Posted By Becky Bisbee

Ken Baldwin, Paul Steiger lead new backers

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers has reached its goal — with room to spare — of matching its $50,000 grant from the Challenge Fund for Journalism’s consortium of four national foundations.

Greg McCune, SABEW’s president, said the total amount that qualifies for the matching fund drive is expected to top $60,000 when all the gifts are counted.

The society plans to use the $100,000 from the matching gifts and the challenge fund partners — the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the McCormick Foundation and the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation — to completely revamp its technology. The upgrade will enable the organization to offer a greater variety of training and other services to its members, manage its affairs more efficiently and become more flexible in responding to rapid changes in its industry.

“We have many people to thank for this achievement,” McCune said. “All told, about 317 individuals contributed to the campaign. The final tabulation is expected to show as many as 14 individuals who gave at least $1,000 and 16 more who gave between $500 and $999.

He praised two donors, Ken Baldwin and Paul Steiger, for their particularly generous gifts.

McCune said Baldwin, a strong advocate of business journalism education, made “a very significant donation.” Baldwin, who lives in Columbia, S.C., retired in 1986 after a long career with Norfolk, Va.-based Landmark Communications. A newsroom veteran, he headed human resources for Landmark’s properties in Greensboro, N.C., prior to his retirement.

Steiger, the former Wall Street Journal managing editor who founded and is CEO/editor-in-chief of the ProPublica investigative journalism site, gave $6,000. His support also sparked new gifts and contacts from the highest echelons of American journalism.

“Our success comes in the wake of last fall’s stock market collapse and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, which combined to usher in one of the toughest fund-raising climates in memory,” McCune said.

The economic troubles have led to cutbacks in business coverage, in a time that calls for stronger coverage of business, finance and the economy. In the first six months of this year, more than 250 business journalists have lost their jobs due to media closings, layoffs or newsroom buyouts, according to an analysis by the Carolina Business News Initiative at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

McCune singled out Bill Choyke, head of SABEW’s development committee, for working tirelessly for months on the fund drive. He also thanked the other members of the development committee, SABEW’s board, acting executive director Dave Beal and the society’s staff at the University of Missouri – Vicki Edwards, Alice Fisher, Donna Dare and Robert Williamson.

“The staff kept track of the accounting for the fund drive grant, fielded members and donors questions and handled efficiently the substantial paperwork involved in an intense national campaign,” McCune said.

“Many board members not only donated, but also passed the hat to their colleagues. Traditionally, journalists have viewed getting so involved in fundraising as distasteful, but today it has become acceptable and, in fact, necessary as journalism organizations find they must tap new revenue streams to survive and prosper.”

McCune noted that the fund drive actually raised more than $72,000, but some of that money did not qualify for the match because of stringent guidelines aimed at encouraging new donors. Challenge grant rules allow only individuals gifts above their highest donation in any of the previous three years to count toward the match. The money that doesn’t count will still be available to SABEW.

The society won the $50,000 grant in early August of 2008 and had a year to match that amount.

SABEW is one of 15 journalism organizations that received a total of $565,000 last year from the Challenge Fund for Journalism’s fifth annual round of grants. The $120,000-plus the society raised from this year’s challenge grant and its accompanying fund drive more than doubles the $55,000 it raised from an earlier Challenge Fund for Journalism grant and matching fund drive in 2006-07.

The challenge fund was established in 2004, as seismic shifts in the news media profession began gathering momentum. Since then, these shifts have accelerated, driven by sweeping technological changes and powerful cyclical and secular economic forces.

McCune said the experience the society gained from the 2008-09 fund drive will enhance considerably the organization’s capacity for future development efforts.

In a statement last fall, the challenge fund’s four partners noted that journalism organizations continue to face industry consolidation, frequent layoffs, declining financial support from corporate and philanthropic sources and increased competition from new media.

“The Challenge Fund for Journalism helps to ensure that journalism organizations, which are critical to supporting the profession, have the leadership, infrastructure and financial resources needed to increase their adaptability and promote long-term sustainability,” the partners said.

SABEW, formed in 1964, has grown to become the largest organization of business journalists in the world, with more than 3,000 members.