Community of Practice

Join The Lenfest Institute and Press Forward for the 2025 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit

The Summit is May 20-22, 2025 in Philadelphia. Session proposals are due February 7

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and Press Forward are hosting the 2025 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit from May 20-22, 2025, in Philadelphia — and we hope you will join us.

The Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit is an interactive conference for journalism fundraising and development professionals to connect with colleagues, attend hands-on workshops, and learn from inspirational keynote speakers.

If you’d like to attend the Summit or propose a session you’d like to present, you’ll need to fill out our short interest form to share a bit about how you’d like to be part of the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit. The deadline to propose a session is Friday February 7 at 11:59 p.m. EST, and we’ll accept interest forms from people interested in attending for as long as we have space available. We will notify everyone who submits an interest form if they will be invited to attend the Summit. The Summit is limited to 200 participants.

Complete the interest form Complete the interest form

What topics will the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit cover?

The Summit will be built on key themes that matter most to news fundraisers in 2025:

• Communications strategies to articulate the importance of local journalism and core values to funders, individual donors, and the broader community.
• Strategic planning with an emphasis on long-term fundraising, board development, and more.
• Fundraising mechanisms that may be new to those of us in the journalism space, including donor advised funds, planned giving, and stock gifts.
• The nuts-and-bolts basics of news fundraising: individual giving, institutional funding, and membership

We welcome session proposals on these core themes, with a preference for interactive workshops and sessions that will help participants return to their news organizations with practical tools or strategies for approaching their fundraising.

Who should attend the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit?

The Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit welcomes anyone who participates in the news fundraising process — no matter if you are a membership manager, major gifts officer, head of fundraising, or an editor or news executive that participates in your organization’s philanthropic fundraising efforts.

For-profit, nonprofit, and fiscally sponsored organizations are all welcome.

What does it cost to attend the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit? Where will it be held?

Thanks to support from Press Forward and The Lenfest Institute, the Summit is free to attend. Press Forward and the Institute will be able to offer limited travel support. Participants will be able to request travel support if they are invited to attend the Summit.

The Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit will be held at the Inn at Penn in Philadelphia near the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. We will share lodging details, including a special room rate, with participants if they are invited to attend the Summit.

What is the Summit schedule?

The Summit will begin with a reception on the evening of Tuesday May 20, 2025. It will include a full day of programming on Wednesday May 21, 2025, and a half-day in the morning of Thursday May 22, 2025, finishing around lunchtime. We will release a full program and schedule upon reviewing all the session proposals.

Have there been previous Summits?

Yes! The Lenfest Institute has hosted two previous Lenfest News Philanthropy Summits. The 2021 and 2023 Summits were hosted virtually. You can learn more and access resources and recordings from those gatherings here and here.

The Summit is a project of the Lenfest News Philanthropy Network. You can learn more about the Network and join the free community here.

Do you have more questions?

Please email [email protected] with any questions.