NJ Civic Info Consortium now accepting applications for 2022 grants

The NJ Civic Information Consortium, a first-in-the-nation initiative to grow access to local news and information, is now accepting applications for its second round of grant funding.

The Consortium board will award grants up to $75,000, focusing on the following key areas:

1. Growing and strengthening the local news ecosystem, with a particular focus on new or existing news and information outlets and projects led by and serving communities of color, immigrant communities, non-English speaking communities and other systematically marginalized communities. With these grants, the Consortium aims to fill geographic gaps in community news and information across the state as well as gaps for communities of people not well-served by existing news outlets.
    
2. Diversifying New Jersey’s journalism pipeline, media education and journalism/storytelling training in communities that lack trusted news sources by supporting outlets and projects. These grants will focus on expanding who gets to tell stories, making sure that media is more representative of the race, gender, age, and socioeconomic status of people who live in New Jersey. Additionally, in this round of grants, preference will be given to support middle and high school journalism programs.
    
3. Nonpartisan civic voter information, election reporting, and election-related projects, particularly those that address mis- and disinformation and seek to get trustworthy, relevant, and timely information to the public toward more informed and participatory elections. The Consortium is seeking proposals for nonpartisan projects and reporting that foster a more informed and engaged public around local and state elections.
    
4. The Consortium is seeking to support reporting and civic engagement projects focused on two specific pressing topics: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Recognizing these as two urgent issues for the state of New Jersey, the Consortium aims to support solutions-focused COVID-19 and climate crisis reporting and civic engagement projects.

Public info sessions announced for February

During these sessions, representatives from the Consortium's board and staff from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University will go over the grant application process and guidelines, and will answer questions from anyone interested in applying for funding.