Fund and partner organizations provide training to support individual journalists and strengthen field
WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2020 – The Fund for Investigative Journalism today announced that it is launching an ongoing series of capacity-building training sessions for its current and past grantees.
The training sessions will be conducted with partner organizations to help investigative journalists – particularly freelancers and those working at local nonprofit media outlets – build skills and capacity in a range of areas, including legal issues, security, career development and more.
The first two sessions, taking place this month, will be led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and will focus on open records requests and pre-publication review. Sessions in early 2021 will include training on online security led by the International Women’s Media Foundation and a training on contracting and other best practices for independent journalists led by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Freelance Community.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve expanded the support we provide to our grantees to include editorial support through our mentorship program and legal assistance through our partnership with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. This training series is the next natural step in providing more support to individual journalists while working with our partners to help strengthen the field of investigative journalism,” said Eric Ferrero, Executive Director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
The new training series stems from a survey and interviews that the Fund for Investigative Journalism conducted during the summer and fall with its grantees from the last four years. The vast majority of the Fund’s grantees are freelance journalists or staff members at local nonprofit media outlets nationwide, and they expressed a need for training on specific issues they encounter working on investigative stories, as well as support with career development.
The training series will continue through 2021. Current and past grantees will be able to attend sessions live or view recordings of the trainings.
For an index of stories published so far this year with grants and other support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism go to: fij.org/2020-index-of-grantee-stories/.
For highlights of the impact stories published with grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism have had, go to: fij.org/impact.