Community engagement grants go to 18 news organizations

The Community Listening and Engagement Fund (CLEF) is awarding more than $100,000 to 18 news organizations as part of its second round of grant making.

In the first round, announced in April 2018, CLEF awarded subsidies for Hearken and GroundSource to 34 organizations.

The second group of CLEF grantees was chosen from nearly 60 applicants. The 18 chosen are 10 local outlets, one statewide newsroom, one national publisher, two topic-based publishers, three student newspapers, and one university. A list of the grantees is available at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism website.

 

The first two rounds of CLEF funding support newsrooms using two community-listening services Hearken and GroundSource. Hearken allows news organizations to include the public as a story develops. GroundSource uses mobile messaging and voice to build two-way relationships with audiences.

 
CLEF is funded by a consortium of journalism and democracy-oriented foundations including The News Integrity Initiative, Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

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