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Media funders gave $750,000 to latest grantees of its Philadelphia COVID-19 Community Information Fund

The latest grants ranged from $40,000 to $100,000 for each organization.

Tom Casetta, who runs G-Town Radio, a low-frequency station that serves Germantown, poses for a portrait at the station on June 9, 2020. The station was one of 12 groups to get funding from the Philadelphia COVID-19 Community Information Fund.
Tom Casetta, who runs G-Town Radio, a low-frequency station that serves Germantown, poses for a portrait at the station on June 9, 2020. The station was one of 12 groups to get funding from the Philadelphia COVID-19 Community Information Fund.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

Twelve Philadelphia media organizations received $750,000 from a group of journalism supporters earlier this summer to help cover the COVID-19 pandemic.

This second round of grants under the Philadelphia COVID-19 Community Information Fund was announced in mid-June. It provides aid to organizations that exemplified the fund’s four focus areas in news around public health and economic relief, news created by and intended for diverse communities, the need for media organizations to work better with the communities they cover, and news addressing systemic infrastructures behind social inequities.

The latest grants ranged from $40,000 to $100,000 for each organization.

Among the awardees are the Pennsylvania Prison Society, which received $70,000 to provide information on how incarcerated people are being affected during the pandemic, and AI for the People, which will use $50,000 to partner with Little Giant Creative to reduce the spread of disinformation about the pandemic targeted toward Black Philadelphia residents.

The 10 other grants included $50,000 for Big Picture Alliance, $50,200 for Comadre Luna Collective, $100,000 for G-Town Radio, $50,000 for M&G Associates LLC, $100,000 for Media in Neighborhood Group, $60,000 for New Mainstream Press Inc., $55,000 for Nueva Esperanza Inc., $40,000 for Supportive Older Women’s Network, $50,000 for the Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting, and $75,000 for the Plug.

These grants come after the initial announcement of the fund in April, which committed over $2.5 million to Philadelphia-area media organizations to aid coverage of the pandemic.

The fund was created by the Independence Public Media Foundation, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism (the nonprofit that owns The Inquirer), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund.

The first round of grants under the fund, totaling $1.75 million, included Resolve Philly, WHYY, WURD Radio, and The Inquirer.