New Site Aims to Spotlight Stories of Nonprofit-Led ‘Renewal’

A new online publication aims to highlight nonprofit and individual efforts to strengthen U.S. communities.

Called The Renewal Project, the website is a collaboration between Atlantic Media Strategies — the consulting and marketing arm of Atlantic Media, publisher of The Atlantic magazine and other print and online outlets — and insurance company Allstate.

Charities are encouraged to pitch stories about their “creative solutions” to local problems to the project’s editorial team, said Jean Ellen Cowgill, president of Atlantic Media Strategies.

The idea for the publication came from the Heartland Monitor poll, which the companies started running in 2009 to discern the effects of the Great Recession on neighborhoods across the country.

“One scene continued to emerge: the spirit of renewal,” said Stacy Drumtra, director of CEO strategic communications at Allstate. “No matter the state of a local community or the challenges in neighborhoods, people were banding together, trusting each other, and making things better. It inspired us to tell their stories.”

All the stories will be available on the website, and the editorial team will also promote them heavily via social media.

“It’s a contemporary way for us to reach people where they are on their social platforms to spread their stories of good,” Ms. Drumtra said.

In an introductory letter to readers published on the site this month, editor Margaret Myers described the struggles of her hometown of Detroit. It was hit hard by deindustrialization and the economic recession, but that didn’t stop citizens, organizations, and government leaders from “rolling up their sleeves” and working to make it flourish, she wrote.

“There’s a renewal story where you live, and we want to hear that, too,” she added.

The Atlantic and Allstate host the Renewal Awards, now in its second year. Through the contest, five nonprofits that demonstrate how they create positive change in their communities will win $20,000. Nominations are open until November 30, 2016, and winners will be announced next spring.

The Renewal Project is not the only new publication hoping to spread the word about charities’ success stories. Washington Monthly magazine recently launched Successes of Philanthropy, an online catalog designed to catch the attention of policy makers in Washington, D.C.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that nominations for the Renewal Awards close on February 16, 2017, not this November. That version also said the awards were hosted by Atlantic Media Strategies instead of The Atlantic magazine.