Colorado Media Project is pleased to announce a new grant opportunity to support smaller, Colorado-based local news organizations in producing high-quality, nonpartisan investigative or accountability journalism and/or in-depth reporting focused on a single topic.
Donor Name: Colorado Media Project
State: Colorado
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/14/2024
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The guiding purpose of CMP’s Spotlight: Colorado Fund (and the projects it supports) is to raise public awareness about critical issues facing the state and to catalyze positive change in the institutions and communities.
Funding Information
Journalists, documentarians and other media makers may apply for up to $10,000 per request.
Use of Funds
Grants from CMP’s Spotlight: Colorado Fund should be utilized to cover costs associated with investigative, accountability or in-depth journalism that is relevant to Colorado residents. This includes, but is not limited to: fees for accessing open records; travel expenses for interviews; staff or contractor time invested in reporting and/or data collection and analysis; and other essential resources required for impactful, in-depth reporting such as photography, video or graphics. They recognize that total costs for a single investigative project will be much greater than the size of the CMP grant, so the application requests a simplified list of total estimated project expenses, against which CMP funds may be applied flexibly.
Eligibility and Priorities
CMP expects to make five awards in this Fall 2024 pilot round of funding. Preference will be given to:
- Investigative or in-depth projects that shine new light on timely or long-standing challenges faced by Colorado residents, communities and/or natural resources;
- Applicants committed to the highest ethical and quality standards with a clear plan to publish and distribute their work widely;
- Applicants who work for smaller, nonprofit or locally-owned news outlets (with annual budgets of less than $1 million) and might otherwise not have adequate support to allocate time or resources to in-depth stories;
- Applicants that propose investigative reporting projects involving more than two newsrooms and/or a newsroom and other nonprofit partner;
- Applicants that propose storytelling on multiple platforms and include engagement strategies to reach traditionally underrepresented communities;
- Members of the Colorado News Collaborative, the Colorado Press Association, the Colorado Broadcasters Association, Local Media Association, LION Publishers, Institute for Nonprofit News, Society of Professional Journalists, and/or other professional groups.
Who and what is ineligible?
- Members of the public who have no affiliation with a Colorado newsroom;
- Individuals or organizations with no plans to publish or distribute their work in Colorado;
- Applicants whose work is primarily targeted for national audiences outside of Colorado;
- Projects proposed by newsrooms owned by national corporations or with annual budgets of over $2 million that may have greater access to institutional support for large-scale projects — though these newsrooms may participate in CMP-funded projects as part of a reporting coalition.
For more information, visit Colorado Media Project.
