Three staffers have departed in a reorganization of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to transparency in government.
The departures were confirmed by the Sunlight Foundation Monday.
The exits came in January, as the foundation combined its reporting arm with its communications team under Gabriela Schneider, director of communications for the Sunlight Foundation, according to a statement from the nonprofit:
Sunlight is entering a new era of leadership, and as a part of that transition has undergone some internal restructuring to best position it to continue to be a strong leader in the movement for government transparency and accountability. To that effect, we moved the reporting function, which remains an important component of our work, into our communications team. We also moved our development work into the president’s office.
Since 2011, The Sunlight Foundation’s reporting group has has been run under the supervision of managing editor Kathy Kiely, who until recently was listed on the foundation’s staff page.
Kiely confirmed to Poynter she was laid off from the Sunlight Foundation and left in late January.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to help build tools for journalism from the ground up,” Kiely said. “I enjoyed my time there and I was sad to see it come to an end.”
The reporting team continues to offer real-time investigations into campaign finance and lobbying.
In September, the foundation announced the appointment of Chris Gates as its new president, succeeding co-founder Ellen Miller. In an interview with Politico, Gates emphasized the importance of the foundation’s watchdog journalism, specifically tracking the “immense amount of dark money” that influences politics.
