About the Knight Grants for Reporting on Religion and American Public Life
Knight Grants for Reporting on Religion and American Public Life, sponsored by the Knight Program at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, provides funding for projects that explore how religion -- morals, values, spirituality and the search for meaning -- shapes responses to social issues, including housing, health care, poverty, sexuality, immigration, economic equity, and civil rights in the US.
Stories can explore how religion, religious institutions and religious people (1) effect change in on-the-ground social, political, and economic conditions; (2) circulate ideas and ideologies; and (3) promote or inhibit social welfare and the common good. Projects also can look at individuals and movements that are spiritual, as opposed to institutionally religious. Reporting should address underlying dynamics including political power, conflict, the search for meaning, and the construction of community.
The grants, from $5,000 to $20,000, are funded by the Ford Foundation and can be used to subsidize travel, living and miscellaneous costs. Journalists, including staff reporters, affiliated freelancers and self-employed web journalists, who cover politics, social and cultural issues as well as generalists and religion specialists are encouraged to apply.
Successful applicants will be expected to develop at least three stories for multiple delivery platforms: print, radio, TV, online.The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, July 1, 2012. Grant recipients will be announced September 2012; all projects must be complete by June 2013. At the completion of their projects, grant recipients may be invited to journalists-in-residence at the University of Southern California, where they will hold master classes for journalism students, present their work in interdisciplinary seminars, and deliver public lectures for the USC community.
Please review our application requirements. To apply, click here or contact us for more information.