FIJ Regular and Seed Grants Program

• Eligibility Criteria
  – To be eligible for the regular grants, 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.  ;
  – 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.
• Type of Funding: Programmatic
• Target Region: United States
• Application Language: English

The Fund for Investigative Journalism is accepting proposals for both its regular 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 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. This is primarily for freelance journalists, and they can be used to cover open-records fees, travel, research, the reporter’s time and other expenses.

Proposals for regular grants are due on January 27, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, and applications for seed grants are due on January 31, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.

See here to learn more and apply.

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