Sharing a report about a lovely event to benefit Sapan News, started on a voluntary basis in August 2021. Since becoming a member of professional journalist bodies like INN since2023, Sapan News is eligible to join NewsMatch, a fund that supports 475+ nonprofit newsrooms across the USA. Generous guests that evening contributed for a total of $6K. We need $1,500 more by ‘Giving Tuesday’, Dec. 2, to reach $7,500. The year-end goal is $15K. To help out, please go to this link or click the button below.
PRESS RELEASE
Fundraiser for a Southasian nonprofit newsroom at a Boston photography museum
BOSTON: The third Sapan News year-end fundraiser kicked off in the Boston area with a gathering over drinks, dinner, art and music at the quaint Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester MA, the hometown of the event host Tasneem Chipty.
Chipty, a well-regarded antitrust economist, has hosted house parties at her own home over the past two years to raise support for Sapan News when the Southasia-focused syndicated features service first began fundraising in 2023.
What drew her to the cause, she said in her introductory remarks, was the organization’s commitment to building bridges in a fractured world. To elevate the fundraising event, she chose the Griffin, founded by Arthur Griffin, a 1930s’ photographer for the Boston Globe and photojournalist for Life and Time magazines.
Sapan News began as a voluntary media outlet in August 2021, sending out syndicated features to other media outlets around the globe in an effort to amplify the cause of peace, dialogue and collaboration.
It started with volunteers sending out press releases about the monthly online discussions being organised by the Southasia Peace Action Network, called Sapan for short – written like a word, not in all-caps – during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sapan was launched in March 2021, at an online meeting of nearly 90 activists, educators, journalists, and professionals from around the Southasian region and diaspora. Many participants had long been working for peace in the region, particularly between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
Branching out from Sapan press releases to independent features, Sapan News stories provide context and nuance to stories beyond the headlines, covering Southasia, the Indian Ocean region, and diaspora communities — literally, the world, through a Southasia lens.
Since it was incorporated as a nonprofit organization, donations to Sapan News are tax-deductible.
The fundraiser at the Griffin Museum featured a brief panel discussion with three Sapan team members, moderated by Yasmin Causer, a finance professional who serves on the boards of several nonprofits.
A unique initiative by Sapan News is the Social Media Ethics and Responsibility Pledge which aims to train ‘para-journalists’ – essentially anyone using a smartphone – to engage strategically and credibly online. Another is a Global Community Screenings series developed to engage audiences around issues raised by the 25-minute documentary produced by Sapan News, supported by the Pulitzer Center, ‘Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka Beyond the Headlines,’ 2024.
Nearly 70 guests from various walks of life also browsed artworks and greeting cards for sale. Towards the end, Ammara Nawaz Khan, a life sciences professor and accomplished vocalist presented a few Punjabi and Urdu songs, drawing applause from an appreciative audience.
As a member of the Institute of Nonprofit News, Sapan News is eligible to receive NewsMatch funds. This means that donations to the media outlet will be matched dollar-for-dollar, and even tripled, if it achieves its fundraising goal of $15,000 by December 31, 2025.
“The Griffin event got us off to a great start,” said Sarita Bartaula, Sapan News lead strategy and development, and a youth, inclusion and peace advocate hailing from Nepal, based in Washington D.C. “We are hugely grateful to Tasneem Chipty and all those who contributed and have pledged to contribute to help us reach our goal.”
— Sapan News
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Filed under: Media, Southasia | Tagged: art for sale, fundraiser, giving tuesday, griffin museum of photography, INN, newsmatch, nonprofit news, south asia, Southasia |
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