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Provides cash awards to assist independent journalists with investigative projects.
Created in 2008, the fellowships are awarded for non-fiction project proposals which demonstrate impact, breadth and significance. Proposals for books, documentaries, cable series and other long-form projects are eligible. We also accept proposals for shorter term work such as video or audio projects for broadcast or online sites, articles for newspapers, magazines, online sites and niche news publications, among others. Proposals that deal with whistleblowers, business ethics or privacy issues will be given priority. It is intended to support work that will be primarily be published or broadcast in the U.S. and in outlets where the primary audience will be at least a part of the American public.
Application Closed
Journalists who make their living primarily as freelancers and need assistance in conducting investigative projects. Freelance journalists who will publish the work primarily in the U.S. and in outlets where the primary audience will be at least a part of the American public.
Every donation made to support our Freelance Fellowship program will be matched up to a total of $15,000, thanks to a generous donation from the donor who established the fund.
Click here to make a secure credit card donation. Please put “Freelance Fellowship” in the line about donating to a specific fund.
Sarah Sax is a freelance journalist based in New York City. She covers the climate crisis and the way environmental change is reworking the systems we live in. Her work has been recognized by the National Association of Science Writers and the Society of Environmental Journalists. Her project will investigate how third-party certifiers systematically overlook human rights, labor, building and environmental violations in their work.
Eli Cahan, M.D., M.S., is an investigative journalist and pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He covers the intersection of child welfare and social justice, and has been published in featured in The Washington Post, LA Times, Rolling Stone and USA Today. His project will investigate how child protective services is punishing parents for cannabis use and harming vulnerable families in the U.S.
Leonora LaPeter Anton is a freelance writer focused on investigative and narrative stories. She was at the Tampa Bay Times for more than two decades, and was part of a team that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for a series about violent conditions inside Florida's psychiatric hospitals. Her project will investigate the number of boys sent to the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida.
Britta Lokting is a freelance journalist based in New York City. She's written for The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, The New Republic, and elsewhere. Her project will investigate discrimination against parents with cognitive disabilities.
Jonathan Moens is a freelance science and investigative journalist based in Paris. He writes about brain sciences, conservation, the climate crisis and more, and has been published in various outlets, including National Geographic, The New York Times, and Undark. His project will investigate the rise of technology used to help police investigate crimes.
Gregor Stuart Hunter is a freelance reporter based in Taipei City, Taiwan. He has extensive experience covering business, politics and tech for The Guardian, Nikkei Asia and Fortune. He spent seven years in Hong Kong as a staff reporter at Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal, and three years in Abu Dhabi with The National newspaper. He is a CFA Charterholder, a Python programmer and a speaker of Chinese and Spanish. His project will investigate China’s offshore wealth.
Jordan Gass-Poore is a freelance journalist based in New York City. Her project will investigate companies in New Jersey who have avoided paying the government millions of dollars in Superfund clean-up costs and how communities impacted by these hazardous waste sites illustrate a broader environmental justice impact.
David Nickerson is a freelance journalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His project will investigate how Federal regulators, while failing to adopt a heat-protection standard, have overlooked rogue employers and endangered workers of color in particular.
Sadia Rafiquddin is a freelance reporter based in Toronto, Canada. Her project will investigate how a health care monopoly in Hernando County, Florida, is risking elderly patients care.
Jared Whitlock is a freelance journalist based in Encinitas, California. His project will investigate regulatory holes in the assisted living and nursing home industries.
Mara Kardas-Nelson is a UC Berkeley-based freelance journalist. Her project will investigate how American and European banks and investment funds are making money off tiny loans given to the world’s poor.
Austyn Gaffney is a freelance reporter based in Louisville, Kentucky. Her project investigates how state and federal regulatory agencies and private companies failed to prioritize worker safety in East Tennessee's Kingston coal ash disaster.
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