These Media Reporting Grants Programs are calling all passionate journalists, storytellers, and change-makers to take advantage of the opportunity to advance their critical work. Apply today and create a media landscape that empowers communities, challenges injustice, and contributes to a more informed and engaged global society.
Pulitzer Center’s Machine Learning Reporting Grants
Deadline: Ongoing
The Pulitzer Center encourages proposals that use advanced data mining techniques, such as machine learning and natural language processing, to solve a data or reporting problem related to a journalistic investigation.
They’re seeking compelling data-driven storytelling—based on original and transparent data collection and analysis—that has the potential to shape public discourse and hold the powerful accountable.
In this grant they encourage radical transparency and sharing of methodologies and code, including ethics considerations that informed the research and reporting as well as data limitations, so each story produced can serve as a blueprint for other newsrooms pursuing similar projects.
Eligibility Criteria
- This opportunity is open to U.S. residents and journalists around the world.
- They are open to proposals from freelance data journalists, staff journalists, or groups of newsrooms working in collaboration on a data project idea.
- They want to make sure that people from many backgrounds and perspectives are empowered to produce data journalism.
- They strongly encourage proposals from journalists and newsrooms who represent a broad array of social, racial, ethnic, underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds.
As you prepare your application, here are a few questions for you to think about:
- Why are you using machine learning? Have other approaches been deemed insufficient?
- What data do you plan to use? What biases might this data contain, and how would reporters try to mitigate it? What is the size and complexity of the data you are dealing with?
- What is the machine learning model? Has the model been tested on a smaller-scale dataset? How accurate is the model?
- Can the model be used by others? Can the investigation be replicated with the model?
To apply, you will be asked to provide
- A description of the proposed project (250 words). They look more favorably on proposals that include a thoughtful distribution plan and letter(s) of interest or support from publishers or editors.
- Methodology: Please describe your approach to collecting and analyzing the data, and include your approach for fact-checking or independently verifying the data that will be used in your reporting. Please explain any plans you may have to make the code or the data publicly available after publication of the stories.
- A preliminary budget estimate, including a basic breakdown of costs. Include travel costs, software, satellite/GIS, or hardware costs. Please do not include stipends for journalists/team members who are in the employ of newsrooms or are being paid by a publisher. If you are a journalist collaborating with a data analyst, coder, and/or data visual specialist, you may include consultant fees in your budget.
- Three examples (links) of published work by you (or someone on your project team).
- Three professional references. These can be either contact information or letters of recommendation.
- Applications may also include a more detailed description of the project and reporting plan.
Ineligible
- Books (they can support a story that might become part of a book, as long as the story is published independently in a media outlet)
- Feature-length films (they do support short documentaries with ambitious distribution plans)
- Staff salaries
- Equipment purchases (equipment rentals are considered on a case-by-case basis)
- An outlet’s general expenses (for example rent, utilities, insurance)
- Seed money for start-ups
- Routine breaking news and coverage
- Advocacy/marketing campaigns
- Data projects aimed solely at academic research. Data should be developed to enhance/support journalism.
For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.
Call for Applications: Our Work/Environment Reporting Grants
Deadline: Ongoing
The Pulitzer Center is now accepting applications for a new reporting grant focused on climate change and its effects on workers and work
This ambitious initiative, Our Work/Environment, seeks to explore the global climate risks playing out in fields and on factory floors and being discussed in company boardrooms. As the world heats up, what jobs and employment sectors, what factory practices, what sorts of manufacturing–from computer chips to batteries to food production to fast-fashion–are threatened or must change?
What factors will affect work? Heat, yes. Competition for water, for sure. They want you to reveal the real-world problems of working as temperatures rise, and then tell them much more. Stories that document the impact on labor rights and the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable workers—including women who are often heads of household—as well as those that document companies that are working on solutions, and which are aiming for sustainability at scale, are of interest.
They encourage freelance and staff journalists with ambitious enterprise and strong in-depth reporting ideas to apply for Pulitzer Center support to cover the intersection of labor and climate in their communities. They are particularly interested in reporting from regions in Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America. All types of formats are welcome: print, digital, broadcast TV, radio, and film projects, as well as data and computer-assisted journalism. They encourage vivid, innovative storytelling that can be shared across platforms and in multiple languages.
Aim
- They aim to support teams that reflect the communities they report on. They hope this grant can help their partner organizations advance their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and commitments.
Eligibility Criteria
- This opportunity is open to U.S. residents and journalists around the world.
- They are open to proposals from freelance data journalists, staff journalists, or groups of newsrooms working in collaboration with a data project idea.
- They want to make sure that people from many backgrounds and perspectives are empowered to produce data journalism.
- They strongly encourage proposals from journalists and newsrooms who represent a broad array of social, racial, ethnic, underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds.
Guidelines
- Make it your own
- Potential applicants often ask them what topics they’re interested in seeing and they always turn the question back to them. They want the ideas to be generated by the journalists because they are passionate about them—not because there might be funding available to report on them.
- Go deep
- The only broad parameter they have is that projects address global systemic crises. And by crises they do not mean simply headline-breaking conflicts.
- A crisis can be a conflict. They support reporting that digs beneath the surface to address the root causes of such crises, as well as possible responses to them.
- Surprise them
- They’re not just looking for appropriate topics, they’re looking for story ideas that are surprising—that reveal something new, or will help readers see an issue in a different light. Ebola is an appropriate reporting topic; a profile of a prominent doctor working in the midst of an Ebola outbreak is a story idea; a story about one or more Ebola doctors who have surprising insights on how best to battle the epidemic is a better idea.
- Think beyond one story
- They encourage applicants to work across multiple platforms. Sometimes this means creating partnerships with others—writers working together with photographers or videographers or newsrooms joining forces to tackle a complex story, for instance—to maximize impact.
What they don’t fund?
- To save their grantees and staff time, they thought it would be helpful to outline editorial products and project expenses they don’t fund:
- Books (they can support a story that might become part of a book, as long as the story is published independently in a media outlet)
- Feature-length films (they do support short documentaries with ambitious distribution plans)
- Staff salaries
- Equipment purchases (equipment rentals are considered on a case-by-case basis)
- An outlet’s general expenses (for example rent, utilities, insurance)
- Seed money for start-ups
- Routine breaking news and coverage
- Advocacy/marketing campaigns
- Data projects aimed solely at academic research. Data should be developed to enhance/support journalism.
For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.
COVID-19, Vaccines and Global Health Inequities Reporting Grant Program
Deadline: Ongoing
The Pulitzer Center is seeking applications for enterprise and underreported stories about COVID-19 inequities and other U.S. and global health system failures.
They’re interested in systemic barriers to all sorts of care, including, but not limited to, COVID-19 vaccines and treatment. They’re also interested in stories about misinformation and politicization that impede improved access to care and preparation for future health crises. This opportunity is open to all newsrooms and independent journalists in the United States and abroad.
Grant Overview
- COVID-19 laid bare what was clear to many already: With some exceptions, health systems around the world are woefully underresourced or inaccessible to many who aren’t wealthy.
- COVID-19 spread rapidly among essential but often lower-paid U.S. workers who were unable to shelter and work at home. Despite lessons learned from the pandemic, even routine health care remains beyond reach for many in the world’s richest country. A disturbing number of U.S. residents also continue to shun vaccines, influenced by misinformation.
- Globally, millions of people in low- and middle-income countries are unable to access vaccines. And some also harbor fear of inoculation. The pandemic and other crises have also contributed to a global surge in mental health problems, yet mental health care often remains taboo and unaffordable.
Budget Range
- They do not have a budget range. They will consider projects of any scope and size, and they are open to supporting multiple projects each year.
Eligibility Criteria
- This opportunity is open to U.S. residents and journalists around the world. They are open to proposals from freelance journalists, staff journalists, or groups of newsrooms working in collaboration with a project idea. They want to make sure that people from many backgrounds and perspectives are empowered to produce journalism. They strongly encourage proposals from journalists and newsrooms who represent a broad array of social, racial, ethnic, underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds.
Ineligible
Examples of editorial products or project expenses that the Pulitzer Center grants don’t cover:
- Books
- Feature-length films
- Staff salaries
- Equipment purchases
- Seed money for start-ups
- Routine breaking news and coverage
- Advocacy/marketing campaigns
For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.
Global Reporting Grants Program
Deadline: Ongoing
Applications are now open for the Pulitzer Center’s Global Reporting Grants Program to support in-depth, high-impact reporting on critical issues that are often overlooked in the media, from global health to climate change.
They support projects across all media platforms and encourage ambitious, prize-worthy proposals that combine print, photography, audio, and/or video for one or more news outlets. The most successful projects are those in which news outlets match their commitment by adding interactive or multimedia elements to enhance and showcase their original reporting.
Funding Information
Awards cover reporting costs and are based on reasonable, detailed budgets. Most awards for international travel are between $5,000 and $10,000, but may be more or less depending on circumstances.
Eligibility Criteria
Grants are open to reporters, photographers, radio/audio journalists, television/video journalists, and documentary filmmakers. They are committed to supporting journalists from diverse backgrounds and of all nationalities.
For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.
Applications open for Economic Hardship Reporting Project (US)
Deadline: Ongoing
The Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP) is accepting applications to provide grants to independent journalists reporting on issues related to poverty, economic class, workers’ rights, and income disparity in the U.S., and co-publish their work in partnership with major media outlets.
EHRP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that produces compelling journalism on economic inequality in America. EHRP funds and co-publishes reportage at the most renowned and popular media outlets, from The New York Times and The Guardian to Vice.
They commission narrative features, reported personal essays, reported op-eds, investigative reports, podcasts, nonfiction cartoons, photo essays and documentaries about economic inequality in the United States. Personal essays are welcome only if they contain substantial reporting.
Stories Topics
- They are currently looking for first-person essays, reported features and op-eds tackling stories about economic inequality and how it relates to:
- Housing and eviction, like this piece
- Gig and frontline work, especially firsthand accounts
- Religion where it intersects with income inequality
- Union activism and labor organizing
- Tech work, and tech’s impact on work
- Being laid off and unemployment
- Reproductive rights
- Caregiving
- Parenting
- Queer/trans working-class and economically unstable experiences.
Funding Information
- The grants range from $500 for an op-ed to $10,000 for a documentary film.
- For written work, they pay up to $1.25/word, depending on the amount of reporting required. They typically support pieces in the 800-1500 word count range.
- They occasionally support longer pieces placed in large national publications, but the grants for written work typically top out at $2,500.
- For photo essays they pay a $600 day rate. They usually pay upon publication but will give advances to financially struggling reporters.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for a grant, applicants must have reporting experience. EHRP’s editors expect writers to file multiple drafts of pieces if needed. All contributors should have reported pieces of this kind previously and be able to share links to or clips of reported work.
- Teams can apply.
- They encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.
- Publications can not apply for grants; the mission is to support independent journalists.
- Note: They aim to spread the grant money around and tend to say no to contributors who they’ve already supported with more than one grant per year.
For more information, visit EHRP.