Journalism funders have come together to fund a grant project with $46 million. This included donations from Emerson College, Facebook Journalism Project, Knight Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, and the Democracy Fund.
The purpose of this grant from the First American Journalism Project is to offer support to organizations that bring the news to the public. The organizations supported by the project are those that are committed to providing the public with access to the civic information they need that hadn’t been made available to them in the past.
For the most part, the project is supporting news organizations that operate as nonprofits. The ideal candidate to receive a grant would be an organization that has already acquired funding for at least two years.
The First American Journalism Project has teamed up with the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund. The two are working together to ensure that any news outlets with African American leaders are properly supported.
There have already been 11 organizations that have received a grant from this project. Those that have gotten it all have some important things in common, including longevity and a proven history of success. All 11 organizations receive roughly $800,000 of the total $8.5 billion budget.
The $800,000 grants will account for anywhere from 15% of each recipient’s budget to 30% of it for the 2020 calendar year. The majority of these grants allow each recipient to hire a minimum of two full-time employees for their organizations. Those two employees are responsible for raising more money for the organization through fundraising efforts and revenue growth.
The list of 11 recipients of this grant is Berkleyside, Centro de Periodismo Investigative, City Bureau, The Connecticut Mirror, inewssource, Mississippi Today, MLK50, Noise, Underscore, WyoFile, and VTDIgger.
The project does not stop with these recipients. Future plans are for it to support at least 25 to 35 more organizations that report on civic news. The majority of the $46 million in fund money will go towards these organizations.
By offering these grants to worthy recipients, the organization’s goal is to facilitate the process of establishing a cash flow that is constantly fed into by coaches, investors and even the recipients themselves. This team effort will be ongoing throughout the year.