Voting ballots have been distributed to the voting representative of each INN member. INN will continue to send reminders to the voting representatives until the deadline, June 22 at 4:30 p.m. PST.
View the full recording of the Q&A with the candidates here, or watch each candidate's individual statement below.
Laura Frank
President and General Manager, News, Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network
Bio
Laura Frank is President and General Manager of News and Content at Rocky Mountain PBS. Laura was the founder of I-News, the nonprofit investigative news organization that merged with Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting in 2013. She is a Denver native who spent 20 years at newspapers, radio and public television around the country, specializing in investigative reporting and data journalism. Laura is now responsible for local production of broadcast and digital news, documentaries, shows and special projects at Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting. She has trained hundreds of journalists for more than a dozen media organizations. She was a founding member of the Institute for Nonprofit News (inn.org) and now serves as its board chair. Her work has won awards in both broadcast and print, and led to changes in laws and lives.
Candidate Statement
I would be honored to continue serving on the board of directors for INN. The organization has turned the corner of the transition from startup to established organization and is poised to play an even greater role in supporting important journalism nationwide. As chair of the board this past year, I've worked to include representation from the array of INN members of all sizes and areas of focus -- as well as from experts in the journalism realm and other industries from which we can learn lessons. INN members have a high success rate for startups. The opportunities to collaborate and expand are great. Thank you for thoughtfully considering my candidacy to continue on the board.
Anne Galloway
Editor, VTDigger
Watch Anne's recorded statement
Bio
Anne Galloway is the editor of VTDigger and the executive director of the Vermont Journalism Trust. VTDigger is an online nonprofit news organization that publishes daily news about politics, government and business in Vermont. When Galloway founded VTDigger in 2009 she had $9,000 in grant funding, a WordPress account and no staff. Today, VTDigger has a $1.3 million budget, 200,000 unique readers a month and 17 staffers.
Candidate Statement
We are working to better serve the interests of members with new training mentorship programs for news business leaders, webinars on a variety of fundraising opportunities, new tech strategies for engagement and the collection of impact statements about how we are benefiting the public through great journalism. These tactics are designed to help members build readership, revenue and capacity for news and business staff. I have served on the board since 2014. I would be honored to serve you for another term. Thank you for your consideration.
Sheila Krumholz
Executive Director, Center for Responsive Politics
Watch Sheila's recorded statement
Bio
As executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, Sheila Krumholz is the nonpartisan watchdog group’s chief administrator and spokesperson, appearing regularly in news stories around the country as a money-in-politics analyst. She is cited frequently in prominent national news outlets, in documentaries about money in politics, and has appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, PBS News Hour, Comedy Central's The Colbert Report and on Moyers and Company, a syndicated show on public television. The Center for Responsive Politics is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group tracking money and its influence on politics and policy at the federal level. Its data, analysis and original journalism appears on its website, OpenSecrets.org. Ms. Krumholz has testified before Congress and the Federal Election Commission on issues related to government transparency and regularly makes presentations on money in politics to scholars, government officials, NGOs that conduct research and advocacy, and at meetings of professional news organizations (Investigative Reporters and Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, National Press Foundation, etc.). She often speaks to community groups and international delegations, including representatives from government and civil society organizations, interested in illuminating money’s role in their countries’ politics. Ms. Krumholz became Executive Director in 2006, prior to which she was CRP’s research director for eight years, supervising data analysis for OpenSecrets.org and for CRP’s clients in the media, academia and elsewhere. She has a degree in international relations and political science from the University of Minnesota and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and their two children.
Candidate Statement
As a nonprofit leader with 25 years’ experience working with a wide variety of stakeholders (media operations of all shapes and sizes, academia, advocates, etc.), I believe wholeheartedly in the essential role that nonprofit news organizations fill and would be proud to represent this community on the INN board. Some of the most powerful – and certainly the scrappiest – investigations and reporting I’ve seen have come from fellow INN member groups; groups that, in turn, make for a healthier news ecosystem and democracy. As head of a specialized/topically-focused nonprofit, I am especially eager to help INN meet the needs of this expanding roster of small and mid-sized organizations producing incredible public interest journalism with spit and duct tape, and to share my experience of what has worked – and what hasn’t – to strengthen INN’s policies and programs. I will support INN to promote specific, tangible benefits that match what members want and need to reach the next rung in the “impact and sustainability ladder.” I will share what I know and learn, and solicit members to identify services needed to grow the network, strengthen member sustainability, and promote best practices around our common challenges, including fundraising and earned income. As a member of INN since 2011, and now a board candidate, I offer my longstanding commitment to the nonprofit community, to data journalism, and to transparency as three key hallmarks of my career and what I bring to INN. Thanks for your consideration.
Marcia Parker
Publisher and Chief Operating Officer, CALmatters
Watch Marcia's recorded statement
Bio
Before joining CALmatters, Marcia was Executive Director for Content for Penton Technology, overseeing news sites serving millions of tech pros and a thriving content marketing studio. She serves as a mentor to several Silicon Valley start-ups and media start-ups at the Matter accelerator in San Francisco. She is also an adjunct lecturer on innovation at Northwestern University's San Francisco campus, and is an active member of the Online News Association. Marcia is also on the selection committee for the Stanford Knight Journalism Fellows. A veteran digital journalist, Parker previously held leadership roles as Editorial Director for State, a global opinion network in London; West Coast Editorial Director for Patch, managing more than 150 California and Washington news sites for the AOL-owned network; Programming Director for AOL Small Business, and launch director for the Center for Investigative Reporting’s California Watch state investigative unit. Parker also taught at and served for several years as Assistant Dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and for nearly a decade served on the adjunct faculty at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has a master’s degree from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy.
Candidate Statement
I'm a veteran journalist and digital media leader, and, now, the relatively new Publisher & COO at CALmatters. I already rely on INN as a member. I'd like to do more because I believe in INN's mission, Sue Cross's leadership, and her efforts to grow and expand INN to serve the ever changing needs of our diverse membership at a time when nonprofit news is at crossroads. This is our time, and therefore, INN's time. I will bring a collaborative spirit, organization building skills, strategic vision, hands-on experience with the day to day challenges of a nonprofit news organization, and an extensive network to help INN and its members realize their dreams. My goal is to help Sue and INN develop a long term strategy and sustainable business model that will allow them to support our members and help them tackle the daunting organizational and industry challenges, learn from one another, seek new resources and funding, and to elevate nonprofit news and promote collaboration and all of our work, whether we are big, small, start-ups, or established nonprofit news outlets. See you at INN Days 2017.
Dylan Smith
Editor and Publisher, TucsonSentinel.com
Watch Dylan's recorded statement
Bio
Dylan Smith is the Editor and Publisher of TucsonSentinel.com, a nonprofit local independent online news organization. Prior to founding the Sentinel, he was the Online Editor for the Tucson Citizen, until the newspaper was shut down by Gannett in 2009. He also serves as the founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION Publishers), organizing a group of publishers of more than 150 local news websites across the country. He is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists and is a vice president of the Arizona Press Club. An experienced designer and programmer, he serves as an Invited Expert on the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML Working Group. He was the Executive Director of The Quintessential Stage, a nonprofit theatre company, and Editor and Publisher of ¿K? Magazine, an arts and culture monthly, in the 1990s. He comes from a long line of journalists; his great-grandfather began work as a reporter fresh from high school in 1900. His family operated the Wheaton (Ill.) Daily Journal for over 50 years. His grandfather was also an editor and publisher (he proudly wears his grandfather's SDX ring), his grandmother a copyeditor and typesetter, and his parents published an alternative newspaper in the 1960s. Despite his long heritage in print journalism, he's a firm believer in the power of the Internet to inform and inspire like no other medium for reporting.
Candidate Statement
I'm seeking your vote to become a member of the INN Board because I believe it's time for me to repay, in some small way, an organization and community of journalists that's been so helpful to me. I'd considered running a couple times in the past, but there have always been other great candidates stepping up on our behalf. I don't know who else is tossing their name into this election, but it's past time I took my own turn. As the head of a small locally focused news organization, and the founding chairman of Local Independent Online News Publishers, I have experience that will help INN continue to be an effective voice for nonprofit news of all types. I'd like to see even greater collaboration with other journalism organizations, and more training and mentoring to make us all better journalists and publishers. INN has developed into a serious force and meaningful group, and I'd like to see it become even stronger.
Nancy West
Founder and Executive Director, New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism
Watch Nancy's recorded statement
Bio
I founded the nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism two years ago and am the executive editor of its website InDepthNH.org. In our first year and a half online, I broke more important stories than statewide news outlets while also building our readership, applying for grants, and scrambling to find advertising and donors to pay for basic needs such as professional liability insurance. My reporting exposed a dirty little secret at New Hampshire’s state mental hospital. When patients are deemed a danger to themselves or others, they are moved to the state prison psychiatric unit, which is not a hospital, even when they haven’t committed a crime. There are fewer than half the news jobs in New Hampshire as there were 15 years ago so the need is great here for nonprofit news and we will succeed. We hold government accountable and give voice to often-marginalized people, places and ideas. I won many awards over three decades for government, business and investigative reporting when I worked as a reporter and editor at the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. Much of my reporting has focused on the criminal justice system, child abuse and mental health. I’m a mother and grandmother and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. I am teaching a course for two weeks this summer at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting’s summer program for high schoolers at Boston University while continuing to report, edit and grow InDepthNH.org.
Candidate Statement
I could not have started the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest journalism without the help of the Institute for Nonprofit News. INN provided the website, tech support, fiscal sponsorship, training – not to mention an encouraging word along the way - that helped us get this far and I will continue to take advantage of INN’s expertise as we grow. I want to serve on INN’s board of directors to learn more about how INN works and to always be a strong voice for the smaller nonprofits. Although we are growing, we still have a budget under $60,000 a year. I believe it's important that the board has someone there representing the unique challenges that small organizations face. As a board member, I would encourage INN to increase national and local awareness of nonprofits and pool resources where possible: donor databases, pitch videos that can be customized, and organized giving days. Now is the time to get the word out for the many local nonprofits that are growing across the country. I also believe in transparency and would encourage INN to make sure its members understand what INN is doing for us and how those decisions are made. Also, I would encourage continuing and expanding INN's terrific training programs. I am a mother and grandmother. Aging has some real downsides, but the pluses really outweigh them (OK, not always). Wisdom and patience come to mind, attributes I really only developed over time. I will also work hard. I promise.