Fellowships, grants and philanthropy have grown into a fairly reliable way to support journalism and journalists. Last week, my colleague Megan Griffith-Greene wrote about a new project examining what’s working in philanthropy and journalism. 

This week, let’s take a look at what’s required of those types of arrangements. 

My colleague Jon Greenberg sat down with about a dozen journalists in St. Louis at the LION conference last month to talk about the good and the bad of grant-funded reporting. Here’s Jon with more:

These grants often do wonderful things: open the door to great reporting, connect with new audiences, win awards. But not everything with this money is always wine and Sweet Williams. Here are a few points for how you can make them work best for you.

• Accept and plan for the role of a third party. When you accept the money, you create a working relationship between your news organization and the funder. This shouldn’t affect editorial independence, but it will affect newsroom assignment priorities.

• Be alert with funders who haven’t worked with journalists before. As Dana Coester with 100 Days in Appalachia put it, “We had a funder who only wanted us to talk about the good things in the region. I'm like, we're not a tourism publication.” If a funder needs a newsroom tour and a 101 on journalism, make time for it. (Better yet, send them to Megan, who is doing that exact kind of work.)

• Aim to cover some fixed costs. Your budget will likely include additional expenses. But keep your options open to partially cover existing staff salaries and organizational overhead.

• Get the newsroom on the same page. Time spent working on the grant-funded project is time not spent on something else. Editors need to be on board. Make sure you all have a robust conversation about this, preferably before you apply.

Want to get more pointers? Have a look at With grant-funded reporting, be careful what you wish for.

That’s it for this week. Do you enjoy Poynter’s Instagram memes? Take a minute and learn some great writing tips from the person behind them. 

Kristen