International Fund for Public Interest Media

• Eligibility criteria:
  – Grants are only available to media organisations
  – Both for-profit and not-for-profit media organisations can apply for funding.
  – They expect most applicants to have revenues well in excess of $50,000 per year.
• Type of funding: Programmatic
• Target countries: Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Lebanon, Tunisia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Georgia, Ukraine.
• Application language: English

The International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) is now open to support independent public interest media especially in low and middle income settings and to support long term systemic solutions to the current conditions that prevent independent media financing themselves.

The Fund aims to dramatically increase the amount of resources available to support trustworthy, ethical, fact-based journalism, and enable the media to work for democracy.

Significant progress has been made with this fund, and while still in its early stages of establishment, it has secured sufficient funding to launch an initial small scale call for proposals. This call for proposals is the first of a series of funding opportunities.

IFPIM defines Public Interest Media as media that:

• Is free from censorship and independent.
• Exists to inform publics on the issues that shape their lives in ways which serve the public’s rather than any political, commercial or factional interest.
• Enables public debate and dialogue across society.
• Holds those in power to account on behalf of the public interest.
• It implies a focus on ethical and credible media working in the interests of all people across all of society, not just those who have the power or money to pay for or influence media. Public interest media can be commercial, public service or community media and distributed online, broadcast, through print or other channels.

Grants will be provided over a period of up to 2 years. They expect the majority of grants to be in the range of $80,000 to $350,000.

In this first call, concept notes are invited from media organisations with a strong record of public interest journalism in the countries listed below.

• Sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, Sierra-Leone, South Africa
• Middle East and North Africa: Lebanon, Tunisia
• Caribbean, Central and South America: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico
• Asia and Pacific: Afghanistan, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines
• Eastern Europe: Georgia, Ukraine

See here to learn more and apply.
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