Chronicle of Philanthropy Founder Has Died

Chronicle archive photo

Dear Reader,

People who make the Chronicle of Philanthropy part of their day often want to know more about how we do our work. Beyond the talent and dedication of my colleagues, the secret of our excellence comes from the backing of Corbin Gwaltney, an insightful editor and entrepreneurial leader. For more than three decades, he offered our editorial team freedom and resources to do what we thought served our readers best and gave our business colleagues a mandate to respect our editorial independence.

Corbin died Monday at age 97. He always kept a low profile so few people know that Corbin’s creation of the organization that publishes the Chronicle is a story of how philanthropy works at its best.

As an alumni-magazine editor at the Johns Hopkins University in the 1960s, Corbin realized that people on the campuses knew little about what was happening beyond their institutions, an especially worrisome void given the tumult the nation’s colleges and universities were facing. That led him to seek foundation grants to create a newspaper, and over the years the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Ford Foundation and a handful of other grant makers became substantial backers of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Chronicle photo by Erica Lusk

Corbin was fiercely independent, rejecting any meddling in the content of what the Chronicle published and several times sent money back to foundations that sought to influence the newspaper’s coverage. (Carnegie’s then-president, Alan Pifer, was so impressed with Corbin’s unwillingness to bend that he sent the money back with instructions to use it however the Chronicle thought best.)

Soon the Chronicle was able to find ways to earn enough revenue to leave nonprofit status. As the Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. was more than able to support one newspaper, Corbin decided the company should start another publication, so in the late 1980s he asked Phil Semas, then his managing editor, to take a leave of absence to explore whether the nonprofit world needed the same kind of journalistic coverage as higher education. Philanthropy had long fascinated him, and its importance had been reinforced by those early Carnegie and Ford grants that nurtured the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Today, people in philanthropy would call this a case study in social entrepreneurship. But back then, Ford and Carnegie probably didn’t expect that their grants would provide the seeds for the two most important publications on higher education and the nonprofit world.

Corbin urged us to provide fair and accurate journalism, and he never held us back from publishing pieces about abuses at foundations and nonprofits. But he took most pleasure from our articles and tools that helped organizations do more to advance the common good.

He also wanted the Chronicle to offer inspiration. That’s why he created a column we have published from our very first issue — the “Face of Philanthropy,” which always features a striking photo depicting an innovative nonprofit. For many years, it was splashed across two tabloid-size pages; today it often stretches across our website’s home page.

1/6

Chris Carter/Impact Visuals

Worldwide Reach

As we pause to honor Corbin’s remarkable life, we share with you one of his favorite photos from that collection. It appeared in black and white in our October 2, 1990, issue and showed refugees fleeing to Jordan after Iraq invaded Kuwait. More than a dozen international aid organizations had mobilized to help, but their leaders acknowledged the demand had outstripped their capacity.

2/6

Dave Farmerie

Take Me Out to the Ballet

The Pittsburgh Ballet commissioned the “Mighty Casey,” thought to be the first choreographic attempt to combine baseball with classical dance steps. Its initial run drew standing-room-only crowds and rave reviews. (Appeared May 7, 1991)

3/6

Karin Schermbrucker

Mothers Help Each Other Prevent HIV in Newborns

Mothers2mothers employs HIV-positive mothers in Rwanda and Uganda as mentors to coach other women on how to give birth to healthy babies. “The greatest resource we have in Africa are mothers themselves,” says Robin Smalley, co-founder of the organization. (Appeared August 2, 2016)

4/6

Charles Bertram

A Mobile Classroom for Appalachian Adults

The Christian Appalachian Project turned an old bus into a mobile classroom to make it easier — and less intimidating — for adult students. (Appeared May 5, 1992)

5/6

ANDRÉ CHUNG

Memorial Salute to Veterans

Honor Flights takes aging veterans to Washington to see the monuments honoring their service. “For many of these World War II veterans, this is the first and likely the last opportunity for them to see a memorial that was 60 years in the making,” said Diane Gresse, the group’s executive director. (Appeared May 4, 2015)

6/6

Courtesy of Seacamp Association

An Aquatic Education

Young people at Seacamp in the Florida Keys spend much of their time underwater learning about the beauty – and fragility – of tropical coral reefs and other aquatic life. Campers also take science courses in, among other things, marine botany, invertebrates, and how to set up a saltwater aquarium. (Appeared June 10, 2004)

Many of our readers today face similarly daunting challenges, and it is your motivation to make the world better every day that persuaded Corbin to found the Chronicle. He was a change-maker, just like all of you.

Corbin believed this feature would remind readers about the power of philanthropy to change lives. He changed all of ours at the Chronicle — and in turn yours. In his memory, we have posted some of our favorite “Face of Philanthropy” features for you to view as we pause to mark the contributions to the nonprofit world of a remarkable man, Corbin Gwaltney.

— Stacy Palmer, Editor