$20k and a license to dream
The following is a republished edition of GroundSourced, a weekly newsletter from GroundSource on listening and community engagement. It features successful community engagement efforts, highlights missed opportunities for listening, and offers strategies that help you engage and listen to your community. You can subscribe to GroundSourced here.
What do we owe each other? It’s a hard question to answer without first asking what you owe yourself. If you’re not doing right by you — how can you be doing right by others?
To me, that’s the two-step process to making change. I have to ground myself in my values, give myself time to rest and grow, and practice communicating with intention. And only then can I hope to encourage others to do the same.
One small way to do that is taking a break from this newsletter as the year turns over. That’s why this will be the last GroundSourced of 2018. We’ll be back again on Wednesday January 9, 2019, refreshed and ready to take on a new year.
Another way is to think about that coming year and the opportunities it brings. At GroundSource, our goal is to make 2019 the year of sustainability and resilience. We’ll be grounding ourselves in our values, growing where we need, and communicating with old and new customers with more intention.
What will 2019 be for you? I hope this week’s features spark an idea. And as always, let us know what this newsletter can become to better serve your needs.
Here’s $20,000 and a license to dream
The Reynolds Journalism Institute is accepting fellowship applications for their 2020 class of fellows. Based at the University of Missouri, they offer three types of fellowships: residential, non-residential, and institutional.
Residential fellowships require you to spend eight months on the Mizzou campus in Columbia, Missouri and comes with a stipend of $80,000, plus additional funds for travel, professional development, and marketing.
The non-residential and institutional fellowships come with a stipend of $20,000 (plus additional funds for travel, professional development, and marketing) and you get to stay right where you are while working on innovative journalism projects that lead the industry into the future.
GroundSource CEO Andrew Haeg was an RJI fellow in 2017. And I’m a part of this year’s fellowship class. Either of us would be happy to talk to you about your application, particularly if you feel you represent an underserved community.
The deadline to apply is January 31, 2019. More information and how to apply can be found here.
25 ways your community can aid your reporting
The Membership Puzzle Project has scoured the globe documenting ways communities are participating in journalism production outside of just financial support. And in an increasingly uncertain industry, asking the people you serve to offer more than just financial support is a way to make your organization more resilient.
MPP talked to hundreds of supporters of independent news sites to understand why they want to do more than just pay for journalism. And they found their were six chief reasons:
- Learn something new
- Contribute expertise
- Be heard
- Encourage transparency
- Engage their passions
- Find community
This eagerness to participate creates new opportunities for journalists, their organizations, and their communities.
See 25 ways to include your community in your reporting from The Membership Puzzle Project here.
What we’re reading
- 5 things you can do to repair trust in journalism (no matter who you are), by Joy Mayer for Trusting News
- After capitalism’s fire, journalism’s secondary succession, by Simon Galperin for Nieman Lab
- Let’s talk about power (yours), by Darryl Holliday for Nieman Lab
- We are responsible for how we use our power, by Heather Bryant for Nieman Lab
