We expect to build projects that amplify the voices of affected communities, foster public debate, and drive meaningful audience engagement that will lead to impactful conversations at COP 30 in Brazil.

GRANT OVERVIEW
Climate and environmental issues have been at the core of the Pulitzer Center’s work since its founding in 2006. The Center has supported breakthrough journalism that led to real-world impact: engaging and mobilizing communities, prompting demands for change, influencing decisions to halt environmentally destructive practices, and many more.
Since 2022, the Pulitzer Center has actively participated in the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) to join the climate community in addressing the socio-environmental challenges and opportunities of the present. As an important stage for climate and governance conversations that are at the heart of our work, COP is a key place to address relevant issues brought to life in our programs and stimulate collaboration. For this reason, we are launching an initiative aimed at supporting civil society projects that can feed into the conversations we hope to have at COP 30 in Brazil.
As Pulitzer Center bridges the gap between information and action, this microgrant aims to support civil society organizations and groups to utilize (see eligibility criteria below) Pulitzer Center reporting to contribute to a more informed and empowered community, inspiring action on climate change, rainforests, ocean, transparency and governance.
The objective is to have Pulitzer Center-supported journalism as the inspiration for the projects supported by this civil society microgrant. By leveraging this reporting, we expect to build projects that amplify the voices of affected communities, foster public debate, and drive meaningful audience engagement that will lead to impactful conversations at COP 30 in Brazil.
TOPICS THAT WILL BE SUPPORTED BY THIS CIVIL SOCIETY MICRO-GRANT
The civil society organization microgrant builds on the Pulitzer Center’s impactful journalism projects, which focus on the following:
- Climate and Labor: Exploring the intersection of climate change and labor, including the challenges faced by vulnerable communities and the business sector's response to navigating climate-related impacts on workers’ rights.
- Rainforest: Highlighting critical issues and solutions in tropical forests, such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, the rainforest, and energy transition nexus, and the effects on Indigenous and local communities.
- Ocean: Addressing pressing topics like overfishing, marine pollution, climate change impacts on ocean ecosystems, and the livelihoods of coastal communities.
- Transparency and Governance: Uncovering governance challenges, good practices in natural resource management, and the ecological and societal impacts of policy decisions.
TYPE OF ACTIVITIES WE SUPPORT
Examples of activities may include, but are not limited to:
- Multi stakeholder dialogue: Facilitating transparent and meaningful dialogues that bring together affected communities, journalists, decision-makers, and academia to advance climate and environmental action.
- Public forum: Organizing a national forum to foster public debate on key environmental issues, with Pulitzer Center-supported reporting as one of the knowledge or data sources to provoke discussions and inspire solutions.
- Community engagement: Knowledge-sharing activities between journalists and communities to amplify underreported issues and underrepresented voices.
- Creative campaign: Supporting creative campaigns to raise awareness on climate and environmental issues by amplifying journalism reporting and the diverse voice of affected communities;
- Other innovative projects: Creative ideas such as art exhibitions or other innovative mediums and platforms are also accepted.
TYPE OF ACTIVITIES WHICH ARE BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THIS GRANT
- Projects which are not utilizing Pulitzer Center-supported reporting or does not involve Pulitzer Center-supported journalists;
- Direct advocacy or lobbying, such as participating in congress or parliamentary meetings;
- Campaigns that involve or indirectly endorse political candidates or parties.
ELIGIBILITY
- Organization type: This grant is open to grassroots organizations, civil society organizations and coalitions, youth movements, and other groups working at the intersection of climate, environment, journalism, civic rights, and active citizenship. The organizations should develop activities in Southeast Asia, Latin America, or in Africa.
- Capacity for collaboration: A track record of co-creating impactful projects with other organizations and operational capacity to manage micro-grant resources from an international organization.
- Alignment with key issues: Proven experience working on the identified topics (climate change, rainforest, ocean, transparency and governance).
SELECTION CRITERIA
- Journalism-inspired: All projects must utilize at least one reporting and involve one journalist supported by the Pulitzer Center as a central part of the project. The journalists can be involved at various levels, for project development and consultation, for example, and their participation will need to be confirmed once the project has been selected.
- Find the journalism stories at Rainforest Journalism Fund / Rainforest Investigations Network / Our Work & Environment / Ocean Reporting Network / Transparency and Governance. Check also the list of journalists supported by the Pulitzer Center.
- Audience-centric: Describe the project's target audience and why this project is important for them;
- Impact-focused: Designed to achieve short-term outcomes that align with:
- Improving the awareness and critical thinking of communities on critical climate, environment, and its intersectional issues;
- Contributing to more informed and transparent dialogues and decisions, practices, and policies related to climate, environment, and its intersectional issues;
- Equipping communities with information to take action at the local or global level.
RESOURCES AND TIMING OF PROJECTS
Grants range from US$2,000 to US$4,000. We expect projects to be implemented and concluded within nine months of approval.
PROJECT DURATION
The maximum duration for the proposal's implementation is nine months (March – November). Upon approval of the project proposal and the signing of the agreement with the Pulitzer Center, funds will be transferred to the partner. Formal start and end dates for the project will be established in the agreement. Applicants must submit financial narrative reports at the end of the grant period, and outcomes achieved. Partners are not obliged to collect detailed receipts.
SELECTION PROCESS – OPEN CALL
- Submission of the proposal by the applicants;
- Shortlist of proposals by a panel of Pulitzer Center staff;
- Interview with the proposal lead applicant by a panel of Pulitzer Center staff;
- Announcement of selected proposal for immediate implementation of the grant.
TIMELINE — OPEN CALL
- Application process: January 15 – February 15, 2025
- Selection process: February 17 – March 3, 2025
- Grants/partnership announcement: March 10, 2025
- Briefing and grants administration: March 10-14, 2025
- Implementation duration: March – November 2025
- Project closure: December 7 - 31, 2025
- Project Reporting: January 2026
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Please contact [email protected]
