Good news! You can get into JustFund without applying to Press Forward.

By Alice Dreger

Correction!

Yesterday I urged you to consider applying for Press Forward’s open-call grant if you’re at all eligible, even if you think you won’t get one.

I suggested this because doing so gets you into the JustFund system, where tons of other funders who might be interested in funding your work will get to see your profile as they search for philanthropic opportunities to support local news.

Well, as it turns out, you don’t have to apply to Press Forward to get into JustFund and be seen there.

This means if you know or think that you’re not eligible for a Press Forward grant, you can still take this important step towards making your organization visible to hundreds of funders – most of whose names you don’t even know.

This webpage explains how you do it. It describes two “parts,” but you can just do the first part. Basically, what you want to do is to “create and publish your profile.” Once you publish the profile for your organization, it stays in the common app – you can update it at any time – and all kinds of grant-givers can read about your work and decide whether to reach out.

At the May 9 Press Forward informational webinar, Miami Foundation VP Lindsey Linzer explained that, via JustFund, your organization will become “visible to hundreds of funders.” Linzer said the purpose of using this system is to “remove barriers” between grant-givers and organizations that need funding. 

Thanks to regular Local News Blues reader and commenter Ken Martin of the Austin Bulldog for sending in an email that led to this discovery, and thanks to Press Forward Assistant Director Christina Shih for clarifying this option.

Just a reminder that you can find all Local News Blues’ reporting, commentary, and analysis on Press Forward here and you can sign up to get Local News Blues for free here.

Alice Dreger is a journalist, historian, and the publisher of Local News Blues. She founded East Lansing Info, a nonprofit digital investigative news service, and ran the operation for about ten years. Read more at the Local News Blues contributors page.