launch Culture Pass, a city-wide initiative providing free access to 33 cultural institutions across the five boroughs to the millions of library card holders.

On April 11, 2018, Julie Sandorf, President of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, accepted the 2018 Distinguished Service to New York Award alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, who accepted the 2018 Journalistic Achievement Award. Click here to watch both…

DUKE UNIVERSITY SANFORD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY —  January 31, 2018 — Professor Joel Fleishman discusses the role of philanthropy in reviving local journalism initiatives with the President of the Revson Foundation, Julie Sandorf.  

In a new report, Tony Proscio, of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, explores the current landscape of local journalism, with a particular focus on the role that philanthropy could play…

THE WASHINGTON POST —  November 29, 2017  — Early Wednesday, President Trump retweeted three videos shared by a far-right British activist. One purportedly depicted a “Muslim migrant” beating up a Dutch boy on crutches (in fact, reports suggest the assailant was…

THE NEW YORK TIMES —  September 18, 2017  — For all of Sunset Park’s celebrated taquerias, dim sum parlors and picturesque piers, the most popular destination in that neighborhood might just be the local branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Despite…

The Revson Foundation is proud to present a new feature on our website: the Publications page. Here, you can view and download reports and articles that the Foundation has funded from 2009 onward. We hope these publications will be of interest…

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL —  April 9, 2017  — A study shows that the price and time frame for these jobs skyrocketed when the Department of Design and Construction was involved. New York City’s libraries and other cultural organizations looking to…

TIMES LEDGER  —  April 14, 2017  — Capital construction projects for libraries and other cultural institutions often rack up outsized financial and time investments, according to a new analysis from the Center for an Urban Future. The center worked with the…

CURBED NEW YORK —  April 10, 2017  — New York City’s process of managing capital construction projects for cultural institutions and libraries is marred by bureaucratic setbacks, a new report by the Center for an Urban Future finds. Under the leadership…

DNA INFO—  April 13, 2017  — Councilman Andrew Cohen hopes a new bill of his will embarrass city agencies into finishing their capital projects on time and on budget. The recently proposed bill would require all city agencies to notify the…

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS —  April 12, 2017  — It’s not you. Your local library overhaul really is taking forever. A new report reveals exhausting and costly delays of new buildings and renovations overseen by the city’s Department of Design and…

CENTER FOR AN URBAN FUTURE —  April 2017  — by Eli Dvorkin, Maria Doulis, and Jonathan Bowles — This report finds significant problems with NYC’s process for managing capital construction projects for libraries and cultural institutions, with the median capital project…

PROPUBLICA —  April 10, 2017  — Propublica and the New York Daily News today won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, honoring their joint investigation on abuses in the New York City Police Department’s enforcement of the nuisance abatement law. The…

DUKE UNIVERSITY, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPY & CIVIL SOCIETY—  February 7, 2017  — written by Tony Proscio — With all the trendy talk in philanthropy focused on “innovation,” “disruption,” and “impact investing,” it’s helpful to pay attention, now and then, to…

November 2016 — The Muslim Leadership Initiative was featured in several articles outlining how alliances between Jews and Muslims are more important now than ever before. Click the following links to read the articles: Jewish Telegraphic Agency — November 14, 2016 — Jews and Muslims…

COOPER HEWITT DESIGN JOURNAL  —  Fall 2016  — written by Julie Sandorf — “Whatever agencies for good may rise or fall in the future, it seems certain that the free library is destined to stand and become a never-ceasing foundation of good to all…

INSIDE CITY HALL — October 17, 2016 —Days after her sudden death, Neil Barsky of The Marshall Project joined Errol Louis to remember Venida Browder, the Bronx mother who had vowed to carry on the memory of her son, Kalief Browder. Click…

PROPUBLICA — September 8, 2016 — Today we’re announcing a new project, aimed at monitoring the vote in real-time, nationwide. And you’re invited to join. There is no more essential act in a democracy than voting. But making sure that the balloting is…

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY— September 9, 2016 — Jewish nonprofit workers are inspired, respected and challenged. They’re also stretched thin, lack regular feedback from their bosses and are itching to switch agencies. Those are some lessons from “Are Jewish Organizations Great Places…

THE JEWISH WEEK — September 21, 2016 — Jerusalem — Leen Jaber is in high demand in the hematological oncological day ward at Hadassah-Ein Kerem. “Leen, can you translate?” a Hebrew-speaking nurse asks before treating an Arabic-speaking patient. “Leen, can you catch…

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL — August 15, 2016 — They sound like your average religious Zionist couple in Israel: she serves in the Jewish state’s national service and he is an army combat veteran. Except they are both Muslim Arabs, and she,…

At the meeting on June 22nd, 2016, the Trustees of the Charles H. Revson Foundation elected Dr. Robert Kingston and Errol Louis to the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Starting in the Fall of 2016, Dr. Kingston and Mr. Louis will…

Revson’s President, Julie Sandorf, posits neighborhood libraries as the ideal ‘labs’ for the innovation and experimentation necessary to meet the 21st Century needs of NYC's growing population.

THE NEW YORK TIMES —  February 18, 2016 — In “This Place,” an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, life and photography and art cause sparks to fly. Its more than 600 images have been taken by 12 well-known photographers, and document life on…

THE JEWISH WEEK — February 16, 2016 — In Israel, the light is direct, hard, strong and dense, not ideal for photographers, but it has been a place of intense picture-taking interest since the dawn of photography. “This Place,” an exhibition just opened at…

THE NEW YORK TIMES — February 11, 2016 —For 25 years, Frédéric Brenner traveled the world, finding Jews to photograph. In every place he went, whether it was a singles weekend in the Catskills or an ancient stone dwelling in Yemen, he sought…

THE JEWISH WEEK — February 10, 2016 — It’s extremely rare for 12 photographers to show their work together. Photographer Frederic Brenner not only convinced 11 of his renowned colleagues from around the world to share in an exhibition, but to first spend…