Contact: Sandy Bergo, 202-391-0206
(Washington) – The Fund for Investigative Journalism is proud to announce continuing support from the Park Foundation for the Fund’s grant program for independent watchdog journalists.
The Foundation, based in Ithaca, New York, has awarded a grant for $75,000 that will give critical assistance to reporters working on domestic reporting projects. This is the second year that the Park Foundation has awarded a grant to the Fund.
The Fund makes grants to reporters who have the ideas, sources, and know-how to produce groundbreaking investigative journalism, but need help paying the expenses of reporting.
“We are especially grateful that the Park Foundation has chosen to support the Fund as part of its mission to promote public service journalism,” said Sandy Bergo, executive director of the Fund. “In the past year the support from the Park Foundation launched many important investigations into environmental and government accountability issues.”
Examples of completed projects are an investigation of New York City firefighter fatalities and an investigation of unnecessarily hazardous conditions encountered by Gulf Spill clean-up workers. The grants from the Park Foundation produce more than a dozen investigative reporting projects each year.
“This grant will inspire and invigorate the kind of investigative reporting that is so deeply needed in the US at this time,” said Brant Houston, president of the board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
The Fund for Investigative Journalism is also supported by the Ethics and Excellence Foundation, the Green Park Foundation, and the Gannett Foundation.
This year, the Fund was recognized as one of the Washington DC region’s best nonprofits, and will be featured in the 2011-12 Catalogue for Philanthropy. The Fund is the first journalism organization to be listed in the Catalogue, which is distributed to local foundations and philanthropists.
The Fund also depends on donations from individuals. Donations can be made online, www.fij.org, or by mail to the Fund for
Investigative Journalism, 1023 15th Street NW – Suite 350, Washington DC 20005.