Child Care Narrative RFP: Journalism & Reporting

REQUEST FOR CHILD CARE NARRATIVE GRANT PROPOSALS

Journalism & Reporting

Funding journalism & reporting focused on elevating the impact child care has on Coloradans

Journalism & Reporting Grant Category

Part of Gary Community Venture’s Request for Child Care Narrative Grant Proposals

As part of Gary Community Ventures’ Request for Proposals to elevate the impact of child care on all Coloradans, this RFP outlines the reporting themes, objectives, requirements and timelines specific to journalism and reporting applications.

Please see the full RFP for more background information on this RFP. Applications for all RFP categories are due on Aug. 3.

This particular RFP calls for Journalism & Reporting Proposals focused on enterprise storytelling that elevates the issues facing our child care system as well as potential solutions through well-sourced, ethical and compelling reporting practices capable of reaching the audiences outlined in the “Proposal Requirements” section.

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Reporting Themes, Objectives & Proposal Requirements

Informed by robust RFP design session

The following reporting themes, objectives and proposal requirements were the result of an intensive RFP design session that included statewide early childhood experts, award-winning journalists, filmmakers, and creatives as well as members of communities who have not been frequent recipients of stories about the issues facing our child care system and how they impact all Coloradans.

This funding opportunity will aim to accomplish the key objectives outlined below by offering funding support to journalism projects that meet the proposal requirements and explore one or more of these reporting themes:

Reporting Themes

  • Everyone Relies on Someone Who Relies on Child Care – These proposed stories would explore the way child care impacts the vital services all Coloradans rely on, including but not limited to health care, education, first responders as well as food and transportation providers. For more information on this reporting theme, click here.
  • Made Possible by Child Care – These proposed stories would explore how child care impacts cherished institutions and activities that make life in Colorado worth living, including our restaurants, museums, theaters, parks and recreation centers and sports events and teams. For more information on this reporting theme, click here.
  • Child Care Champions – These proposed stories would explore early childhood educators who are frequently overlooked as well as unlikely champions of our early childhood system, including military leaders, business owners and conservative messengers and politicians. For more information on this reporting theme, click here.

RFP Objectives

  • Support reliable and trusted reporters and newsrooms in the development of accurate, ethical, compelling and independent journalism that illuminates the issues facing Colorado’s child care system, begins to identify solutions to those issues and/or explores the idea of child care as a vital, societal challenge rather than a burden to be exclusively carried by parents and providers
  • Support proposals that utilize distribution methods capable of reaching audiences who don’t frequently receive or seek out storytelling on our child care system
  • Protect the independence and editorial control of all journalists awarded funding by working with the Colorado Media Project to distribute this RFP as well as a selection panel of statewide, award-winning journalists to issue these awards and support the cohort of awarded journalists
  • Share a variety of unique storylines and leads with applicants during our informational webinars on July 15 that were surfaced as part of an intensive RFP design session featuring child care experts, journalists, creatives and community organizers across the state
  • Support strong proposals that:
    • Demonstrate the journalist(s) relationships within the communities to be covered in the pitched story and/or an interest in working with Colorado’s child care community and/or Gary Community Ventures and its network of early childhood partners, government sources and community organizations to assist in the development of reliable sources for your reporting and storytelling
    • Highlight the journalist(s) access to reliable data sources capable of underpinning your a reporting and/or an interest in working with Colorado’s child care community and/or Gary Community Ventures and its network of early childhood partners, government sources and community organizations to gain access to such sources
    • Illustrate a strong track record of producing impactful journalism
    • Illustrate an understanding of how to use multiple distribution methods to maximize the reach of and engagement with your reporting, especially among the priority audiences outlined in the “Proposal Requirements” category
    • Highlight a clear editorial plan that demonstrates the journalist(s) ability to accomplish the content quotas outlined in the “Expected Deliverables from Selected Recipients” section and distribute that content within the 6- to 12-month grant/contract period

Proposal Requirements

  • Proposals must clearly describe how they will explore the reporting themes above in ways capable of reaching and resonating with one or more of the following priority audiences below:
    • Coloradans Without Children
    • Family-Focused Conservatives
    • Coloradans Age 50+
    • Fathers
    • Business Leaders
    • Western Slope Communities
    • Larimer County Residents
    • El Paso County Residents
  • Demonstrate a culturally responsive approach to reporting and a demonstrated track record of journalistic integrity.
  • Include a clear plan for reporting, story collection, development, writing and producing 
  • Identify specific avenues and strategies for publication, distribution and broader amplification, with estimates about the size and general demographic makeup of the audience you expect to reach
  • Include a timeline with activities, milestones, and deliverables across the life of the project.

Proposal Considerations

Priority will be given to proposals that:

  • Are led by reporters or journalists who are members of or have shown a demonstrated ability to report on the targeted audiences outlined above
  • Demonstrate how your reporting either has previously or could in this instance lead to broader systemic change
  • Show innovative plans to engage the aforementioned priority audiences leading up to, during and/or after the publication of your reporting
  • Amplify published storytelling through unique and innovative distribution and audience engagement strategies following your content’s publication
  • Reflect social and cultural responsiveness and community-rooted practices in listening, story curation and editing approaches
  • Offer ideas or avenues for how your reporting could be syndicated across multiple trusted media outlets
  • Activate skilled editors to improve your writing, production and reporting

We will not consider funding proposals that:

  • Do not address the objectives of this RFP, do not align with one or more of the “Reporting Themes” outlined above or do not provide clear plans to reach the audiences outlined in the “Proposal Requirements” section
  • Have weak or unclear project details, timelines, reporting methodology, publication or distribution/amplification plans
  • Lack a clear or feasible plan for story mining and source generation
  • Do not reflect thoughtfulness in budgeting or timeline or engagement of sources who represent or are likely to resonate with the audiences outlined in the “Proposal Requirements” section

Grant Awards, Contracts & Expected Deliverables

Grant Awards & Contracts

  • We will award grants or contracts of up to $25K
  • We anticipate selecting 3-5 journalists, newsrooms or reporting teams
  • A total of $75K will be distributed through this category of our request for grant proposals

Expected Deliverables from Awardees

  • A project timeline that outlines how your reporting, story development, production, editing, publication, distribution and amplification process will evolve across the 6- to 12-month grant period.
  • A clearly defined scope of work with activities, timelines, deliverables and milestones
  • A strategy for publishing your content and elevating its reach, imapct and engagement trhough distribution and amplification strategies
  • A plan to capture and report reach and engagement metrics of your reporting and storytelling
  • Plans to deliver a significant, enterprise piece of journalism content, with examples being:
    • 3-4 part investigative series to be published in a reputable media outlet or digital platform capable of reaching the priority audiences
    • 1-3 podcast episodes of at least 20 minutes in length to be included in a reputable podcast series with an established audience
    • A short documentary film of 8 or more minutes with plans to distribute it through a reputable media outlet or digital platform capable of reaching the priority audiences

Application

Here is an editable Google Doc that you can use to work on the application among collaborative teams, if helpful. Otherwise, click the link below to apply.

Apply for this RFP

RFP Timeline, Informational Webinar & Office Hours

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we can help

For questions regarding this RFP, please reach out to Will Holden, our Director of Communications & Storytelling, at wholden@garycommunity.org. We will also be offering two additional avenues for support.

Office Hours

We will be hosting regular office hours to answer any questions you may have live. Please click the links below to register and feel free to join at any point in these two-hour windows.

Informational Webinars

Additionally, we will host four webinars on Tuesday, July 22 focused on each of the four categories of this RFP. Click the link below to register for the virtual meeting specific to this RFP category.

Share Your Ideas

I would like to see business people try to solve social problems with the same imagination and energy they use to finance a factory or make a deal. Don’t call it philanthropy; call it corporate social investment. Make it integral to business.

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