Giving Compass' Take:

• Jenny Choi, writing for Medium, discusses why focusing on practitioners and emerging leaders' perspectives will address diversity, equity, and inclusion in journalism.

• What are key ways to ensure that DEI initiatives across industries are successful?

• Read about the growing gap in philanthropic support for newsroom diversity.

Sometimes it’s easy to become overwhelmed by complex, longstanding systemic issues, but it’s important to remember that seemingly ordinary people every day are capable of extraordinary things when they come together for a unified cause. And this is the thread I’m introducing as part of addressing the structural issues that get in the way of a new kind of journalism that supports newsrooms for a healthy democracy.

Y’all already know I’m a part of a collective of funders who are working on improving equitable access to capital for people-of-color-led news organizations. Not everyone could join the fund we co-created, but many of us are trying to use the agency we have at our respective institutions to move a collective agenda forward. One day I’ll write more on this, but I’m hoping you’ll see some of the fruits of this labor beyond the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund soon.

Truth be told, there’s a lot of research that shows funders tend to listen to one another to vet ideas and people, which at times can be closed to a very insular social network, shutting out new perspectives and thereby innovation (read: new solutions to age-old problems).

So another thread I had to explore on addressing the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) deficit in today’s newsrooms was to identify from a practitioner’s level, who were the emerging leaders in the journalists of color community. This wasn’t easy — I couldn’t be lazy about collecting data and had to take the time to thoroughly audit credibility on these issues. Often times the most reliable sources were the folks with the least power in newsrooms… so building trust with these practitioners also took time.

Read the full article about engaging journalists in of color by Jenny Choi at Medium.