Journalism and Media Grant Making: Five Things You Need to Know, Five Ways to Get Started

The highlights of "Five things you need to know" include:

• "This is everyone's issue" - Quality news and information is an essential element of effective citizen engagement. 
• "You can build on what you're doing" - News and information efforts can be used to bolster foundations' existing initiatives, rather than becoming a new programme area.
• "You can start without a lot of money".
• "Good journalism requires independence" - Community foundations doing special news and information projects face decisions on how independent their work should be and how to avoid dictating special interests to journalists.
• "Digital media must be focused to produce impact" - Because different groups use forms of media differently, it is important to define and understand the community of interest.

Included in the five ways to get started:

• "Map your community's news ecosystem" - Inventorying local news and conducting research on the needs of information consumers can identify ways to be strategic in supporting information projects.
• "Run a contest to find new voices" - Engage community members through awareness-raising events and other projects.
• "Grow your own digital expertise" - Improve communications skills among staff, learn how to utilise available usage and engagement metrics to build capacity and be more effective with social media as dissemination tools.
• "Partner with a local news organisation" - An established news organisation in the community can be way to reach a wider audience.
• "Help create a public news organisation" - When public interest and investigative news programmes are cut back from traditional media, community foundations often help fill the void.