Two Wisconsin journalists — Bethanie Gengler and Wyatt Massey — as well as Wisconsin Watch were among 67 grant recipients announced recently by The Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Gengler, a staff reporter for the Waupaca County Post (Multi Media Channels), received a grant for a freelance reporting project in partnership with The Badger Project.
Massey is a freelance journalist based in rural Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization covering Wisconsin.
The grants aid journalists in reporting groundbreaking stories in more than 25 U.S. states. The grants cover the expenses of specific investigative stories, and recipients can also receive free editorial and legal assistance.
Grants were made to individual freelance journalists, teams of reporters, and newsrooms. The Fund provides seed grants of up to $2,500 for the expenses of preliminary reporting, full grants of up to $10,000 for the expenses of investigative stories, and follow-up grant of up to $2,500 after initial investigations run. The Fund also provides Alicia Patterson Fellowships of $20,000 for six months and $40,000 for a year.
The grants awarded include seed grants, full grants, and follow-up grants (the Fund does not disclose the subject of its grantees’ reporting until their stories are published).
Grantees can also request pro bono legal help with records requests and pre-publication review through the Fund’s partnership with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, as well as editorial support through the Fund’s program matching grantees with veteran investigative journalists.
Founded in 1969, the Fund has grown significantly in the last several years to meet the sharply increasing need for support for public-service journalism in the U.S. The next deadline to apply for grants is Sept. 14; details are available online at: https://fij.org/apply-for-a-grant/ .
