Where can you find funding for that local journalism project? Here’s a quick guide

After a series on parental incarceration, Jonathan Bullington and Richard Webster got an email with an idea — apply for a fellowship that supports that kind of reporting.

The NOLA.com | Times-Picayune reporters started thinking about what they’d cover. Their idea – what does exposure to violence do to kids? They pitched it to The Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism and got $5,000.

The two rented an office space in a community center in New Orleans’ Central City. They found a football team of 9-and 10-year-old boys, and through their series, “The Children of Central City,” told both big and small stories of childhood trauma and the science behind what it does. You can read more about that project and its impact here.

Bullington isn’t sure what the project would have looked like without the fellowships. He thinks a lot of it would have been the same, but that some of the ideas they had, like embedding in the community, might have stayed in the wishlist column, too.

This was the first fellowship he’s been awarded, though he applied for one other. He’s known about fellowships and grants for journalism. He’s known people who have gotten them.

Now that he’s one of them, here’s his advice: “Just apply,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”

We spent the past month looking at how for-profit and nonprofit local newsrooms raised money for ambitious work. This week, here’s a list of places that fund journalism. (Read more…)