Work/Environment Reporting Grants

Work/Environment Reporting Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Pulitzer Center
Amount: US $10,000 - US $20,000
Last Updated: December 09, 2025

Summary

The Pulitzer Center's Work/Environment Reporting Grants are now open for applications, focusing on the impact of climate change on workers and employment sectors. This initiative seeks compelling stories that highlight the challenges faced by vulnerable workers as temperatures rise, alongside innovative solutions being explored by companies. We encourage diverse voices and collaborative proposals that reflect the complexity of climate-related labor issues, aiming to inform the public and drive meaningful dialogue.

Overview

Note: This grant opportunity is now open, and applications will be reviewed on a first-come, rolling basis. Our Work/Environment Reporting Grants The Pulitzer Center is now accepting applications for its initiative focused on climate change and its effects on workers and work. As the world heats up, what jobs and employment sectors, what factory practices, what sorts of manufacturing–from computer chips to batteries to food production to fast-fashion–are threatened or must change? GRANT OVERVIEW The Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit organization that supports independent global journalism, is now accepting applications for a reporting initiative focused on climate change and its effects on workers and work. This ambitious initiative, Our Work/Environment, seeks to explore the global climate risks playing out in fields and on factory floors and being discussed in company boardrooms. As the world heats up, what jobs and employment sectors, what factory practices, what sorts of manufacturing–from computer chips to batteries to food production to fast-fashion–are threatened or must change? What factors will affect work? Heat, yes. Competition for water, for sure. We want you to reveal the real-world problems of working as temperatures rise, and then tell us much more. Stories that document the impact on labor rights and the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable workers—including women who are often heads of household—as well as those that document companies that are working on solutions, and which are aiming for sustainability at scale, are of interest. Transparency and governance is a cross-cutting theme for all of our focus areas. We seek to support deep dive reporting projects that follow the money across borders; shed light on opaque and harmful supply chains; and investigate the systems, organizations, and people that enable corruption. The amount awarded depends on the scope and complexity of the project, the media formats involved, and the distribution plan.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. This opportunity is open to U.S. residents and journalists around the world. We are open to proposals from freelance data journalists, staff journalists, or groups of newsrooms working in collaboration with a data project idea. All types of formats are welcome: print, digital, broadcast TV, radio, and film projects, as well as data and computer-assisted journalism.Proposals should include detailed distribution plans and letters of commitment from outlets where the stories will be published. Our grants cover the hard costs of getting to the story and reporting it—airfare, hotels, meals, local ground transportation, records requests costs, data analysis/visualization costs, local reporting partners, or assistants, translators, etc. We expect you to try to keep your costs down. In exceptional cases, we may consider stipends to cover a reporter's time, if provided in the budget with an explanation.It is OK to include costs of contractors, such as data researchers or data visualization/story designers in your proposal and budget.

Ineligibility

Please do not include stipends for journalists/team members who are in the employ of newsrooms or are being paid by a publisher.Examples of editorial products or project expenses that the Pulitzer Center grants DON’T cover? Books (we can support a story that might become part of a book, as long as the story is published independently in a media outlet) Feature-length films (we do support short documentaries with ambitious distribution plans) Staff salaries Equipment purchases (equipment rentals are considered on a case-by-case basis) An outlet’s general expenses (for example rent, utilities, insurance) Seed money for start-upsRoutine breaking news and coverage Advocacy/marketing campaigns Data projects aimed solely at academic research. Data should be developed to enhance/support journalism.