About The Solutions Journalism Network | Solutions Journalism Network Annual Report 2022

The Solutions Journalism Network is leading a global shift in how people understand and shape the world by focusing reporting on how people are responding to problems and what we can learn from their successes and failures.

When news reveals what’s working or promising, it elevates the tone of public discourse, making it less divisive and more constructive, allows communities to see better options, and builds agency and hope. This leads to meaningful change.

As a network builder, we use an approach that includes:

Supporting entrepreneurial actors to drive the spread of solutions journalism across diverse networks of journalists, producers, educators and other media professionals

Providing training and financial support to journalists and newsrooms to catalyze solutions reporting

Gathering solutions reporting from around the world and disseminating stories and insights

More about our team

For me, journalists who want to pursue solutions reporting are the dreamers of our industry. Not in the sense that we have our head in the sky, but in the sense that we are the ones who haven't lost sight of the ideal that journalism can be a mechanism to build a more equitable and just world. We are the ones who are audacious enough to look at not just what is but what could be.

Emilie Stigliani, editor for in-depth journalism at The Sacramento Bee

Solutions journalism

Key elements of solutions journalism include: examining a response and how it works, showing evidence of effectiveness, discussing limitations, and surfacing insights to spur innovation.

Asset-Framing®

Developed by Trabian Shorters, founder of BMe Community, and grounded in insights from the psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman, Asset-Framing teaches the importance of leading with people’s assets and aspirations before describing their problems or challenges.

In 2022, SJN developed and led, with Shorters, the first and only Asset-Framing trainings specifically for journalists. SJN is the only organization other than BMe Community certified to offer Asset-Framing training.

Highlighting solutions helps us see that problems, however different, are not intractable. Progress can be made, and we can learn something from the place where change is occurring.

Chris Green, The Journal

Board of Directors

Dean Furbush, chair, is co-founder and founding chair of Ukrainian Patriot, co-founder and CEO of Kitchen to Kitchen, and a board member and former president of PeerForward, a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of youth to lead their peers toward college success.

David Boardman, vice chair, is the dean of Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia. Previously, he was executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times, the largest news organization in the Pacific Northwest.

David Bornstein, SJN co-founder and CEO, is a journalist and author who focuses on social innovation. He co-authored the “Fixes” column in The New York Times Opinionator section, which explored and analyzed potential solutions to major social problems.

Marsha Cooke is vice president and executive producer for ESPN Films and “30 for 30” documentary series. Cooke joined ESPN from VICE Media Group, where she served as senior vice president of global news and special projects. Prior to VICE, Cooke spent 24 years at CBS, where she was the first Black Asia bureau chief and served as vice president of news services, in charge of the Newspath newsgathering group serving 200 CBS affiliates nationwide and broadcasters around the world.

T. Morgan Dixon is co-founder and CEO of GirlTrek, the largest health movement for Black women in America. Prior to GirlTrek, Dixon served as director of leadership development for Achievement First, one of the nation’s largest charter school networks.

Barnaby Marsh, treasurer, is co-founder of Saint Partners and has privately advised many of the world’s most generous individuals on how to achieve greater philanthropic impact. Before co-founding Saint Partners, Marsh was a senior executive at the John Templeton Foundation, where he led the foundation’s grantmaking, communications and philanthropic partnerships.

Courtney Martin, SJN co-founder, is an author, organizer and entrepreneur. Her books include “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists.” She co-founded FRESH Speakers Bureau and often advises organizations — TED, the Aspen Institute, the Obama Foundation and the Sundance Institute — on how to make impactful, story-rich social change.

Ron Nixon is vice president of news and head of investigations, enterprise, partnerships and grants at the Associated Press. Among many other awards and distinctions, Nixon received the inaugural 2021 News Leader of the Year award from the News Leaders Association. He is co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting and of TruthBeTold.news, a nonprofit, non-partisan fact-checking website and digital network, run and edited from Howard University’s Department of Media, Journalism and Film in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications.

Tina Rosenberg, secretary and SJN co-founder, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. She co-authored the “Fixes” column in The New York Times Opinionator section. Rosenberg is a former editorial writer for The New York Times and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Trabian Shorters is one of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and the catalyst of a national movement to first define Black people by their aspirations and contributions, then to secure their fundamental freedoms to live, own, vote and excel. He is the founder and CEO of BMe Community and former vice president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Remembering Dean Furbush

Our beloved Board Chair, Dean Furbush, passed away on July 28, 2023. We are heartbroken by the loss of our dear friend, colleague and mentor. Dean joined SJN’s board in 2014, in our second year. He was extraordinarily generous with his time. In 9 years, he almost never missed a board meeting, and he made himself available for an endless stream of requests, day and night. He brought extensive experience leading both nonprofit and for-profit companies and played a central role continuously shaping SJN’s culture, systems and strategy. What marked Dean above all was his kindness, enthusiasm and loving spirit. He celebrated life, read poetry at board meetings, listened with genuine delight, and treated everyone he met with profound respect. He will be missed beyond measure.

Financials

In 2022, Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) received $8,110,721 in new grants and revenue. Additionally, SJN entered 2022 with approximately $9M in net assets restricted to meet contract and sub-grant commitments in 2022 and 2023.

Total expenses of $10,115,233 in 2022 increased by 28% from $7,878,778 in 2021; this reflected sub-grants expenses of $2,224,110 in 2022, which increased by 42% from $1,557,673 in 2021. Travel and events totaling $484,141 in 2022 increased by 371% from $102,720 in 2021. Website expenses of $229,270 in 2022 increased by about 800% from $25,164 in 2021; this increase is related to SJN's investment in a redesign of its website and new ability to manage website content in house.

Expenses by Program Area

Program	Amount	%
Practice Change	8,381,518	83%
Knowledge Dissemination	806,881	8%
Management & General	647,884	6%
Fundraising	278,950	3%
Total	10,115,233	100%

Expenses by Category

Category	Amount	%
Salaries, Payroll Taxes and Benefits	4,930,886	49%
Sub-grants	2,224,110	22%
Professional Fees: Program	1,487,813	15%
Professional Fees: General	269,970	3%
Travel & Events	484,141	5%
Website & Technology	229,270	2%
All Other Expenses	489,043	5%
Total	10,115,233	100%

Major Funders

Catherine Hawkins Foundation

Health Foundation for Western & Central New York

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation

Jeannie Tseng & Colin Rust Charitable Foundation

Ways to get involved