Civitates grants €2,467,000 to 11 independent public-interest journalism organisations across Europe for a period of 3 years
11 independent journalistic organisations have been selected via a call for projects, to receive core grants for the next 3 years, supporting their general operating. Civitates has particularly welcomed applications from organisations operating in contexts where the market has failed to support independent journalism.
Civitates’ financial support is meant for the general operating of news organisations, as well as for their organisational strengthening – it doesn’t fund individual stories but complements such grants that already exists. With Civitates’ long-term support, we believe that our grantee partners will develop in a sustainable, resilient, and interconnected way.
Civitates has particularly welcomed applications from organisations operating in contexts where the market has failed to support independent journalism, media have been captured by state or non-state actors, or where there has been a hostile legal environment for public-interest journalism.
Another important aspect of the Civitates grant is the network effect – the organisations differ and complement each other so that the group of grantees can strengthen one another by exchanging practices and ideas and embark together on a journey of growth and support.
With the initial amount of almost €2.5 million, Civitates wants to strengthen the public interest journalism field in Europe and improve the operating environment for this sector more broadly providing an easy entry for funders to pool funding in this field.
Civitates is committed to make this new model of collaborative journalism grant-making a success and to ensure not just the survival, but the growth of independent public-interest journalism in Europe.
The selection was made by a committee comprised of Civitates foundation partners and advised by a diverse expert group. The grantee organisations are based in 8 countries and are listed alphabetically according to the country they operate in:
• Magyar Jeti/444.hu – Hungary
• Direct36 – Hungary
• IRPI – Investigative reporting project – Italy
• Stichting Bellingcat – the Netherlands
• Fundacja Pismo - Poland
• OKO – Foundation centre for civic monitoring – Poland
• Divergente – Portugal
• Átlátszó Erdély – Romania
• Press one – Romania
• Pod črto - Slovenia
• Civio – Spain
The grants are expected to go out at the beginning of 2021.
About Civitates
Civitates is a philanthropic initiative that works for democracy and solidarity in Europe. It provides financial support to the stakeholders of civil society, enabling them to meet and collaborate in order to maintain public debate that is transparent, lively and healthy. In addition to financial support, Civitates provides beneficiaries with capacity-building and networking possibilities.
The current members of the Civitates consortium are the Adessium Foundation, the Stefan Batory Foundation, the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the European Cultural Foundation, the ERSTE Stiftung, the Fondation de France, Fritt Ord, the King Baudouin Foundation, the Körber Stiftung, Luminate, the Mott Foundation, the Nicolas Puech Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Stiftung Mercator.