Washington – The Fund for Investigative Journalism is proud to announce that the Ithaca New York-based Park Foundation has awarded $75,000 for the third year running.
The grant will help underwrite the Fund’s program to support independent investigative reporters who have the ideas, sources, and know-how to produce groundbreaking investigative journalism, but need help paying the expenses of reporting. The grants from the Park Foundation have generated dozens of high impact investigative reports during the past two years.
For example, Park Foundation support allowed the Fund to give a grant to journalist Tracie McMillan to research her much-talked-about book, The American Way of Eating. McMillan’s findings provided the framework for a recent CQ Researcher report on the issues before Congress in the new farm bill. Simply put, McMillan explored why the typical food worker doesn’t earn enough to buy healthy, nutritious food.
Support from the Park Foundation also enabled the Fund to help the New England Center for Investigative Reporting expose a profoundly unjust system of sentencing for juvenile offenders in Massachusetts. The three reporters on the project were finalists for the prestigious 2011 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists.
“The Park Foundation’s support of the Fund is a recognition of the crucial importance of investigative reporting in our democracy,” said Brant Houston, chair of the Fund’s board of directors. “The Foundation’s support has played a key role in sustaining investigative reporting during a time of major transformation in the news media. And it is an honor to receive the Foundation’s continued support.”
The Fund for Investigative Journalism is also supported by the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the Green Park Foundation, the Gannett Foundation, The Nara Fund, and many Washington DC area donors referred by the Catalogue for Philanthropy.
The Fund’s board of distinguished journalists reviews reporters’ applications for financial assistance and awards grants averaging $5,000. Over the past three years, the Fund has given out about one hundred grants.
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, 529 14th Street NW – 13th floor, Washington DC 20045.