Apply for a grant
The Lenfest Institute funds projects that align with our priorities in the Philadelphia Media Ecosystem and across the United States.
The Lenfest Institute welcomes applications to open grant opportunities when they are available. All applications are reviewed by a staff grants committee, which recommends grants for approval, either to the Institute’s senior management or to its Board of Managers, depending on the size of the grant and funding sources.
Current grant opportunities
Past grants Past grantsThere are no grant opportunities available at this time. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when future grant applications open.
Subscribe SubscribeLetters of inquiry
The Institute is committed to learning about and funding projects that advance its mission but don’t fit into its active grants programs. We invite individuals and organizations to submit letters of inquiry to grants@lenfestinstitute.org.
Please note that the Institute cannot guarantee a response to every letter of inquiry, but it is more likely to respond to proposals that align with its mission and current priorities:
We employ an evidence-based approach to our grantmaking and programming utilizing key metrics to determine the efficacy of our efforts to strengthen the Philadelphia News Ecosystem. We focus on three interdependent tiers:
• Individuals: Support for professional development; cohort training programs
• Organizations: Core support and capacity building grants for both legacy and newer organizations; media startup accelerator programs
• Ecosystem: Grants to support citywide civic engagement and public accountability journalism; ecosystem-wide research; annual convenings; communities of practice
1. Projects that support media ecosystem-building on a metro, regional, or statewide level.
2. Research and community listening projects that aim to demonstrate impact and/or understand audience needs.
3. Projects that directly implement lessons from the Lenfest Institute’s communities of practice, with a specific emphasis on experimentation.
The Institute cannot provide funding to:
- Organizations, individuals, or projects based outside of the United States;
- Activities that produce propaganda or otherwise attempt to influence specific legislation;
- Activities that seek to influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive;
- Applications that do not have an attached budget detailing the use of the requested grant amount;
- Activities that use funding in a manner not in furtherance of the purposes enumerated under 170(c)(2)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code;
- Applications to the Lenfest Foundation;
- Activities that do not align with the Institute’s mission.