Philanthropy North Carolina reports on news and trends in the charitable marketplace, provides writing and advisory services and support for nonprofits, and helps other organizations better understand and communicate with nonprofits and the social-benefit sector.

PNC is the work of Todd Cohen, a veteran journalist who has reported on the charitable world for 22 years.

The News & Observer in Raleigh called Todd “arguably the foremost authority on philanthropy and nonprofits in North Carolina.”

Education and news career

Todd is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a bachelor’s degree in English, and the New England School of Law in Boston.

He served as editor of The Daily Tar Heel at UNC-CH and worked as a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers in Massachusetts and North Carolina before working for 12 years as a reporter and business editor for The News & Observer in Raleigh.

He has reported on local and state government and politics; education; business; and the charitable world.

Philanthropy reporting

In 1991, as business editor at The News & Observer, Todd launched a weekly column on nonprofits and philanthropy. And in 1993, he launched the Philanthropy Journal. He served through April 2012 as editor and publisher of the Journal, which was the first statewide newspaper in the U.S. to report on the charitable world.

For over 13 years, Todd has written a local philanthropy column for Charlotte Business Journal, The Business Journal in Greensboro, and Triangle Business Journal.

He is a long-time contributor to The NonProfit Times and was a philanthropy stringer for The New York Times.

He has written numerous op-ed columns on philanthropy for The News & Observer in Raleigh and writes the “Givers” column for Walter, a city magazine published by The News & Observer.

Philanthropy North Carolina

Todd created Philanthropy North Carolina in May 2012 to provide writing, communications support and advisory services to nonprofits, foundations and higher education, and to consulting firms and other businesses that work with charities and philanthropic organizations.

Expertise on nonprofits and philanthropy

Over the past 22 years, Todd has been a speaker, mainly on communications issues and trends in the charitable world, at hundreds of conferences, workshops, seminars, meetings, webinars and other gatherings for nonprofits, foundations, fundraising professionals and others who work for and with nonprofits and foundations.

At the Philanthropy Journal, he organized, moderated and spoke at:

• Five annual conferences for North Carolina nonprofits.
• Four annual conferences for foundations and corporate funders in the state.
• Ten conferences throughout the U.S. on nonprofits and technology.
• Scores of workshops and webinars for nonprofits on a broad range of topics.

In addition to thousands of news stories about nonprofits and philanthropy, he has written:

• A chapter on communications in a textbook on nonprofit management published by NASW Press (National Association of Social Workers).
• The lead essay in the 2004 annual report of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. It focused on the state of philanthropy in North Carolina.
• The forward to a 2007 report by Triangle United Way on health and human services needs in the region.

Todd also has been a source and resource on nonprofit issues for hundreds of reporters and editors for local, regional, national and international news organizations.

He has taught courses on nonprofit reporting and communications at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, and on nonprofit communications and media relations for the Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management at Duke University.

To see Todd’s interview on “North Carolina People with William Friday” that aired June 11, 2010, on UNC-TV, click here.

To read an interview with Todd on trends in the nonprofit world, published in The News & Observer on July 10,  2011, click here.

To read the opinion column Todd wrote about reporting on nonprofits and philanthropy for 20 years, published in The News & Observer on June 17, 2011, click here.