Maynard Institute

In 2024, a $400,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to the Maynard Institute was described as being “for the Maynard Institute’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion and leadership development in America’s newsrooms.”  ²

Background

The Maynard Institute is a left-of-center journalism education nonprofit that claims that part of its mission is “dismantling systemic racism in the news.” The group claims to have trained over 200 newsrooms and 4,000 journalists; some of the groups with which it has worked include the Associated Press, American University, the Ida B. Wells Society, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Nieman Foundation, the Online News Association, Open News, Politico, and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. The institute was founded in 1977 by Robert Maynard and eight other journalists.  ^{3  1}

Activities

The Maynard Institute offers training for both individuals and organizations. As part of its training, the Maynard Institute provides diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training through a one-year structured program that claims to improve hiring practices and educate on what the group claims are reporting blind spots of “class, gender, geography, and race.” The training is funded in part by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The group also offers what it claims is bias reduction training through its “Fault Lines® Culture Shift Program.”  ^{4  5}

The Maynard Institute also offers trainings and fellowships to individuals focused on storytelling, editing, and media entrepreneurship to build “inclusive, dynamic media spaces.”  ⁶

Funding

The Ford Foundation has given $3,080,000 to the Maynard Institute from 2006 to 2024. In 2024, a $400,000 grant to the Maynard Institute was “for the Maynard Institute’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion and leadership development in America’s newsrooms.”  ²

In 2025, the Maynard Institute announced a $2.5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.  ⁷

The Democracy Fund has given a total of $1.6 million to the Maynard Institute between 2018 and 2023.  ⁸

In 2023, the John D. and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation gave $100,000 to the Maynard Institute, as well as $100,000 in 2022.  ⁹

In 2019, the Annie E. Casey Foundation gave $25,000 to the Maynard Institute.  ¹⁰

In 2018, the Craig Newmark Graduate School Of Journalism CUNY Foundation gave $100,000 to the Maynard Institute.  ¹¹

In 2017, the New Venture Fund gave $199,040 to the Maynard Institute.  ¹²

People

As of October 25, Evelyn Hsu was a co-executive director of the Maynard Institute. Hsu was previously the director of programs at the Maynard Institute beginning in 2004. She was formerly a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post and is the past president of the Asian American Journalists Association, an associate director of the American Press Institute, and a member of faculty at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.  ¹³

As of October 2025, Martin Reynolds was a co-executive director of the Maynard Institute. Reynolds is a co-founder of Oakland Voices. Previously, Reynolds was a senior editor for the Bay Area News Group and was the editor-in-chief of the Oakland Tribune from 2008 to 2011.  ¹⁴

As of October 2025, John Miller was the president of the board of the Maynard Institute. Miller was the senior editor for sports, business, and features at the Dallas Morning News. Previously, he was senior editor for news, commentary, and HBCUs for Andscape, a website of ESPN. Miller was also the managing editor of the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper, and was an editor at the Detroit Free Press, USA Today, the Charlotte Observer, and the Myrtle Beach Sun News. Miller was the first Donald W. Reynolds distinguished visiting professor of journalism at Washington and Lee University in 2005.  ¹⁵