Many journalists have been there: You’re brainstorming and coming up with ideas for a reporting project or a collaborative news initiative, and that one thought looms overhead — “If only I had the money.”
The truth is, the money is out there. But we’re all fighting a two-part battle: knowing where to find the funding and then being selected to receive it over all the other qualified applicants in a competitive pool.
To help pull back the curtain on this process, the Institute was joined on Sept. 9 for a discussion with Anne Godlasky, president of the National Press Foundation; Marina Walker Guevara, executive editor at the Pulitzer Center; and Monica Williams, an independent journalist and fellow at Reynolds Journalism Institute who is developing a grant tracking tool. Each panelist shared strategies to help journalists find more funding opportunities, sharpen their proposals, and stand out among their peers.
Generally speaking, the panelists advised the audience to avoid saving applications for the last minute and to try again after a rejection. Plus, they shared guidance for establishing a relationship with host publications and funders before starting the application process. For those tips and more, watch the full webinar here.
Here are three main takeaways from the discussion:
Be clear about how you will use the funds
Don’t sell your project short, but avoid inflating your proposed budget with unsupported numbers. When possible, look at what similar projects have cost to help guide your estimate.
“The more specific, the more credible your proposal will be,” said Walker Guevara. This applies to your proposed budget. If you plan to travel for a reporting project, for example, do some research on how much it will cost per night, and factor in other line items like transportation and partnerships with local reporters.
“I think the line items will help,” Williams said. “You show, ‘It will take 10 hours to translate these documents. I’m going to pay this person $30 per hour. That equals $300.’ Kind of go through it like you would your home budget.”
Depending on the publication and the funding opportunity, you may also need to include a line item for your salary, as not all publications will pay reporters directly for publishing their work.
“We are seeing outlets that say, ‘We’ll happily give you a platform to publish your story, but we can’t pay you,’ and that is really disappointing,” Walker Guevara said. “In some cases, what we tell freelancers is, when you apply, if you are not going to be paid — or if there’s this big gap — make the case in the application. Sometimes we can honor it, or we can at least honor part of it. Sometimes we can’t. And we still hope and try to work with outlets so they do their part, because philanthropy cannot take over everything. That’s not the way that the media industry should work.”
Apply even if you don’t meet 100% of the requirements
“Sort of like a job application, I don’t think you need to hit 100% of everything,” Godlasky said. “Make sure that your interest in [the subject matter] is really authentic. What we don’t want to see is if it is a fellowship or a grant for a very specific beat and you have shown zero interest in that up until now. Then it kind of feels like, okay, you’re just looking for some money right now.”
Williams cited the Harvard Business Review article from 2014 about “Why women don’t apply for jobs unless they’re 100% qualified” and stated that she wouldn’t be surprised if this statistic also applies to marginalized communities. “So I always advise people to apply anyway and let them tell you no,” Williams said. “Don’t rule yourself out of the process.”
The speakers also said there are ways you can show that your experience is relevant to your specific pitch, even if it’s not an exact match with the listed requirements. For example, if you have a background in technical writing, you might highlight examples of your work that would be useful to the reporting work.
“Make sure that the clips you are showing match the ambition of the project you are proposing,” Walker Guevara added. “Some people are sometimes proposing, for example, a very complex data-driven project, but then you look at the clips, and the clips are very feature-y. There’s no data work there, then there’s a gap.”
She added that in certain circumstances, it’s okay to over-communicate a bit. “At the Pulitzer Center, we even have a section that is called ‘additional materials,’ and you can just upload a Word document with a couple of extra thoughts that may answer these gaps in the application.”
Be mindful of how you use AI in the application process
In some cases, AI can be useful in the preparation stage — asking a chatbot to analyze your application for weaknesses or gaps, for example. “I’m not going to tell anyone not to use it at all,” Godlasky said. “I think it can be helpful in the sense of you putting your own information that you’ve written into it and kind of interrogating it.”
But funders are looking for originality and can recognize the dullness of AI-generated writing, so the panelists strongly recommended against using it to write the proposal.
“We are looking for authentic voices,” Walker Guevara said. “Don’t worry so much about trying to fit what you think the funder wants … Tell us a story that you are passionate about and why that matters, and to whom.”
Whatever you do, don’t copy and paste.
“We want to hear your voice,” said Godlasky. “We want who you are to come through the application, and those are the ones that are the most successful.”
Tags: Career, fellowships, funding, grants