Impact Seed Funding (ISF) is a micro-scale grant provided by the Pulitzer Center to support education activities with the aim to enrich the perspectives and knowledge of the university community— specifically students and educators—about the problems, solutions, and innovations related to the impact of human activities in tropical forests, ocean, and the climate crisis. We aim to support projects that inspire changes in perspectives, narratives, and actions among communities as its ultimate impact. In this way, the main goal of the grant is to create more informed and empathetic communities about the underreported issues of the rainforest and climate change. The ISF is designed to be flexible and responsive to the needs of educators and communities, allowing applicants to establish activities related to pressing issues of the rainforest, the ocean and the climate crisis.
The Pulitzer Center Impact Seed Fund is a strategic initiative aimed at supporting innovative journalism projects that have the potential to create significant social impact. Established by the Pulitzer Center, an organization renowned for its commitment to promoting high-quality, in-depth reporting on critical global issues, the Impact Seed Fund provides financial backing and resources to journalists and newsrooms embarking on ambitious investigative projects.
The fund is designed to foster groundbreaking storytelling that can drive change and inform public discourse on pressing topics such as human rights, environmental sustainability, public health, and social justice. By offering grants to both established and emerging journalists, the Impact Seed Fund helps to amplify underreported stories and bring critical issues to a wider audience. The funding supports various aspects of journalistic work, including research, travel, data analysis, and multimedia production.
One of the core objectives of the Pulitzer Center Impact Seed Fund is to encourage collaboration among journalists, news organizations, and other stakeholders. The fund often supports projects that involve partnerships between multiple media outlets, ensuring that stories have a broader reach and greater impact. This collaborative approach not only enhances the quality and depth of reporting but also fosters a sense of shared responsibility in addressing global challenges.
The selection process for the Impact Seed Fund is highly competitive, with proposals evaluated based on their potential impact, originality, feasibility, and alignment with the Pulitzer Center’s mission. Successful applicants are those who demonstrate a clear vision for how their reporting will contribute to meaningful societal change. The fund particularly values projects that offer innovative approaches to storytelling, leverage new technologies, or engage with communities in unique ways.
The Pulitzer Center has supported reporting that works on underreported issues in tropical forests for the past years, especially via two journalism funding funds: Rainforest Journalism Fund and Rainforest Investigative Network. In 2024, we also started a grant program for stories with a focus on discussing ocean-related topics. Based on these stories, the ISF proposes to fund activities related to education and engagement of the university community specifically on these two topics: tropical forests and ocean
Benefits
ISF grants range from US$2,000 to US$4,000 (US dollars). We expect projects to be implemented and concluded within five months of approval.
Type of activities we fund
Examples of activities and desirable outcomes of ISF support may include, but are not limited to:
- Educational material development: Incorporating Pulitzer Center journalism into teaching materials and syllabus, field trip program, active citizenship training.
- Engagement with students, academia and public: Student writing competition, debate, public dialogue, exhibition on campus, hackathons.
- Research support and dissemination of findings: This may include updating ongoing research and incorporating new insights in a book chapter, organizing a seminar.
- Content production and dissemination including short videos, documentaries, podcasts.
Requirements For The Pulitzer Center Impact Seed Fund
Applicants should be professors or researchers in a higher education institution, or groups of students guided by a responsible professor, and not have the project applied in Africa, Brazil, or Southeast Asia, as these areas have their own ISF grant. Projects carried out through consortia of professors are also very welcome.
Selection Process
Timeline
- Application process: April – May 27, 2024
- Selection process: May 27 – Jul 27, 2024
- Grants announcement: July 31, 2024
- Briefing and grants administration: August 1 – Aug 14, 2024
- Implementation duration: August 1 – December 2024
- Project closure: December 7 – 31, 2024
- Project Reporting : January 2025
Method of Application
Visit The Official Website to Apply
Application Deadline: May 27, 2024.
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