St. Petersburg, Fla. (April 14, 2023) – The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the nonprofit Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalistic excellence, in partnership with Google and YouTube, announces the opening of applications for funding to support fact-checking initiatives worldwide and reduce the harm of misinformation.
Organizations may apply beginning April 14, 2023 to the newly created Global Fact Check Fund for the first phase of the multi-year program, funded by a $13.2 million grant from Google and YouTube.
This opening phase is known as BUILD, and is aimed at fact-checking organizations who seek to scale or upgrade their online presence. Funds can be used for improving website development, domain hosting, content management systems, publishing tools, or improving security and resilience against hacking and other threats.
Other considerations for funding include adding fact-checkers, professional development of staff, expanding recruitment, and formal mentoring and coaching programs that help staff members develop skills, receive feedback and grow professionally.
“Ensuring that people have access to accurate information is more important than ever,” said Ferdi Ozsoy, interim director of the IFCN. “The Global Fact Check Fund plays a critical role in this effort by providing resources and opportunities to organizations, enabling them to strengthen their fact-checking abilities, innovate new approaches and effectively combat the spread of misinformation.”
“Helping people to identify misinformation is a global challenge, and we’re committed to continuing to support the journalists and fact-checking organizations on the front lines of the fight,” said Olivia Ma, Managing Director of Global News Programs and Ecosystem at Google. “Google and YouTube take our role in helping to tackle misinformation seriously, and we continually invest in products, programs and partnerships to help people access high-quality information. Building on our previous work to address misinformation, this is our single largest grant in fact-checking – and we are grateful to the IFCN for their role in the running of this independent Fund.”
The grant, announced in November 2022, includes the creation of the $12 million Global Fact Check Fund. The project aims to support about 135 organizations in 65 countries across 80 languages over three years. Applications close May 15, 2023.
The mission of the Fund is to strengthen and develop the operational, production and engagement capacities of local and regional media organizations to increase the quality, volume, frequency and expansion of fact-checking abilities and activities.
Two future phases will follow BUILD, called GROW and ENGAGE.
GROW grants will focus on the development of organizations’ institutional capacity, competitiveness and sustainability in local and regional work. This may include increasing staffing, expanding or creating programs designed to boost content visibility, training, fundraising, data analytics tools, diversifying revenue streams and growing partnerships and collaborations.
ENGAGE grants will support scaling local and regional audience engagement, including expanded staffing and programming and training, cross-pollination across technology channels, exploration of new markets, audience research, metrics and analytics, digital media, community engagement, and innovation and experimentation to develop tools for fact-checking.
To apply for the BUILD grant as well as review criteria, visit our landing page: https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/grants-ifcn/globalfactcheckfund/
On April 19 at 1 p.m. GMT, the IFCN will host a question and answer webinar about eligibility and the logistics of submitting an application to the grant program. To register, go to our landing page.:
To learn more about the IFCN, visit poynter.org/ifcn.
Media Contact:
Ferdi Ozsoy
Interim Director
International Fact-Checking Network
ferdi@ifcn.org
+1-727-337-7465
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for health democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
