DEADLINE: Flashlight Investigative Journalism Grants

Flashlight is a nonprofit network of giving circles which gives $500-$1,000 grants to investigative journalists. Journalists retain complete editorial control and are free to publish their work wherever they like.

The founding members are news innovators: journalists and business people with experience across the Atlantic, Google, nonprofit, journalism tech and civic tech.

Flashlight members come together at Campfire, a quarterly summit. Before Campfire, Flashlight calls for nominations, and its grants committee selects finalists.

At Campfire, Flashlight members give pitches for finalists they think should be funded by Flashlight – they become the journalist's advocate. The membership then votes to select the winners.

After Campfire, members raise additional funds from the public on behalf of the winning journalists, using the seed funding from Campfire to attract donors.

Flashlight membership is currently invitation-only, but you can join the waitlist.

In the first pilot grant round, Flashlight gave $1,000 to an enterprising environmental reporter. Future rounds will again focus on environmental investigative reporting.

In the second round, they funded a freelance journalist covering election integrity. Round three was for African American freelance investigative journalists and rounds four and five were for any freelance investigative journalists.

Round 6 (deadline Nov 19, 2023) is for U.S.-based freelance investigative journalists.

Apply here.