{"id":6489,"date":"2021-04-07T06:54:52","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T10:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6489"},"modified":"2021-04-07T06:54:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T10:54:52","slug":"kaiser-health-news-the-story-behind-the-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2021\/04\/kaiser-health-news-the-story-behind-the-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaiser Health News: The Story Behind the Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 2016. By most accounts, print journalism was dying.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rise of free digital content, the decline of trust in journalism and a drop in advertising revenue had led to what the<\/span> Atlantic <\/span><\/i>called a \u201cprint apocalypse.\u201d Layoffs began; more layoffs were promised. Per the<\/span> New York Times<\/span><\/i>, \u201cyou would be hard-pressed to find a newsroom devoid of uncertainty anywhere in the country.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, though, many online outlets were going strong. Silver Century Foundation, for one, had been publishing online articles about aging for more than half a decade. And through its growing, grantmaking efforts\u2014now focused on directing media attention to aging-related topics\u2014its influence was rising. <\/span><\/p>\n

As experienced journalists found themselves without employment, Kay Klotzburger, Silver Century\u2019s founder and president, thought that now might be the perfect time to hire some of them to freelance. But she wasn\u2019t alone. Another online outlet, <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i>, was also in the market for such writers. And <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i>, backed in part by the formidable Kaiser Family Foundation, had readers in the millions\u2014with a budget to match. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Klotzburger researched, she found that many seasoned journalists were, in fact, gravitating to <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i>. Instead of being daunted, she saw opportunity. <\/span><\/p>\n

Silver Century was publishing great content but was struggling to draw in a large readership. Since Klotzburger\u2019s main goal was to get content both written and read, why not partner with an organization that already had a massive audience\u2014plus a bigger staff?<\/span><\/p>\n

Silver Century had already found success with a similar arrangement. In 2014, it became an ongoing funder for the Gerontological Society of America\u2019s <\/span>Journalists in Aging Fellowship Program<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> which was prompting exponentially more articles to be published about aging. But when it came to the <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> idea, there was a hitch. As Klotzburger put it, \u201c<\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> is a billion-dollar organization, and I\u2019m a little minnow.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Step one: Get a foot in the door.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaiser<\/i><\/b> Meets Silver Century <\/b><\/p>\n

Klotzburger asked her strategic planning consultant, Lois Favier, of New Experience NonProfit Services, to look into the possibility of working with <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I did a little research,\u201d Favier recalls. She found no clear way to contact <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> about grants. There was no donate button on the website, no call for funds. <\/span><\/p>\n

So she looked into which organizations were doing the funding, besides the Kaiser Family Foundation. \u201cI discovered that these were highly well-known and wealthy foundations,\u201d she says\u2014organizations with hundreds of millions of dollars or more in their coffers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Given all this, did <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i> even need more funding? And without inside connections, could Silver Century find that out? Favier\u2019s initial phone calls to the news outlet went unreturned. So Klotzburger tried to make contact herself. No luck.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was an unusual situation\u2014a foundation wanting to give away money but unable to get in touch with the entity it wanted to fund. Yet Klotzburger wasn\u2019t about to give up. Around 2017, she enlisted David Goldsmith, a consultant to both nonprofits and foundations, to dive in further. <\/span><\/p>\n

The strategy was to identify ways in which <\/b>KHN\u2019s <\/i><\/b>needs and mission aligned with Silver Century\u2019s<\/b>. <\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Goldsmith took a new tack. Instead of contacting <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i>, he reached out to its main funder and publisher, Kaiser Family Foundation. And he did so with a tried-and-true strategy: identifying the needs of both the nonprofit and the foundation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve come to realize, it’s not about one keeping the other one alive,\u201d he says. \u201cThe foundation has needs. The foundation has a mission. And the nonprofit has needs and a mission as well. So it’s about looking for how you can connect the two through a relationship that helps to meet both those needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Goldsmith\u2019s strategy worked. He was ultimately able to meet with Kaiser Family Foundation\u2019s executive director of media and technology, David Rousseau, who is <\/span>Kaiser Health News\u2019<\/span><\/i> publisher.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I had that initial conversation with him,\u201d Goldsmith says, \u201che mentioned that they had a fair amount of funding for the writing of articles on the issue of aging in general, but they did not have much funding for issues around the aging of baby boomers. So that kind of opened the door.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Goldsmith knew that Klotzburger was interested in aging well, no matter the age, so the two organizations\u2019 needs would mesh. He set up a meeting with Rousseau and Klotzburger, \u201cand the relationship built from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Unique Arrangement<\/b><\/p>\n

For <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i>, the relationship turned out to be an unusual one. About 60 percent of the funding for <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i> comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation. For the rest, <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> works mostly with large foundations in long-term partnerships.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of working with a smaller funder that had a specific topic of interest was new. So there was a lot of internal discussion to be had. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like, \u2018Oh, this is cool. Well, do we do this? <\/span>Can<\/span><\/i> we do this?\u2019\u201d recalls Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor-in-chief of <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i>. Because the outlet was relatively young\u2014it launched in 2009\u2014it was also relatively flexible, she says. \u201cThe wonderful thing about <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i> is that we can look at each other and say, \u2018Why <\/span>don’t<\/span><\/i> we do this?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One benefit of working with larger funders, though, is sustainability, Rousseau notes. \u201cWhen we think about setting up a new program or expanding into a new geography, we want to make sure we can stay there for the long term and not just have a one- or two-year commitment to that region or that topic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On the topic of aging, <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> already had sustainable funding. Thanks to the Hartford Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> had a large team reporting on issues that older Americans face when they access health care\u2014topics such as what the end of life looks like and how age-friendly hospitals are created.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Klotzburger proposed a different angle: longevity. Silver Century\u2019s tagline was \u201cpreparing for a longer life.\u201d People were living longer but weren\u2019t necessarily grasping what that entailed\u2014and how to plan for it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026 fortunately, with Silver Century, we found out it was a good fit.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Elisabeth Rosenthal<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAs a society, we needed to start a more viable, informed conversation about longer lives and older people,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

And this \u201csounded exactly like something I knew our newsroom wanted to cover that we didn’t have enough resources to cover,\u201d Rousseau says. <\/span><\/p>\n

That was essential because of <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i>\u2019s commitment to maintaining a wall between funders and reporters. When a foundation approaches <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> to fund reporting on a topic, \u201cthe first question is, \u2018Is this something that we’d do anyway, if we had additional money to do it?\u2019\u201d Rousseau says. If the answer is yes, <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> can take the grant. If it\u2019s no, they can\u2019t. \u201cIt\u2019s the difference, really, between journalism and sponsored content.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, large health care foundations often want more coverage on a specific disease, Rosenthal explains. <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> won\u2019t take that money. But Klotzburger understood the boundaries \u201cright from the start,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cAnd aging and longevity concern everyone. So it wasn’t a real niche issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next few months, <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> and Silver Century negotiated an agreement. The grant would be for one year, to start\u2014not the multiple years <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i> was accustomed to. And it would cover freelancers, not journalism salaries\u2014another departure from the norm. <\/span><\/p>\n

For her part, Rosenthal was all for an outside-the-box arrangement. Because of <\/span>Kaiser<\/span><\/i>\u2019s flexibility, \u201cwe can try a partnership with a new grantmaker or with a new media partner\u2014or try a new form of journalism. And if it doesn’t work, we gave it our best, and no bad feelings, hopefully\u2014it wasn’t a good fit. But fortunately, with Silver Century, we found out it was a good fit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Massive Reach<\/b><\/p>\n

In the first year\u2014September 2018 to September 2019\u2014Silver Century\u2019s grant supported 31 articles. In year two, Silver Century supported 21 articles. Klotzburger has committed to a third year (2020-2021), upping the grant award by 50 percent. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a nonprofit, <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i> allows other outlets to republish articles for free with attribution. Silver Century-supported stories have been republished by myriad organizations, including CNN, the<\/span> New York Times<\/span><\/i>, NPR, <\/span>USA Today<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Time<\/span><\/i>, Yahoo and ABC News.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are stories we wouldn’t be able to produce if not for the support from the Silver Century Foundation,\u201d Rousseau says. <\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re also topics that are under-covered in general. \u201cMost of the reporting about care for seniors is looking at what happens when they’re sick,\u201d Rousseau says. \u201cA lot of the reporting we’ve been able to do with the support of Silver Century is focused more on healthy aging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During the Covid pandemic, <\/b>KHN<\/i><\/b> doubled its output, thanks to grantmakers like Silver Century. <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe grants go into our sense of mission and purpose, and how we choose to assign our reporters to stories,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cThe grants align with what we would like to cover anyway, but often, we wouldn’t have the resources to cover that without the grants.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>For example, during the COVID pandemic\u2014a disease that disproportionately affected older people\u2014<\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i> \u201cdoubled the output of our stories,\u201d Rosenthal says, \u201cand that’s because of our grantmakers, who’ve allowed us to expand our staff and our freelance assignments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As the nation ages, \u201cthere really is so much to think about\u2014particularly in this area of longevity,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cWe all should be invested in this because we’re all going to be there [older] someday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Klotzburger now has frequent conversations with Rousseau and Rosenthal, lending insights and information. \u201cSilver Century has been a really model funder,\u201d Rousseau says. \u201cThey’ve respected that editorially independent firewall, but they’ve also contributed lots of ideas that have made our coverage smarter and better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Supported Articles<\/b><\/p>\n

Here are just some of the <\/span>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/i> articles that the Silver Century Foundation\u2019s grant supported in 2020:<\/span><\/p>\n