Reporting on our First Year

Hi Subscriber First Name,

It’s hard to believe September is already here. I hope you have had a great summer, wherever you chose to spend it.

For The Globe and Mail Foundation, September means the beginning of a new operational and fiscal year — and a look back on the past 12 months. We launched our programming in fall 2025, and have been busy ever since. We are thrilled to present our inaugural impact report.

In our first year, the Foundation served more than 500 media workers, photojournalists, industry professionals, and members of the public through training and media literacy initiatives in Canada and abroad. This included:

• 129 media workers on the front lines of conflict in Ukraine, who received anti-drone and critical first aid training, and psychological support.

• 90 creators and experts who shared and presented best practices and new work at our first annual Globe Photojournalism Summit.

• 25 photojournalists developed skills and advanced their careers within The Globe Academy’s inaugural photojournalism training and mentorship program.

• More than 300 members of the public convened at our first Editing Democracy event, which featured a stellar line up of media and technology experts from Canada, the US, and the UK.

Read more on what we accomplished here, with thanks to the partnership of several generous supporters who are highlighted in the report.

It is set to be an exciting fall ahead, with two upcoming events to mark your calendars for, including our second iteration of Editing Democracy. Details will soon follow. In addition, the Foundation recently announced the funding of a scholarship for a Syrian media worker, who will take part in an eight-month journalism fellowship at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

We are also thrilled to welcome Rachel Verbin to our team as Senior Coordinator, Program and Operations. Bringing an exceptional background in media and photojournalism, Rachel is sure to help grow our programs and impact even further.

Thriving as a media worker in these times is no small feat and it is one of the most important jobs we can support for the sake of accountability, progress, and democracy. Thank you for being part of The Globe and Mail Foundation’s community of followers, and for helping champion a strong future for journalism and civic engagement. Always feel free to drop me a line at laura@globeandmailfoundation.com.

Happy reading,

Laura Lavie
Executive Director
The Globe and Mail Foundation

Our 2026 Impact Report is Here 
September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026

We are living through one of the most challenging times for news media. This year, global press freedom was ranked at an all-time low. More journalists are describing new forms of censorship. Layoffs from newsrooms abound. Social media coupled with the rapid development of AI has presented serious challenges to media literacy as well as the availability, and the consumption of, fact-based information.

Only by working together can we counter these forces that threaten to unravel democracy and civic engagement as we know it. Through values-based partnerships with philanthropists and industry stakeholders, The Globe and Mail Foundation has brought new offerings to media professionals and to the public, in pursuit of a healthier, more civically connected future. Read more about our work to protect and strengthen journalism in our 2025/26 impact report.

Interview with Mackenzie Pardy

We have launched a new section on our website called “Impact.” We will communicate to the public the results of our work through annual reporting, as well as a series of interviews with those who have benefited from our programming. Our first interview is with Mackenzie Pardy, a participant in our Training and Mentorship Program for Photojournalists, who shares her experience so far as part of our inaugural cohort.

Above is the cover image from Mackenzie’s recent photo essay in The Globe and Mail, published on August 6, 2026. Her powerful story, entitled Beyond Words, documents the Mi’kmaq community’s work to revive one of the oldest known writing systems in Canada. We look forward to seeing more of Mackenzie’s stories as she grows her practice.

Sarah Khazem, Scholarship Recipient

The Globe and Mail Foundation has partnered with the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact, to provide a scholarship that will mentor and train a Syrian media professional as a journalist for global media.

Following an open call for applications, we are thrilled to announce that Sarah Khazem, a Syrian journalist with more than five years of experience reporting from Syria and Lebanon on migration, gender, human rights, mental health, environmental issues, and freedom of the press, has been selected for the fellowship.

Participants can join the program either online from anywhere in the world, or in person, and will be trained to pitch stories to Canadian and international newsrooms through a range of formats. As the region rebuilds, this is one small way that the Foundation can begin supporting journalists who are working under difficult circumstances, and who have stories to share beyond their borders.

The project was informed by Journalists for Human Rights' recent report entitled The New Era of Media in Syria, an important read for anyone that wants to understand how to help promote stability and a free press in the region.

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars and welcome in fall with The Globe and Mail Foundation’s upcoming events:

News from the Sector

Worth a read is Richard J. Toefl’s August Substack interview with Tom Rosenstiel, a leading thinker in the journalism sector. The Founding Manager of Propublica speaks with Rosenstiel about his recently published book, The Next Journalism: How the Press Must Change to Serve Democracy. Among many topics, they discuss how investigative journalism practices need to shift, and why more empathy for audiences is critical to rebuilding trust.

In July, The Knight Foundation announced a $5 million investment in Village Media, the Northern Ontario-based operator of a digital-only local news network in North America. Through local journalism and technology, Village Media’s model has been built to empower and sustain communities given the collapse of local news and its traditional revenue model.

Help us Continue this Work

If you like what we are doing, please make a donation to help further our mission to protect and promote excellence in journalism. Your investment will be used to train more journalists working to inform the public with fact-based reporting. As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to start thinking about making a tax-deductible donation.

More news from the Foundation again soon. In the meantime, follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for weekly updates.