Last update: 3 August 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder for journalists and media professionals to continue with their crucial work. As a result, many organisations around the world have made available funds and grants that journalists and media organisations can apply for.
- Reporters Respond (Free Press Unlimited). Offers support to journalists in distress who need support in order to continue their vital work as quickly as possible.
- Legal Defense Fund (Free Press Unlimited). Offers legal support to journalists who are charged or arrested because of COVID-19 reporting.
- European Journalism COVID-19 Fund (European Journalism Centre & Facebook Journalism Project). Offers financial support to European news organisations, supporting community engagement, addressing critical business needs, and facilitating coverage of the pandemic.
- COVID-19 Hardship Fund (Rory Peck Trust). Offers financial support to freelance journalists whose only source of income is from journalism and who are unable to access any assistance (governmental, non-governmental) in their country of residence.
- Rapid Response Fund (Internews). Offers financial support to journalists and small, local news organisations worldwide.
- COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists (National Geographic). Offers emergency support for journalists all over the world who wish to cover COVID-19 within their own communities, especially seeking to deliver news to underserved populations.
- The Photographer Fund (Format). Offers assistance to self-employed photographers who are facing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19.
- Freelance Audio Fund (Association of Independents in Radio). Offers emergency relief to the professional audio community impacted by COVID-19.
- Journalism Relief Fund (International Women’s Media Foundation). Offers assistance to women-identifying journalists who have faced significant financial hardship, lost work, were recently laid off or who urgently need assistance as a result of COVID-19.
- COVID-19 Emergency Fund (Women Photograph). Offers one-time support to independent women and non-binary photographers globally who need assistance as a result of COVID-19.
- Arctivists (Centre for Applied Human Rights, through a grant from the Open Society Foundations). Call for ‘arctivists’: support for activists and artists across the world responding to the outbreak of COVID-19 and its implications for human rights defenders, activism, and shrinking civic and political space.
- Coronavirus News Collaboration Challenge (Pulitzer Center). Call for proposals that develop innovative approaches to reporting on the coronavirus crisis using collaboration among journalists and newsrooms across state lines or national borders.
- Coronavirus Rolling Grant for US Freelancers (Fund for Investigative Journalism). Call for stories on the coronavirus that break new ground and expose wrongdoing – such as corruption, malfeasance, or abuse of power – in the public and private sectors.
- Coronavirus Fact-Checking Grants (International Fact-Checking Network & Facebook). Call for proposals that emphasise amplifying the fact-checking, increasing the reach and impact of the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance and the fighting against health misinformation related to COVID-19 only.
For regional or local opportunities for funds and grants, see this overview.