Jewish donors and the case for CUNY

EJEWISHPHILANTHROPY—August 28, 2024—High-profile Jewish donors made headlines during the last academic year when they halted financial support for Ivy League universities, but there was surprisingly little public debate over where else those funds might go. Marc Charendoff proposed the minyan…

NYC elected officials push for student newspapers at every high school

GOTHAMIST—August 14, 2024—Elected officials are pressuring the Department of Education to fund student newspapers at every public high school in New York City. The resolution, introduced in April, argues that school newspapers provide students with a platform to express their ideas…

Healing minds and bodies from Rikers

DAILY NEWS—July 12, 2024—Each week members of the New York Jewish Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform board the Q100 bus and travel over the bridge to Rikers Island to worship with people in custody awaiting trial. We are welcomed with warmth and…

Vital City Releases Issue 8

VITAL CITY—July 1, 2024—Today, Vital City is proud to publish its latest issue on whether fears of a downward spiral for cities are justified and what comes next for urban America. We place a special focus on New York City’s…

Everyone Into the Pool

VITAL CITY—June 21, 2024—The summer of 2024 will be hotter than ever, with forecasts predicting double last year’s total of 90-plus degree days. And while some of us can afford to just crank up the air, for millions of New Yorkers, the city’s…

Announcing Connected Corridors: Envisioning the Future of Our Main Streets

URBAN DESIGN FORUM—May 6, 2024—Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in Brownsville, Brooklyn; Sunnyside, Queens; and the Bronx Capitol District will receive funding and technical assistance to envision the future of their public spaces through the Local Center, a partnership between Urban…

Commentary: Judicial appointment process must be transparent

TIMES UNION—March 20, 2024—In the wake of a New York Times investigation demonstrating that ex-Congressman George Santos fabricated portions of his resume, veteran media critic Margaret Sullivan pointed to the decline of local journalism as the reason Santos got elected.…

Newmark Students Land Summer Data Journalism ‘Equity’ Internships

CRAIG NEWMARK GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM—March 1, 2024—Three Newmark students have notched summer data journalism internships at two top nonprofit newsrooms — becoming the first to gain crucial work experience opportunities through the J-School’s Equity Through Data Project. Ashley Borja and…

New Short Films from The Local Center

URBAN DESIGN FORUM—February 15,2024—The Local Center is a community design network led by the Urban Design Forum and the Association of Neighborhood and Housing Development. The Local Center brings together neighborhood leaders, designers, and government agencies to realize local visions…

Jonathan Rosen with Julie Sandorf: The Best Minds

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY—Author Jonathan Rosen will discuss his New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic Top 10 Book of 2023 The Best Minds with Julie Sandorf on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL).

To register for the event sign up here.

Safeguarding Israeli journalists

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL—January 3,2024— Startled by the predawn hour of his editor’s phone call, the journalist raced his car southward to capture events he never fathomed he would be telling the world. “In the excruciating long hours of October…

Brooklyn Public Library Opens Its 10th Iteration of Making Space

SITU—November 9, 2023— When we first began developing Making Space in 2017, it was conceived as a system-wide, urban-scale transformation of Brooklyn Public Library’s community rooms. We designed this highly flexible architecture as a kit of modifiable components, adapted to…

Hochul, City College Moynihan Center inaugural class honor late senator

NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS—September 14, 2023—The City College of New York celebrated its inaugural classes of the Moynihan Public Scholars and Moynihan Undergraduate Fellows programs last week, created to honor the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a City College…

How to Make Early Voting More Accessible in New York

 BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE—August 10, 2023—On November 5, 2022, when Blaise Bryant and his fiancée, Erin, passed by an early voting poll site near their home in Rensselaer County, New York, they decided to take advantage of the opportunity and…

Newmark J-School Launches Data Journalism ‘Equity’ Campaign

CRAIG NEWMARK GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM—August 3, 2023— The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York is expanding its reach as a national data and investigative journalism leader by launching a major effort to train…

Water, Water Everywhere

VITAL CITY—In the summer of 2021, fortified by a miraculous shot in the arm, I celebrated my emergence from the horrors that COVID inflicted on New York City by going to a matinee screening of “In the Heights.” A highlight…

Lab/Revson Foundation award $160,000 to innovative projects in Jewish chaplaincy

CHAPLAINCY INNOVATION LAB—May 31, 2023—Through a grant from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab at Brandeis University has funded four projects to advance innovative approaches to Jewish spiritual care. Recent research from the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab found that Jewish chaplains are…

Three Ideas About Fixing Our Freedom of Information Laws

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…

Eleven NYC Public High Schools Win Top Prizes at The Newsies

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…

Identity/Crisis Podcast

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…

Caring For Our Kids’ Mental Health, Jewishly [podcast]

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…

Want Your Giving to Make the Most Impact? Donate to Local Media

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…

Protect Our Democracy. Support Local News.

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...

Jewish chaplains: Leading where life happens

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…

Settlement Houses GET OUT THE VOTE! 2021 Report

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…

Eli N. Evans, z’l

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…

Shaun Donovan Interview

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

Richard Kim talks about the Importance of Nonprofit Newsrooms

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…

Let’s strengthen local reporting by 50,000 new journalists.

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…

Combating Hate in Our Midst

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…

Building the Open Newsroom: A Q&A with The City’s Nic Dawes

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…

Harness NYC’s libraries to spread equity

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.

Local Foundations Need Solid Local Journalism if They Hope to Advance Their Missions

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.

Reform New York City’s Board of Elections Now

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…

New York’s Next Mayor and a Failure of Local Reporting

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…

How to Fix the New York City Board of Elections

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…

How New York City Is Saving Its Local News Outlets

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.

A Diverse Sisterhood of Strangers Showed Me How Pluralism Works

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,…

The Gate of Healing

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

6 Ways Local News Makes a Crucial Impact Covering COVID-19

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…

13 Local News Stories and Series That Made a Difference in 2019

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 grantee, The City, wins multiple awards

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.

5 Ways Place-Based Foundations Can Support Local News

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…

Stemming the Loss of Local Journalism

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.

Libraries’ Culture Pass Signs Up 70,000 in First Year

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…

A terrible time for de Blasio to cut library funding

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.

‘There is nobody who will cover this’

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…

Making Space Launches at the Flashbush Branch Library

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.

Local News in America is Dying. Charity Might Save It

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,…

Muslims must combat anti-Semitism in our midst

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…

Key to the city: Kudos to the brains behind Culture Pass

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,…

NYC’s Public Library Systems Launch Culture Pass

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.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Julie Sandorf Accept J-School Honors

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…

Literary Treasure

METROFOCUS —  December 7, 2017  — Two New York organizations have teamed up to honor one of the Big Apple’s biggest treasures, our libraries. We’re joined by Julie Sandorf, president, Charles H. Revson Foundation, and Manuel Martinez, branch manager, Allerton Library,…