At the Unity 2008 convention of journalists in Chicago this week, a session called "How to get a Media Grant" drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 300 journalists, made up of 20somethings to graying veterans. Program officers from the Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation, along with some current grant recipients, offered tips including:
- Have a strategy, approach and a budget as part of the pitch, not just an idea.
- Be persistent if you don't win on the first try, keep the effort alive by sending along pertinent news items on the topic.
- Don't discount foundations that don't typically fund media work, but make sure your idea fits their mission.
- A fellowship might offer an alternate route for accomplishing the work.