The Journalism cross-programmatic initiative (CPI) team worked together to give Nina Sachdev, Director of Communications at Media Impact Funders (MIF), deep insight into the evolution of the CPI’s grantmaking strategy, the gaps in climate media coverage that they want to address, and what efficacy and meaningful impact can and should look like.
When asked by Sachdev about the CPI’s core funding values, Joe Sciortino said:
“1) Take chances; and 2) Believe in the power of good reporting. Throughout our 18 years, we’ve taken risks on new and unproven ideas, and seen them succeed. Media start-ups like Climate Central, the Food and Environment Reporting Network, Civil Eats and Capital B have become important outlets for climate, food systems and issues of high importance to people of color, respectively. We’re excited to see the innovation happening in the nonprofit journalism sector and we will continue to support groups that cover the issues we care about.
“What also seems to be evergreen is the power of good investigative and explanatory reporting. Grantees like The Fuller Project and CalMatters are publishing deep investigations on environmental and human rights issues, and they are tracking the impact those stories are having on policies and regulations. We are thrilled with some of the funding we’ve provided to publish explainers on deep-sea mining or to expose corporate greenwashing on issues like plastics and recycling.”
Joe also spoke about the benefit of the CPI’s cross-programmatic nature, and how that has led to unique value-add evolutions, like a new funding strategy around African-led journalism from the team’s Human Rights program.
“In the countries where the program’s grantees work, there isn’t enough comprehensive and impactful reporting on their focus issues of energy, agriculture, and mining. As a result, the harms to communities, the environment and local economies from extractive development projects and policies often go unreported and thus unaddressed. Mainstream media outlets are often state-owned, or run by people with close ties to those in power. Supporting independent nonprofit outlets allows journalists the runway and independence to investigate hard-hitting issues, expose truths and hold power to account.”
The CPI hopes to inspire other funders to increase their support of independent, outcome-driven, data-based climate change journalism because they understand the critical role it plays in both arming the public with accurate information and holding corporations and governments responsible for their actions.
Read the full MIF Member Spotlight here.