The 10 Best-Read Articles in the Chronicle in 2022

One way to take stock of what mattered to the nonprofit world is to look at the articles that attracted the most Chronicle of Philanthropy readers throughout the year.

Scanning the list you’ll find a vast range: The top three show the importance of our deep investigations and research into the nonprofit world, including Jim Rendon’s nearly two-year study documenting how a small group of nonprofits play a key role in the spread of opioid addiction. Also in the top ranks: our annual look at the people who give the most to charity — as well as our exclusive survey on morale and satisfaction in the nation’s fundraising offices.

Our readers are always interested in the latest trends in grant making, and what intrigued them the most was Alex Daniels’s article about how foundations and wealthy donors are giving to nonprofits working to stem the nursing shortage that was intensified by Covid-19.

Another hot topic: the challenges of leading, especially the stampede of chief executives heading for the exits.

And a piece that struck a chord with all of us on the staff was a poignant personal essay from Damion Cooper, who made a plea to foundation leaders to stop asking him to relive his experience getting shot every time he makes a pitch for a grant — and to think harder about the traumas he and others are so often forced to relive simply to meet their budgets.

Here’s the full list of the 10 articles that won the most page views from our audience:

• The Philanthropy 50
• How Nonprofits Helped Fuel the Opioid Crisis
• Desperately Seeking Fundraisers
• Melinda French Gates Says Her Future Giving Will Be Guided by Feedback From Nonprofits, Not Just Metrics
• The Nonprofit Hiring Crisis
• Large Numbers of Nonprofit Leaders Are Stepping Down — and the Competition to Find New Ones Is ‘Fierce’
• Foundations and Big Donors Step In to Tackle the Nation’s Nurse Shortage
• Underpaid Black Leader Who Turned Around Social-Justice Nonprofit Resigns, Alleging Racial Bias From the Board
• Will More in Philanthropy Adopt the MacKenzie or Melinda Approach to Giving?
• Why Must I Relive My Deepest Trauma to Convince Donors to Fund My Organization?

To be sure, there were many more carefully reported articles, news analyses, advice pieces, and opinion essays that stood out in the past year. But this list offers a time capsule of what we just lived through – and perhaps a glimpse of what the Chronicle will be covering in the year ahead.