Deadline: 25-Sep-20
The European Journalism Centre (EJC) and the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP) have launched a $3 million USD fund to support hundreds of community, local, and regional European news organizations.
Their mission is to protect news organizations and journalists that are supporting the most affected communities across Europe. Their grants will help them provide essential coverage, inform citizens, and fight misinformation with minimal resources during the COVID-19 crisis.
The purpose of the Fund is to provide core funding to support community engagement initiatives, address critical business needs, and facilitate innovative journalistic coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives
- Reach Fund between 100 – 300 news organizations and journalists across Europe, in order to ensure as many communities as possible benefit.
- Urgency: Provide financial support in a rapid and accessible way, which will support beneficiaries at their most crucial time of need
- Protection: Help beneficiaries mitigate challenges related to financial sustainability during the COVID-19 crisis by providing them with core funding.
- Community: Keep affected communities informed with relevant, clear, and timely information about COVID-19 and other important stories, by directing support to a diverse range of grantees
- Flexibility: Provide funding that allows beneficiaries to solve their own problems.
- Inspiration: Inspire other news organizations and journalists to engage with their communities by sharing learning, experiences, and knowledge.
Funding Information
There are two tracks that will provide grants ranging between €5,000 and €25,000.
- Emergency Fund
- For news organizations: €5,000, €10,000 or €25,000
- For freelance journalists: €5,000
- Endurance Fund
- For news organizations: €10,000, €25,000
Who can apply?
News organizations and journalists that are:
- With their principal place of business located in a country in the Council of Europe
- Signed up to a press regulator, trust initiative, or part of a press association
- Actively covering COVID-19
- Serving communities on a hyper-local, local or regional scale, or communities of interest (communities being served must also be in Council of Europe member countries)
- Have proven community loyalty and a focus on producing public-interest journalism
- Either non-profit or for-profit
- In existential need of financial support brought on by the COVID-19 crisis
- Have a bank account that accepts international payments
Specific to freelancers
- Be a freelance journalist (or group of freelance journalists) that has a current CV(s) or online portfolio(s) that demonstrates
- a relevant qualification
- A history of working with trusted news organizations.
Specific to news organizations
- Be a micro- (up to 9 employees), small- (up to 49 employees) or medium-sized (up to 250 employees) news organization
- That has the following published on its website:
- at least three of the following: editorial policy, code of conduct, transparency statement, complaints procedure, diversity policy, privacy policy, whistleblower policy
- That can provide its most recent statement of financial accounts
- That employs the equivalent of at least one full-time journalist.
For more information, visit https://europeanjournalism.fund/eligibility
