Grant Application Tips and Resources for Freelance and Entrepreneur Journalists

General tips to write a good Knight News Challenge Application:

When there are only three rules in a contest, each one is critically important. In the $25 million Knight News Challenge, that means all successful applicants must do the following three things:

1) Use digital, open-source technology to 2) distribute news in the public interest and 3) test your idea in a specific, local community.

That means creating a print newspaper won't qualify. Proposing a project purely for entertainment won't qualify. And having a great idea that you haven't figured out how to test in a local community won't qualify.

Another tip is not to mimic past winners. They won because their project was new and innovative and met the three guidelines listed above. If you repeat their project in a different community or with a different type of content, that would be a good project, but not one that necessarily would be funded a second time in this contest. Use past projects as a to inform yourself of the kind of projects we are looking for, but not to replicate them with different contend or geographic community.

If you have questions please tweet them at #KNC10 or send me it to me @jczamora.

Getting feedback on your application is important; it will definitely improve your idea and increase the chances of your project moving forward in the contest.

The first thing you should do is draft your submission. Be as clear and concise as possible. Once you have the draft ready read it a few more times and edit it. Try to get rid of jargon and technical terms. Make it simple and to the point.

Once you feel ready for submission, let a few friends read your application. If they think everything is clear and do not have any questions you are ready to submit and receive public feedback.

(Public feedback only applies if you submit under the open category) Posting your application for public comment early will allow you to benefit from the wisdom of the crowd. You will be able to receive feedback and ideas that you can incorporate into your application. Or you will receive questions that will allow you to see in what parts of your submission you need more clarity.

Once your application is public you can also poke your social networks and ask everyone in them to give you feedback.

The following steps should improve your application and your chance of moving to the full proposal phase of the contest:

1. Do your research

2. Develop an accurate budget

3. Be reasonable

You have a great idea, and you want to apply to the Knight News Challenge, but you are not sure about how much money to ask for. The answer lies in how much the project will cost.

To decide how much funding to ask for you have to create a budget. And that budget should be as accurate as possible. You should take into account things like salaries, contractors, rent, utilities, travel, legal fees, marketing, etc. Include everything you are planning to do and how you will do it. Then do research and get real estimates of what each activity, salary and fee will cost.

It might also be helpful to look for other projects in the application pool and see how much they are asking for. You also could examine the budgets of organizations or individuals that are doing projects similar to the one you want to develop. That number should also help you determine how much you should ask for.

The Knight News Challenge contest does not request a line-item budget unless you are a finalist. However you need to know your general budget when you apply to be able to state the amount you are requesting.

Creating a budget will be a helpful exercise. It will allow you to know how much to ask for and it will also allow you to have a budget ready in case you move forward in the contest to the phase where we do ask for a budget.

The most important thing to remember when asking for an amount for your project is to ask for an amount that is reasonable for what you are proposing to do. Key elements of a good application: 1. It is clearly written. (A child should be able to understand it.) 2. It is concise. (It is what we know of as a great and brief elevator pitch.) 3. It has research and discovery in it (meaning that you tried to find out about everything else that is out there that is similar to what you are proposing to do).

The third factor is a key element of your application. Before submitting your project you should do the necessary research to demonstrate that you have a unique idea and that you are not reinventing the wheel.

You will have a great advantage in the contest if you are able to show that: • You know the landscape of the field and the project you are proposing to do. • You are able to explain why your idea/project is different or better than everything else that is already exists. The simplest way to start doing your research is by doing Google searches with key words of what you are proposing to do. You can also crowd-source your research using twitter and asking everyone if they have ever heard or seen anything like what you are planning to do. You can also ask your social networks for help and see what media, social media and mobile organizations are already doing. These are only a few things you can do to make sure you are presenting something that is unique or something that is using what already exists, but in a very useful and different way. Resources for Freelance and Entrepreneur Journalists

Who funds news and information?

Foundations that fund journalism, information and access:

Organizations that provide journalism training, run news and information programs, or work in the area of international press freedom (Knight grantees)

Journalism training sites:

Resources for freelancers (compiled by SPJ)

 

Note: Jose Zamora presented the above resources at Stanford University's The Future of Freelancing seminar June 19, 2010.