ecoRI Inc.
ecoRI Inc. was created mission to investigate issues and write stories that will catalyze positive environmental change in Rhode Island. The nonprofit journalistic initiative is devoted to educating Rhode Island policy makers and the public about the causes, consequences and solutions to local environmental issues.
Sobre Você
Section 1: You
Nome
Frank
Sobrenome
Carini
Website URL
Organization
ecoRI Inc.
Country
Estados Unidos , RI
Section 2: Your Organization
Nome da Organização
ecoRI Inc.
Página da organização na internet
Telefone da organização
401-678-0206
Endereço da organização
111 Hope St.
Sua organização é
OSCIP/ONG
País da organização
Estados Unidos , RI
Sua ideia
Dê um nome ao seu projeto
ecoRI Inc.
Country and state your work focuses on
Estados Unidos , RI
Describe Your Idea
ecoRI Inc. was created mission to investigate issues and write stories that will catalyze positive environmental change in Rhode Island. The nonprofit journalistic initiative is devoted to educating Rhode Island policy makers and the public about the causes, consequences and solutions to local environmental issues.
Website URL
INOVAÇÃO
What makes your idea unique?
No other state features an online news organization that is solely dedicated to local, independent and investigative environmental journalism. ecoRI.org doesn’t have links to stories written by other sources and posted on other Web sites, and the stories, opinions and videos are written and produced by Rhode Island people about topics that matter to Rhode Islanders.
ecoRI was created to accomplish three important goals: fill the gap in environmental reporting that exists in Rhode Island; increase public awareness and civic participation in local environmental issues; and train future environmental writers and journalists.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Não
Impacto
Temas relacionados à inscrição
What impact have you had?
In a short five months, ecoRI.org has established itself as a leading source for Rhode Island environmental news. Those behind its development believe investigative reporting and insightful writing that produce in-depth stories and substantive opinion pieces provoke necessary changes in behaviors and practices. Quality journalism often is the impetus for arousing public awareness that encourages those in power to address problems now, rather than leave them for future generations.
ecoRI Inc. has developed partnerships with both the University of Rhode Island and Brown University and with other nonprofit organizations that promote environmental awareness, advocacy and education. Its partnerships with URI and Brown will help train a future generation of environmental writers and journalists. The still-in-development ecoRI internship program will afford college students the opportunity to learn firsthand about journalism, to write and to report.
Problem
Smart growth, open-space conservation, responsible stewardship of natural resources, community-sponsored agriculture, green strategy initiatives, stormwater management, state energy policy, composting and recycling initiatives, alternative energy projects and social justice issues are the key topics and problems ecoRI has and will continue to address.
Actions
ecoRI.org staff was the first to report on a statewide initiative to turn discarded fruits, vegetables, turkey carcasses and fish heads into compost; it examined why two counties in Rhode Island — Providence and Newport — are in the worst 20 percent nationwide when it comes to health risks associated with diesel pollution; it wrote about how the revitalization of the Woonasquatucket River improved the quality of life in an impoverished Providence neighborhood; and took an in-depth look into why Rhode Island needs better land-use policies to stop decades of sprawl.
Results
ecoRI Inc. is increasing civic participation by supplying Rhode Islanders with knowledge, in-depth analysis and a public forum to become better advocates for social justice and good environmental policy. Its stories and investigations will encourage lawmakers to enact legislation that is in the best interest of the environment and the public.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
To accomplish its goals, ecoRI Inc. needs to be more than a 2.5-person, unpaid staff. Web-based news operations are the future of journalism and, as such, ecoRI needs to become a multimedia site featuring blogs, videos, photos and links to businesses and other nonprofit agencies that share the organization’s mission.
To do that properly, the nonprofit news organization needs to be built up to a full-time staff of five: executive director, managing editor, photo editor/content producer and two reporters. It also needs office space so it can better connect with the public, host Coffees with the Staff and community roundtables, and show environmental documentaries, followed by discussions with guest speakers.
YEAR 1: Get the organization up and running. ecoRI.org was launched in September and is being run by two full-time employees working for free. Reader donations ($1,200) enabled the nonprofit to open a bank account and helped pay for office supplies and business cards. To get the online news organization to the next level, at least two full-time staffers — an executive director and a reporter — need to be paid a fair market rate.
YEAR 2: To become a more diverse multimedia Web site and a more community-orientated operation, ecoRI Inc. will need to hire a photo editor/content producer and rent office space.
YEAR 3: To increase its investigative work and to produce more in-depth projects, ecoRI will need to hire another reporter and a managing editor.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
The only thing that will keep ecoRI Inc. from being a success and having a positive impact in Rhode Island is a lack of funding. The organization is already up and running, and continues to attract new readers.
Since its September launch, the number of monthly ecoRI.org hits has steadily increased — September (2,960), October (2,948), November (3,485), December (3,370), January (4,526) and as of Feb. 15 (3,322). That’s an average of 3,747 hits per month, and growing.
We send a weekly e-newsletter to 630-and-growing subscribers, and we have a growing presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg.
To keep this operation going and to expand its reach, the organization needs a full-time staff of five people who are paid a fair market rate and who are committed to helping make Rhode Island a more environmentally sustainable place to live and work.
How many people will your project serve annually?
> 10.000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Don't know
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Sim
SUSTENTABILIDADE
Em que estágio está seu projeto?
Implementado há menos de um ano
In what country?
Estados Unidos , RI
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Não
If yes, provide organization name.
How long has this organization been operating?
Menos de um ano
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Sim
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Sim
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Não
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Não
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
ecoRI Inc.’s partnerships with both the University of Rhode Island and Brown University and with other nonprofits allows ecoRI to tap into a reservoir of environmental expertise, scientific knowledge and community experience. These partnerships allow the news organization to better understand the environmental concerns of different communities and neighborhoods. These partnerships also help us connect with Rhode Islanders and helps Rhode Islanders connect with us.
These partnerships strengthen a shared mission: environmental advocacy.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1. Funding for a small staff and some office space.
2. Hiring and keeping talented people with a passion for environmental advocacy and social justice.
3. Never stop digging for news and never stop caring about the community of people, animals and plants that it impacts.
A História
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Growing frustrations about how inadequately the mainstream media in Rhode Island — and across the country, for that matter — covers environmental issues.
For example, Rhode Island’s greatest natural, cultural and economic asset is Narragansett Bay, and the state features about 400 miles of tidal shoreline. Yet there is little reporting done on the overall health and well-being of Rhode Island’s waters, which are being contaminated by sewage overflows, stormwater runoff and the overuse of pesticides, fertilizers and other harsh chemicals.
Last summer, 90 Rhode Island beaches, including several multiple times, were closed to protect the public from illnesses associated with swimming or surfing in contaminated waters.
In 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council ranked Rhode Island 25th out of 31 coastal and Great Lakes states in beach-water quality. The environmental action group also ranked the Ocean State sixth worst in terms of beach-water samples that exceeded national health standards.
Narragansett Bay is warmer on average now than at any other time in recorded history. Natural plankton cycles — the currency of life in the bay — are out of balance because climate change and nitrogen loads have lowered oxygen levels in parts of the Bay.
But, the brunt of mainstream media coverage concerning these issues has consisted of the same state and/or local officials repeatedly saying the problem is being dealt with and solutions are being studied. There has been little in-depth coverage, the type of reporting that encourages those in power to address problems now.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Executive Director Frank Carini has 20 years of journalism experience, and has spent time as a reporter, a photographer and an editor. He has managed reporters, photographers and copy editors, written columns and editorials, and designed newspaper section fronts.
He has worked at a variety of publications, from a large, metropolitan daily (The Cincinnati Post) to a small daily newspaper (The Newport Daily News) to several weekly papers, including an alternative weekly that covered 17 cities and towns north of Boston. He has won several press association awards for column writing and reporting.
At The Cincinnati Post, the Massachusetts native managed a department that had an annual budget of $1 million-plus and employed 15 full-time employees. He also spent three-plus years working in Rhode Island as the city editor for The Newport Daily News.
As city editor of The Newport Daily News, Carini was the first media member to report Rhode Island lobstermen’s concern that a pesticide used to control the state’s mosquito population — trade name Altosid and a common ingredient in household flea-bombs — was finding its way into Narragansett Bay and likely killing lobster larvae and inhibiting adult lobsters from molting.
The Associated Press and local radio and TV stations picked up the story. Several Rhode Island communities, including Newport and Jamestown, called for the discontinued use of the pesticide. Legislation was submitted at the Statehouse to ban the use of the pesticide.
Carini graduate from North Adams State College in 1990 with a degree in English/Communications. He is married and lives in Providence, R.I.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
- Login to post new content in this forum.
Comentários
Hi Frank,
I know this is an issue that all online newspapers struggle with but I was hoping you could outline a few of your revenue-generating strategies for ecoRI.
Thanks!
Alexis
Alexis,
Good question. As a nonprofit, ecoRI.org has several areas it is tapping into for funding: grants, both governmental and private sector; sponsorships and underwriting; reader donations; and advertising.
The money side of it is a work in progress, admittedly. It's been difficult to raise money, but as ecoRI.org continues to grow its readership and brand, I believe the money side of the business model will start to grow as well.
It takes time and patience. I believe with continued hard work ecoRI Inc. will soon be able to sustain itself financially.
By the way, sorry for my late response. I was out of town visiting family.
— Frank Carini
Postar novo comentário