Religious Literacy Project

Project Report | Jun 22, 2021
RNF June 2021 Update: Religious Literacy Project

By Deborah Caldwell | CEO, Religion News Foundation

To our community,

As we approach the halfway point of 2021, I want to extend my deep gratitude to you—our Religion News Service (RNS) supporters—for all the ways you contribute to furthering our mission. Because of you, RNS was able to accomplish the following milestones in recent months:

Building on a strong collaboration between RNS, the Associated Press, and The Conversation U.S., we launched our Religion Hub. The Hub, funded by the Lilly Endowment, works to increase significantly the volume and reach of high-quality news stories about religious faith and practice and the impact of religion in the U.S. and around the world.
We have been widely lauded for our ongoing and excellent coverage, specifically of the Southern Baptist Convention and the evangelical community. This coverage has been cited by such publications as the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and others. Our journalism continues to expand to under-covered faith communities, and our podcast, Saved by the City, has completed its first season to rave reviews.
We recently launched an internship program with Columbia Journalism School and the Institute of Nonprofit News, and a fellowship program with Interfaith Youth Core. We are thrilled to showcase the work of our upcoming interns and fellows over the next year as we nurture the next generation of religion journalists.

This is just a snapshot of what you enabled. As you can tell, it’s been a busy time for us – but we are just getting started.

Support from individuals like you creates the foundation for everything that RNS does. You allow us to serve as the most trusted resource for news, features and commentary about religion and spirituality and to champion quality religion news coverage. Thank you!

Stay tuned to hear more about the exciting work at RNS.

With sincere thanks,

Deborah Caldwell

CEO and Publisher

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Mar 23, 2021
RNF March 2021 Update: Religious Literacy Project

By Deborah Caldwell | CEO, Religion News Foundation

Dear readers,

I’m pleased to share the following update about the work of Religion News Foundation (RNF) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Religion News Service (RNS) from December 2020 to March 2021. We all know what a turbulent period this has been – and I am pleased to report that we have been working hard to make strides and continue providing excellent journalism to our readers.

We have focused our coverage in the last several months on several issues including the pandemic and the intersection between racial justice and religion. One article on Beth Moore leaving the Southern Baptist Convention, which the New York Times called a “bombshell interview,” is now the second-highest ranked article on our site by pageviews in our history. Further, we have expanded our coverage, particularly on paganism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We are pleased to announce that we have brought on board Khyati Joshi as a columnist focusing on Hindus and Hinduism and Karen Swallow Prior as a columnist focusing on the evangelical community.

The second season of the RNS series “Anti-Racism as a Spiritual Practice” with host Simran Jeet Singh, has begun, and we recently launched a new podcast on faith in the Big Apple called “Saved by the City” with hosts Roxanne Stone and Katelyn Beaty.

We also are pleased to announce that RNS recently became a member of the News Revenue Hub, a nonprofit organization that helps its members understand its audience, develop membership programs and fundraising campaigns, automate time consuming processes, and adopt best practices.

Our partnerships remain extremely important to us. We are very pleased to have worked with the Association of Religion Data Archives, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, the Guru Krupa Foundation, the Institute for Nonprofit News, Interfaith Youth Core, the Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Pulitzer Center, Sacred Writes, the Solutions Journalism Network, and University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism.

Many exciting activities lie ahead, and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Thank you for your support,

Deborah Caldwell

CEO, Religion News Foundation

Publisher, Religion News Service

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Dec 22, 2020
RNF Dec. 2020 Update: Religious Literacy Project

By Deborah Caldwell | CEO, Religion News Foundation

Dear Readers:

I am pleased to share with you our update on the work of Religion News Foundation (RNF) and Religion News Service (RNS) from September to December 2020. During a difficult period for the country and the world, we have continued to work hard to provide our audience with objective, timely, and probing content that highlights the central role of religion and belief in people’s daily lives.

During these past months, RNS has been providing a much-needed perspective on the coronavirus and resultant pandemic, including news and opinion coverage about the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. We also have provided timely and ongoing coverage about religion and race and racial justice initiatives, including articles on: churches’ reparations initiatives; “scholar strikes” for racial justice during which professors at major universities went on strike to protest racial discrimination and police brutality; and the role of white Christianity during the 2020 presidential election season. Further, thanks to a grant from Solutions Journalism Network, we published a series on faith-based get-out-the-vote efforts leading up to the election. Another series, made possible by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, supported our reporting on the changing nature of global faith-based social service support networks.

We also are pleased to report that we are participating in the annual Newsmatch campaign. We are grateful for the donations we receive from this campaign.

2021 is just around the corner, bringing with it both significant challenges and exciting opportunities. After a long and difficult 2020, I am confident that the RNF and RNS teams will continue to work hard to bring you the excellent and objective coverage on religion and belief that you have come to expect from us.

Thank you for your support. Happy holidays, and stay safe.

Deborah Caldwell

CEO, Religion News Foundation

Publisher, Religion News Service

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