2025 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit

Jan 30, 2025

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’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. 

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.  

ATTENDANCE

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. 

COST

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.  

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.  

Do you have more questions? 

Learn more on our website or please email npn@lenfestinstitute.org with any questions.