Colorado’s ethnic, non-English-language, and rural media outlets and trusted community organizations are invited to apply for grants of up to $5,000 each, to help ensure that the state’s diverse racial/ethnic communities, immigrant and refugee populations, and low-income rural communities are receiving accurate, localized, and actionable information on the continuously evolving COVID-19 public health and economic crises.
Colorado Media Project (CMP) has committed $50,000 to establish the COVID-19 Informed Communities Fund at Rose Community Foundation, and is inviting other foundations to join. Priorities include:
Ensuring a robust stream of COVID-19 news and updates are available in multiple languages and distributed widely among non-English-speaking newsrooms and trusted community partners
Supporting collaborative reporting and story sharing efforts initiated by the Colorado News Collaborative’s new COVID-19 Coverage Network, which now involves more than 40 newsrooms statewide in sharing daily coverage and in-depth reporting from the front lines
Providing advice, coaching, and assistance for small media businesses navigating applications for public support and philanthropic grants, and individual donor appeals
Bring Your Community’s Voice to COLab
At least $30,000 from the COVID-19 Informed Communities Fund is dedicated to encouraging diverse participation in the Colorado News Collaborative. To be eligible for support, organizations must be:
Colorado-based;
Serve a specific and underrepresented audience or geographic area; and
Have the ability to actively reach and engage with that audience to share timely updates on the unfolding COVID-19 public health and economic crises.
Preference will be given to independent local news outlets that serve specific racial/ethnic, non-English speaking, and/or economically disadvantaged populations, to underwrite their active participation in the Colorado News Collaborative's COVID-19 Coverage Network. CMP support is intended to facilitate two-way sharing, translating, and distributing stories among outlets to reach all audiences with a broader range of COVID-19 coverage.
CMP will also accept applications from community groups that have a wide digital reach into underrepresented communities, to join as distribution partners for COVID-19 news and updates, provide translation services, and/or develop new, trustworthy channels to reach underrepresented audiences with COVID-19 updates.
Learn more about this opportunity, listen to the webinar below.
Join the COVID-19 Coverage Network
In addition, CMP is committing at least $15,000 to support collaborative reporting projects taken on by newsrooms participating in the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab)’s COVID-19 Coverage Network. Veteran investigative journalist Laura Frank leads the network, with support from the AP's Jim Clarke, Chalkbeat's Eric Gorski, Colorado Public Radio’s Kelley Griffith, and 9NEWS' Nicole Vap. COLab provides participating newsrooms with tools and resources for sharing content, avoiding duplication in coverage, and planning and reporting collaborative projects.
Support will be available to COLab partners on a rolling basis, to cover specific expenses related to COVID-19 reporting, such as photography, travel, technology, or graphics. To learn more about the Colorado News Collaborative and join the network, newsrooms can sign up here.
Receive Newsroom Technical Support for Sustainability
Finally, at least $5,000 from the COVID-19 Informed Communities Fund is dedicated to helping newsrooms access support for sustaining their “essential services” during this challenging time.
Through the opportunity, the Colorado Press Association (CPA) and CMP will help connect small media businesses with advice, coaching, and assistance in navigating applications for public support and philanthropic grants, and planning and executing individual donor appeals and campaigns.
Colorado newsrooms, including non-CPA members, can request technical support by filling out this form.
How to Donate
Foundations or individuals interested in donating to the CMP’s COVID-19 Informed Communities Fund can contact Melissa Davis, CMP Acting Director and VP for Informed Communities, Gates Family Foundation. Additional funding will be used to increase the scope of services listed above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is COLab?
The Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) is a new, statewide resource hub for independent local media, focused on strengthening high-quality journalism, supporting civic engagement, and ensuring public accountability. Founding partners include 10 tenants of the COLab Newsroom, opening Fall 2020 at Rocky Mountain Public Media’s new Buell Center for Public Media in downtown Denver, in addition to non-tenant partners representing the state’s largest statewide newsrooms and journalism membership organizations.
Participating media include print, broadcast and digital, large and small, from across the state. We try to avoid unnecessary duplication of resources and work together to make sure Coloradans have the information they need.
What is the COVID-19 Coverage Network?
COLab partners are marshaling the forces of our news organizations to tell the story of how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed life in Colorado. We’ll blend narrative, explanatory and investigative reporting that leverages our respective strengths — our subject matter expertise, geographic reach or focus, and journalistic skill sets. More details here. To date, more than 40 newsrooms across Colorado have signed up to participate in the COVID-19 Coverage Network.
How does the COVID-19 Coverage Network work?
Participating newsrooms will engage in ongoing story coordination, sharing and collaboration (to participate in the ongoing story sharing, make sure you’re signed up for COLab. Then you’ll get access to StoryShare.).
How does the COVID-19 Informed Communities Grant Work?
Grant recipients who serve the state’s diverse racial/ethnic communities, immigrant and refugee populations, and low-income rural communities will fulfill responsibilities in the following ways:
For Journalists: Contribute to a robust stream of COVID-19 news and updates
For Nonprofit and Community Organizations: Distribute COVID-19 news and updates and (when applicable) make them available in multiple languages and distributed widely among their community networks
For Everyone: Supporting collaborative reporting and story sharing efforts by identifying information gaps impacting your communities.
Does my newsroom or nonprofit organization have to receive the grant in order to participate?
No. While the grant is meant to incentivize participation, any newsroom or nonprofit organization serving as a trusted source of information for an underserved community may collaborate with us on COVID-19 coverage.
If I participate, what am I committing to?
For Journalists: You will retain full control of your content. You can share whatever you wish. You can pitch cross-partner story collaborations. You can use whatever you wish from other COLab partners. When you do, you must agree to identify the content as part of the COLab, and use any agreed upon logos and language to identify the joint content.
For Nonprofits and Community Organizations: You can select and share content that serves an information need for your community. When you do, you must agree to identify the content as part of the COLab, and use any agreed upon logos and language to identify the joint content.
For those serving non-English and immigrant communities, the commitment is to serve as a translation resource, taking stories from English and translating to your native language. You can also pitch cross-partner story collaborations to journalists, connecting them to your sources, interpreting, and translating the finished story.
How does my newsroom or nonprofit/community organization get involved?
Sign up for the COVID-19 Coverage Network here.
You’ll be added to the COLab Google Drive, Slack Channel, and receive a login to StoryShare, the AP platform through which we share plans and stories.
Sign up to contribute COVID-19 story/ies here.
On an ongoing basis, add your story planning information and original COVID-19 stories to StoryShare, so that other Colorado newsrooms can re-publish for their audiences.
Soon, you’ll start receiving daily COLab updates with the latest newly-available content on StoryShare, which you can start incorporating into your own regular coverage.
Who can participate?
For Journalists: Journalism organizations who have media insurance (which will indemnify your COLab partners), and whose work is edited by a professional with fact-checking processes. Unfortunately, we are unable to allow independent freelancers to participate at this time.
For Nonprofit and Community Organizations: Organizations that are trusted sources of information and have deep digital engagement with non-English-epaking, immigrant and refugee communities, racial/ethnic minority communities, and rural communities.
Which groups are we looking for?
Groups that are trusted by immigrant, refugee communities and other communities of color. This partnership would give you access to the latest updates about COVID-19 in English, that nonprofits and non-newsrooms are able to access and translate for their communities. The COLab would also look to your organization to share those translations for wider distribution across the state.
Is there a specific number of followers or digital audience required?
There is no hard rule or magic number regarding how many followers or unique visitors you serve. The specificity of each applicant’s community engagement is weighed on a case-by-case basis.
Do you have to be an official organization?
Sharing back to the communities with whom you work and how they have been impacted by COVID-19 is the goal of the collaboration. So, the only requirement is to be a trusted community source with an existing audience. Ways to engage hard-to-reach communities are flexible, including but not limited to: moderators of Facebook and other social media pages, e-newsletter producers, etc. You must be in regular communication with your community, either daily or weekly, with critical updates about COVID 19.
What is Storyshare?
Storyshare is a digital tool developed by The Associated Press to enable stronger collaboration and foster local news. Within the Storyshare platform, news outlets will upload stories for sharing among partners. Nonprofit and community organizations can download stories for distribution to their communities.
For those serving non-English-speaking audiences, translating stories written in English is encouraged. The disconnect we are trying to solve, is that there is constant information being published in English Language media but not necessarily non-English.
Do you have to be a member of AP to use Storyshare?
No. You do not have to be an AP member to use the Storyshare tool. You must request a sign-in from the COLab.
How many grants do you anticipate awarding?
We don’t have a specific number. The media project has committed $30,000 to the grant fund, but is also soliciting other donors in order to increase our capacity to fund multiple organizations for participation.
When will decisions be made/grants be awarded?
Friday, April 24, at 11:59 p.m. is the priority deadline for applying. We hope to begin awarding grants by April 29, if not earlier.