Religious Literacy Project

Dear Readers, 

I hope you enjoyed a relaxing summer as we gear up for fall. I’m pleased to share with you this update about the work of Religion News Foundation (RNF) and Religion News Service (RNS) from June to September 2021.

In September, we launched a series on Christian nationalism to help explain the fallout of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The series was made possible thanks to a grant from the Pulitzer Center.

During the summer, we established an internship program with Columbia Journalism School and the Institute for Nonprofit News. We welcomed one intern during the summer and two more this fall. We also launched a fellowship program with Interfaith Youth Core, with whom we will host four fellows for the next year. 

The publishing side of our operation has also made strong strides. We are pleased to announce that, as of this month, we have hired a new Development Director, Karen Paul, who will work closely with me and the rest of the team to encourage a culture of philanthropy and to put in place a fundraising operation.

We also recently launched an Instagram account (@rns.at.phs) with the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS). This account features historical images from RNS’s 80+ year archive, which is owned by PHS.    

Meanwhile, our relationship with the Associated Press and The Conversation U.S. continues to develop and strengthen. This relationship is made possible by Lilly Endowment Inc. We also continue to work closely with News Revenue Hub on our membership platform and are pleased that our outreach to members has strengthened in the last few months – we look forward to continuing this growth!

We’ll be bringing you more updates. As always, stay tuned for more great work at RNS, and please reach out with questions or comments about our work. 

Sincerely,

Deborah Caldwell

CEO and Publisher, Religion News Service