Pulitzer Center Grant for Environmental Journalism Projects

The Pulitzer Center is accepting applications for its Our Work/Environment reporting grant, which supports journalists investigating how climate change affects workers, jobs, and workplaces. The opportunity is open to U.S. residents and journalists around the world, and applications are reviewed on a rolling, first-come basis with no fixed deadline.

About the Our Work Environment Reporting Grant

The grant supports in-depth reporting on the relationship between climate change and work. Applicants can investigate how rising temperatures and competition for water affect jobs, employment sectors, factory practices, and manufacturing. Possible subjects include computer chip, battery, and food production, as well as fast fashion and other forms of manufacturing that may face pressure to change as the climate warms.

The initiative is interested in stories that document the consequences for labor rights and the livelihoods of vulnerable workers, including women who are often household heads. It also welcomes reporting on companies working on solutions and attempting to achieve sustainability at scale. Projects may help audiences understand how business, climate, and consumer choices connect, and may explain policy or examine legal cases when relevant.

Transparency and governance are themes across the initiative. Pulitzer Center is interested in projects that follow money across borders, investigate opaque and harmful supply chains, and examine the systems, organizations, and people that enable corruption. Applicants may propose print, digital, broadcast television, radio, or film projects, as well as data and computer-assisted journalism. Stories can use innovative formats designed for distribution across platforms and in multiple languages.

The Center is particularly interested in reporting from Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America. Projects should ideally be completed, including publication, within one to four months. Grant amounts are determined by the project’s scope and complexity, media formats, and distribution plan; the opportunity does not specify a fixed budget range. Applications are reviewed as they arrive. Applicants typically hear back within one to two weeks, and those being considered for support are typically notified within a month. If field reporting is urgent, applicants should explain the reason in their submission.

Who Should Apply

This opportunity is for freelance and staff journalists with ambitious, in-depth reporting ideas about the intersection of labor and climate. Data journalists and groups of newsrooms collaborating on a data project may also apply. Applicants should be prepared to develop a strong distribution plan and identify outlets committed to publishing their stories. Pulitzer Center encourages proposals from journalists and newsrooms representing a broad range of social, racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, including underrepresented communities.

Key Highlights

• Funding supports reporting projects; the award amount depends on scope, complexity, format, and distribution.
• Applicants may be U.S. residents or journalists based elsewhere in the world.
• Reporting focus: climate impacts on workers, jobs, labor rights, manufacturing, supply chains, and governance.
• Accepted formats include print, digital, television, radio, film, and data journalism.
• Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; projects should ideally be completed and published within one to four months.

Journalists looking for related funding can browse grants and funding opportunities, while Arab applicants can also explore opportunities for Arab applicants.

What to Include in the Proposal

Applicants are asked to submit a description of the proposed project in no more than 250 words, a preliminary budget estimate with a basic cost breakdown, and a compelling distribution plan. Proposals should include detailed distribution plans and letters of commitment from outlets where the stories will be published. Applicants may also describe ways to distribute content creatively and engage diverse audiences beyond publication.

The grant does not generally cover equipment purchases, staff salaries, an outlet’s general expenses, routine breaking news, advocacy or marketing campaigns, or data projects aimed solely at academic research. Equipment rentals may be considered case by case. A story that may later become part of a book can be supported if it is independently published by a media outlet; feature-length films are not covered, although short documentaries with ambitious distribution plans are supported.