Deadline: 9 September 2024
The Fund for Investigative Journalism is accepting proposals for both regular grants and seed grants for early reporting.
Grant Types
- Regular Grant
- Grants are paid directly to freelance investigative reporters or media outlets for expenses related to investigations, including travel costs, records-related fees, document collection and analysis costs, reporters’ time and other expenses. Grants can be used for print or online articles, television or radio stories, books, podcasts and documentaries.
- Seed Grant
- Journalists do not need a commit to publish. These grants are intended to help yield initial findings that reporter can use to secure a commitment to publish and apply for a full grant from the Fund or other sources. Journalists submit a shorter narrative explaining the investigative story idea and what expenses the grant would cover.
Funding Information
- Regular Grant
- The Fund provides grants of up to $10,000 for stories on any topic that break new ground and uncover wrongdoing in the public or private sectors.
- Seed Grant
- The Fund provides grants of up to $2,500 for initial reporting and research that can help flesh out and define investigative stories. The grants are primarily for freelance journalists, and they can be used to cover open-records fees, travel, research, the reporter’s time and other expenses.
Eligibility Criteria
- Regular Grant
- To be eligible, applicants must have a letter from an outlet committing to run the story. Journalists submit a proposal explaining why the story is investigative, sharing initial findings and outlining the investigative plan. The application also includes a budget explaining what expenses the grant would cover.
- Seed Grant
- The Fund’s Board of Directors, all accomplished journalists, reviews grant proposals and decides which to approve. Applicants will be notified of decisions in mid-November. For regular grants, journalists receive half of the total grant at the outset and the other half upon publication. Seed grants are paid in full at the outset.
Deadline
- Seed grants: September 20, 2024.
For more information, visit FIJ.
