Civitates seeking Proposals for strengthening Public Interest Journalism Organizations across Europe

Civitates is seeking proposals for core grants to strengthen public interest journalism organizations across Europe.

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Civitates aims to establish a diverse cohort of independent, public interest journalism organizations which defend democracy in Europe by covering stories of societal importance – by exposing abuses of power and drivers of polarization and defending a space in which all voices are heard.

The fund will provide multi-year commitments for general operating support and the institutional strengthening of its grantee partners to build more durable, more resilient, more networked, and more impactful public interest journalism organizations in Europe.

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In addition to strengthening specific organizations, Civitates will connect its grantee partners, encouraging them to learn and grow stronger together. This network effect is an essential element of this line of work and grantee partners are expected to play an active role in it.

Fund Goals

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Civitates aims to establish a strong cohort of independent, public interest journalism organizations which defend democracy in Europe by covering stories of societal importance, e.g. by exposing abuses of power and drivers of polarization and defending a space in which all voices are heard.
The fund will provide multi-year commitments for general operating support and the institutional strengthening of its grantee partners to build more durable, more resilient, more networked, and more impactful public interest journalism organizations in Europe.
In addition to strengthening specific organizations, Civitates aims to create a diverse cohort of organizations that go on a learning journey together. Through its Funding Plus activities Civitates connects organizations, encouraging them to meet, learn, and collaborate where it makes sense, so that the grantees in the cohort can grow stronger together. This network effect is an essential element of the sub-fund and grantees are expected to play an active role in it. At the start of the grant period, all grantees will undergo an organizational assessment with a trained facilitator (paid for by Civitates) to better understand and prioritize their needs.
The funds point of departure is editorial independence. Civitates recognizes that while journalism can produce impact and change, journalistic organizations cannot and should not promise specific (policy) outcomes. Civitates’ grantees therefore retain full editorial control and will never be asked for pre-publication editorial review or for any specific outcomes related to coverage in advance. Instead, grantees are asked to summarize what they have learned during the course of their work.
Funding Information

Grant amounts may vary depending on the size and scope of the plans proposed as well as the applicant organization’s annual budget. Organizations will be able to request funding according to these conditions:
Organizations with an annual budget up to €100k can apply for funds up to 50% of their annual budget (based on the actual figures of the last closed fiscal year).
Organizations with an annual budget up to €200k can apply for funds up to 40% of their annual budget (based on the actual figures of the last closed fiscal year).
Organizations with an annual budget above €200k can apply for funds up to 30% of their annual budget (based on the actual figures of the last closed fiscal year), with a maximum of 200K EUR per year.
Duration

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The duration of the grants can be up to 3 years (potentially renewable for another two years).

Eligibility Criteria

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Civitates accepts applications from organizations registered in any of the following countries:
Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
Engage in public interest journalism that informs the public about what matters to everyone in society, reporting about the common good, the general welfare and the security and well-being of everyone in the community/audience it serves (investigative journalism is included / excluded are organizations focusing purely on breaking news, infotainment or the daily news grind);
Are independent of political, commercial, and religious interests (excluded are organizations with a partisan agenda);
Produce in-depth journalism (explanatory and/or investigative), demonstrating a commitment to producing journalism to high standards (no aggregation sites or ‘churnalism’ setups which cut and paste all content from press releases);
Are registered as not-for-profit organizations or have a constitution that stipulates that all profits are retained for journalism and not shared as dividends;
Are registered as a legal entity and have a proven track record with at least 12 months of active coverage;
Uphold high professional standards, including a commitment to truth and accuracy, fairness and impartiality, humanity / minimizing harm, transparency and accountability;
They particularly welcome applications from organizations that:
Operate in contexts where:
The market has failed to support independent public interest journalism; and/or
The free media have been captured by state or non-state actors; and/or
There is a hostile legal environment for independent public interest journalism.
Are facing legal, digital, or other types of threats;
Do not have the capacity to access large grants from institutions like the EU;
Involve people who are under-represented in journalism (e.g. women, ethnic minorities);
Demonstrate thinking about how they relate to the audiences / communities they serve, and how to serve them best (e.g. by striving for greater audience and community engagement to bridge divides in society);
Demonstrate a desire to grow their knowledge and skills, learn from other organizations in the grantee cohort, as well as are to draw on learnings from other fields.
Application Requirements

Applicant organizations must ensure they fully meet the eligibility criteria as set out in this Request for Proposals. All applications should be in English and must include the following items: –

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Proposal Narrative: This form collects basic organizational information and a description of the activities to be covered with Civitates funds.
Proposal Budget: This should correspond to the activities proposed in the narrative document. For the concept note applicants are free to use their own format (a simplified budget will suffice), but the budget should be in Euros. For the full proposals, applicants are required to use the Civitates template, which will be provided to the shortlisted applicants.
For more information, visit https://civitates-eu.org/request-for-proposals-independent-public-interest-journalism/