TOL Education | Microgrants & Mentoring

Microgrants & Mentoring

To support the development of solutions journalism in Central Europe, Transitions, in cooperation with local partners, regularly opens microgrant calls in the countries of the region. This support is designed for journalists (including freelancers) who want to do rigorous reporting and bring inspiration from other places that are facing similar social challenges to their communities to help them respond to their problems. In addition to financial support, we also offer mentoring during the entire production of the article to achieve the highest possible quality. Participation in a practical SJ training or watching the SJ introductory webinar in English or in Russian is highly recommended to applicants.

Calls for pitches:

Transitions is announcing a call for microgrants for journalists interested in developing solutions journalism stories from Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to financial support, we are also offering mentoring during the entire production of the article to achieve the highest possible quality. For more information regarding submitting your solutions journalism pitches and applying for a microgrant, please see the call for application page.

Previous calls for pitches:

2021

Bosnia & Herzegovina – https://media.ba/bs/event/konkurs-za-finansijsku-podrsku-za-novinarske-price-orijentirane-na-rjesenja-0
Czech Republic – https://toleducation.org/solutions-journalism/cs/mikrogranty-mentoring/
Poland – https://toleducation.org/solutions-journalism/en/microgrants-mentoring/sojo-microgrant-mentoring-poland-2021/
Slovakia – https://memo98.sk/article/solutions-journalism-mikrograntova-vyzva-deadline-28-februara-2021
Ukraine – https://irrp.org.ua/znajty-vidpovid-pidtrymayemo-vashu-istoriyu-zhurnalistyky-rishen/
Georgia, Moldova & Romania – https://toleducation.org/solutions-journalism/en/microgrants-mentoring/sojo-microgrant-mentoring-georgia-moldova-romania/

2020 and earlier

Georgia – https://toleducation.org/solutions-journalism/en/microgrants-mentoring/sj-microgrant-georgia-2020/
Ukraine – please, reach out to lucie.cerna@tol.org for more information
Central & Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and Eurasia: responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: http://toleducation.org/solutions-journalism/en/microgrants-mentoring/covid-19-solutions-stories/
Bulgaria – http://new.aej-bulgaria.org/solution-journalism-contest/
Serbia – https://www.novinarska-skola.org.rs/sr/konkurs-za-finansijsku-podrsku-novinarskim-pricama-orijentisanim-ka-resenjima-solutions-journalism/
Bosnia & Herzegovina – https://media.ba/bs/event/konkurs-za-finansijsku-podrsku-za-novinarske-price-orijentirane-na-rjesenja
Kosovo – https://kallxo.com/arsim/2608655/

The proposal must meet the basic criteria of solutions journalism:

high-quality journalism (rigorous reporting)
describes an existing response to a social problem, how it works, and why (it does not present theories and claims of “should be”)
brings evidence of the impact of the solution being pursued (not just good intentions)
offers a broader insight / lesson that can be beneficial to others in a similar situation
discusses the limits of the solution / response (no solution is perfect).

The following factors will be taken into account when assessing the application:

Focus on a particular solution (investigation of the response to a problem),
the quality of the project (clearly defined objectives and the activities leading to their achievement),
impact of project outcomes (social impact),
the societal importance of the topic and the contribution to public debate,
predicted audience reach (number of readers / listeners / viewers)
the professional credibility of the author / editorial staff and the individuals involved in the project,
the likelihood that the applicant will continue doing solutions journalism in the future.

Application

Candidates can apply for support for individual projects through an application form that will be available when calls for proposals are announced for particular countries.

Each request will be assessed by a jury made up of representatives of Transitions and the local partner in the particular country. This jury will select and announce the winning candidates. The grant recipients will have three months to publish their work.

After publishing the story, the grantee is required to submit a report of a minimum of 4,000 characters on his/her practical experience with the use of solutions journalism and to agree that Transitions and/or SJN may use all or parts of the final report for promotional or training purposes.

Each published story must include the following statement: “Report / contribution / article was produced with the support of the Transitions solutions journalism program.”