Investigative fund director tells freelancers how to finance projects
Sandy Bergo, director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, told members of the National Press Club Freelance Committee that the key to obtaining an investigative journalism grant is to break news and tell a compelling story.
The bottom line for the investigative story? "Uncovering wrong-doing" Bergo, herself a former investigative journalist, said at an April 16 meeting at the Club.
She discussed what makes an investigative news story and how a freelancer can get up to $10,000 or more to organize, complete and publish a significant investigative news story.
The Fund for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) is one of the most established of the now several dozen non-profit organizations whose mission is to support journalists to undertake and publish solid investigative projects. The next deadline for an FIJ grant proposal is April 30.
A good investigative story is often about government wrong-doing, particularly the misuse of public funds, but also it can be about corporate and even social fraud and abuse.
"Mainly the project has to be about something not known before, new and compelling information," Bergo said. "But it also has to be told as a story, relate how people were hurt, preferably through a personal touching narrative."
Although such stories of victims can be labeled "just anecdotal," Bergo said, having at least three significant examples of particular wrong doing is usually enough to show a pattern and determine there is a story there. Then you build the investigative project around data and interviews of experts.
A couple of the attendees had applied for an FIJ grant before but had been rejected.
"Try again," Bergo said. "Talk to us. We may even suggest a mentor for you to give you personal help with a proposal that seems like a good project."
Club members have a particular in. The FIJ and Bergo just moved the office to the Club library -- Bergo is very accessible.
The next meeting of the Club Freelance Committee is at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 21, and will focus on freelance journalists writing books.
"Should you write a book and what kind of book should it be?" is the question that will be addressed by Anna Lafferty, an award-winning graphic designer from California who specializes in publication design from high end art books and histories to the latest technologies for e-books.
With so many publication choices these days, knowing what kind of book to write is as important as determining from the beginning what the book is going to be about.
Peggy Orchowski is the Congressional Correspondent for the Hispanic Outlook magazine and author of “Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria” (Rowman & Littlefield).