Special Projects in Journalism Grants and Sponsorships

The Headliners Foundation of Texas’ mission is to promote excellence in journalism by providing scholarships to student journalists; recognizing and rewarding outstanding work in professional journalists; and supporting special projects that promote journalistic excellence and preserve history.

Grant guidelines:

The Foundation’s Special Projects Fund was made possible by the bequest of Headliners Club member Wilmot Horton. This program will allow the Foundation to award a limited number of grants annually for journalism-related projects and events that support the Foundation’s mission to promote excellence in journalism through training and education.

Eligible applicants include nonprofit 501(c)(3) entities, trade associations, newsrooms and schools. Although projects or programs must have journalism as the focus, the audience may include the general public as well as entity staff, members of the media, industry associations and students.

Below are the grant criteria for funding consideration by the Headliners Foundation. As a part of the application process, you must show how your proposal fits within the criteria; specifically, how the proposal relates to gathering and disseminating news. An application must show a direct link to the Foundation’s mission regarding journalism and education to be considered. Projects with advertising or public relations components do not fit within the criteria.

Please contact our Executive Director should you have questions about the criteria or application process.

Specifically, the following Program Areas in Journalism will be considered:

  • Training or educational sponsorships, including staff or guest speaker expenses

  • Development of education or training materials, including curriculum or multimedia

  • New technology or hardware and software

  • Research projects or survey materials

  • Archival projects or exhibits

Potential projects must demonstrate the following Journalism Program Objectives:

  • Inform or educate

  • Teach new tools or methodologies

  • Enable new technology

  • Promote ethics and integrity

  • Support or improve credibility and reputation of the journalism industry

  • Encourage fresh outlooks and renewed enthusiasm of journalists

Program areas not applicable:

  • Unrestricted general operating expenses

  • Endowment funds

  • Religious organizations for religious purposes

  • Fundraising activities or events

  • Umbrella funding organizations that intend to distribute funds at their own discretion

  • Political lobbying or legislative activities

  • Individuals

  • Campaigns for facility construction

Project scope: The Headliners Foundation gives careful consideration to a project’s impact. To illustrate impact, projects must report potential outputs (e.g., presented to # participants or increased use of videography by newsrooms). Only two to four qualitative or quantitative measures are required.

Geographic location: Only projects hosted by organizations based in Texas will be considered. Audiences or constituencies for the projects may reside outside Texas.

Grant amounts, timeline for application approval and reporting requirements: Grants will be awarded in amounts ranging from $300 to $5,000. The Foundation accepts applications for projects and sponsorships year-round.

The Foundation may require additional information regarding ownership of copyrights and other items relating to a specific grant request.

Consideration of an application will be attempted within ten weeks of receipt of the application.

If an application is approved, a grant recipient must agree to prepare a short description of the project for posting to the Foundation’s website and prepare an end of project report describing results and including outputs.

Application

The grant application can be found by clicking the button below.