ST.PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 12, 2024) – The International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter announced in November that 20 projects from around the world won mid-tier grants from the GROW round of the IFCN’s Global Fact Check Fund. As part of its overall first-year project review, the IFCN is now detailing the winning projects’ proposals.
The IFCN conducted three rounds of grant-giving in the first year of the fund: BUILD, GROW and ENGAGE. The GROW winners will split $1 million, funded by Google/YouTube, for grants of $50,000 each.
The winning projects will expand regional fact-checking initiatives; launch new mentorship and training programs; build capacity of small fact-checkers in challenging contexts; pursue new financial sustainability ideas, and other projects.
Winners were selected from 88 applications received by the IFCN and analyzed by independent reviewers. Each application was first screened by IFCN’s staff for general eligibility — 85 were ruled eligible — and then each was graded by two independent reviewers. Awards of $50,000 each were made to 20 projects from countries such as Peru, India, Lebanon, Germany, Serbia, the Czech Republic, the United States, Spain, the Philippines and Uruguay, among others.
IFCN Director Angie Drobnic Holan said the mid-tier awards were highly competitive, with a number of applications making strong cases for awards.
“We received more worthy applications than we could award at this time. We look forward to awarding two more rounds of grants in 2024 and 2025, so that more fact-checking organizations can launch expansions and further their work,” she said.
Reviewers were drawn from the fact-checking community and academia, and each project was scored twice according to a detailed rubric that included ratings for the statement of need; organizational capacity; and action plans and timelines.
She also thanked Google/YouTube for supporting the overall fund, launched in April 2023, during a time when giving fact-checking organizations access to new funds can significantly increase their impact.
The grant winners are spread across five continents — Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America.
They have 12 months to implement and complete their projects and are expected to submit progress reports at the halfway point and at the end of the 12-month period.
Read below about each grant winner and their projects.
Regional initiatives
Africa Check – South Africa and other countries
Project: Strengthen and develop the Africa Facts Network
This program will help fund efforts to continue to expand and strengthen Africa Facts, an established regional fact-checking network for Africa. Africa Check will use funds to facilitate ongoing skill development for fact-checkers and for knowledge sharing, and peer support. The network will strengthen fact-checking practices across the continent and combat the proliferation of misinformation in countries with limited capacity.
BoomLive – India
Project: BOOM’s North East Fact Alliance
The crisis in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur has resulted in significant displacement and loss of life. BOOM’s fact-checking efforts have shed light on polarizing and harmful misinformation fueling the conflict. This crisis reflects broader tensions in the northeastern states, compounded by political rifts and the refugee crisis stemming from Myanmar’s military coup. Boom will create a fact-based alliance across the northeastern Indian states.
Arab Fact-Checkers Network – Middle East/North Africa
Project: Go Far, Go Together
The Arab Fact-Checkers Network will support six organizations within the Arab fact-checking community that are not yet signatories to the IFCN’s Code of Principles. The project will focus on building fact-checking capacity, communications strategy and safety models in countries such as Tunisia and Lebanon. This project was endorsed by IFCN signatory Maharat Foundation.
Fact-checking in new formats
OjoPúblico – Peru
Project: The Fact-Checking Multiformat Lab
OjoPúblico’s Fact-Checking Multiformat Lab will develop new formats, strategies and initiatives to incorporate innovation as an essential component for fact-checking and verification, with an emphasis on sustainability. The project includes three main initiatives: the development of a new performative format to promote literacy in fact-checking, the development and expansion of a digital tool with Artificial Intelligence for verification content generation, and a pilot of a business model for the activities and products developed by the Lab.
Demagog.cz – Czech Republic
Project: Content Creation for New Media
Demagog will create content addressing misinformation narratives for short-form video platforms. Demagog will hire personnel and utilize external consultants to develop skills for this video production, while investing in professional editing tools and coaching programs. Additionally, it will contract with a local company that operates digital info panels in Czech schools, covering 15% of students in the country.
KRIK – Serbia
Project: Growing together – speaking the “language” of young audiences
KRIK will hire a video reporter and a social media manager to round out its existing fact-checking team. This will enable the organization to regularly produce video content for social media platforms, in particular TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, helping to grow its audience of young people.
Education, Training and Media Literacy
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) – Germany
Project: Get ready for AI
Launched on its learning platform, dpa will utilize funding to improve AI readiness among fact-checkers and journalists with a new online course to help them tackle AI-driven disinformation and use AI in editorial work. This will build on existing training dpa has completed that reached more than a thousand journalists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
FactCheck Lab – Hong Kong
Project: Building Herd Immunity to Misinformation
The funding will significantly enhance FactCheck Lab’s capacity and facilitate the development of media literacy initiatives focused on fact-checking education and combating misinformation. This includes creating a fact-checking educational module with tailored content for diverse audiences, delivering workshops and seminars to enhance understanding of fact-checking methods, and establishing a “Misinformation Report Channel” workshop audiences to report misinformation, thereby expanding investigative scope and engaging the audience in combating misinformation in the long term.
Lakmusz – Hungary
Project: Generation Next
Lakmusz plans to establish a paid internship/training program aimed at enhancing the newsroom’s capacity and diversity, with a focus on producing more fact-checking and anti-disinformation content. The program will recruit three to five candidates for a three-month training period, providing them with dedicated mentors. Following an evaluation, subsequent cohorts may be organized, potentially leading to the hiring of two to four newsroom members, with excess capable candidates potentially employed by other outlets under the same publisher. This initiative aims to significantly boost content output, enhance community outreach and engage the audience more effectively.
Newtral – Spain
Project: Empowering Sustainability through Educational Innovation
Funding will help realize a longstanding goal: to transform Newtral Educación into a comprehensive media literacy hub, offering educational programs on fact-checking and debunking disinformation at all levels. Newtral can focus on delivering offerings to three primary communities: schools, universities and civil society while experimenting with cutting-edge approaches, immersive experiences and collaborations. This transformation would ensure the long-term sustainability of our efforts, fostering media literacy, combating disinformation, and promoting critical thinking.
Rappler – the Philippines
Project: Rappler Academy
In 2016, responding to the rise of online disinformation, Rappler added workshops on fact-checking and ethical use of social media on top of its fact-checking activities; these programs pivoted online following the pandemic. Rappler Academy will institutionalize and systematize existing grant-funded programs and initiatives and create an asynchronous learning experience to complement in-person and synchronous online sessions, as well as retrofit existing content.
The Self-Investigation Stichting – various countries
Project: Mental health leadership and resources for fact-checking organizations
To date, there is not a sustained single resource for training fact-checkers on their mental health and wellbeing. Through this program, The Self-Investigation Stichting will work with 14 IFCN signatories to integrate practices and tools that protect fact-checkers’ mental health into their organizational setup, thus helping increase staff resilience and talent retention. This project was endorsed by IFCN signatory Chequeado.
Verify-Sy – Middle East-North Africa, Turkey
Project: Verify+
Verify-Sy will enhance staff capacity with development and training programs, including mentoring and coaching programs; establish media literacy programs for its audience; and expand data analytics by integrating cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools. AI integration represents a significant leap forward in fact-checking, enhancing accuracy, speed, and the fight against misinformation.
Capacity Building and Sustainability
Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) – Belarus
Project: Increasing fact-checking capacity in Belarus
The Belarusian Investigative Center will bolster institutional capacity by expanding programs to boost content visibility. BIC will conduct regular fact-finding in response to critical events affecting Belarus, identify disinformation narratives in current areas of public interest, and raise audience awareness by publishing content in public domains, helping audiences improve their discernment and media literacy skills.
La Diaria – Uruguay
Project: la diaria verifica
The project will help one of the few fact-checking operations in Uruguay sustain year-round fact-checking, not just fact-checking during election periods. The funding will help it move toward independently sustaining its fact-checking with dedicated staff. This project was endorsed by IFCN signatories OjoPúblico and Chequeado.
Les Surligneurs – France
Project: Step Up
Les Surligneurs will take a major step toward long-term financial sustainability, hiring a professional fundraiser to set up patterns and networks of funding and train staff to be fundraising-oriented. This financial sustainability will help the organization expand its team, cover more topics and boost visibility and impact.
Maharat Foundation – Lebanon
Project: Municipal Elections Fact-Checking
Maharat plans on expanding staff in anticipation of the 2024 Lebanese election, hiring a full-time journalist and videographer to focus exclusively on debunking rumors and disinformation pre-and post-election. Allowing Maharat to produce visually engaging and interactive multimedia content will widen the reach and accessibility of its fact-checks, enabling citizens to make informed decisions and maintain integrity in the democratic process.
Mizzima – Hong Kong
Project: Mizzima Misinformation Busters
A leading independent Myanmar media group focusing on broadcast and online, Mizzima created its fact-checking desk in 2021 following the country’s coup. The 2021 coup effectively terminated Mizzima’s business model; funding will help sustain the organization’s fact-checking and media literacy work as instances of mis- and disinformation increase amid the intensifying conflict. This project was endorsed by IFCN signatory First Check.
USA Today – United States
Project: Addressing Spanish-language misinformation
Previously working only in English, USA Today will now add personnel, specifically one bilingual reporter, as well as tools and systems to address Spanish-language misinformation, and publish debunks in both English and Spanish. The organization plans to experiment with different ways of finding claims and publishing fact-checks to determine what types of checks and distribution methods will best serve and engage America’s Hispanic community to guide Spanish-language work going forward.
VERA Files – the Philippines
Project: VERA Files Fact Check’s Digital Publishing Platform Upgrade
VERA Files intends to expand its team to include a user experience-user interface designer, software developer and audience development manager and thus implement a user-centered publishing platform. The increased technical support for VERA Files establishes the groundwork for meaningful innovation in its flagship fact-checking initiative aimed at long-term sustainability.
Media Contact:
Angie Drobnic Holan
Director, International Fact-Checking Network
aholan@poynter.org
+1-727-410-1770
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About the International Fact-Checking Network
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter was launched in 2015 to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world and advocates of factual information in the global fight against misinformation. We enable fact-checkers through networking, capacity building and collaboration. IFCN promotes the excellence of fact-checking to more than 100 organizations worldwide through advocacy, training and global events. Our team monitors trends in the fact-checking field to offer resources to fact-checkers, contribute to public discourse and provide support for new projects and initiatives that advance accountability in journalism. We believe truth and transparency can help people be better informed and equipped to navigate harmful misinformation.
