Postcode Lottery Fund for Journalists

Free Press Unlimited and the National Postcode Lottery support foreign journalism (for the Dutch language area) with the Postcode Lottery Fund for Journalists. There is less and less money available for foreign reports. Nevertheless, information about foreign countries is crucial for a good understanding of developments worldwide. That is why the Postcode Lottery Fund for Journalists makes money available for travel and accommodation costs of professional journalists who want to make foreign reports and have not been able to gather enough resources for this. Free Press Unlimited manages this fund.

Funding Information

• The Postcode Lottery Fund assesses applications from journalists who write a challenging pitch four times a year. The applications concern a budget of up to €4,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• You are a professional journalist who has published articles/taken photographs/made broadcasts (in Dutch) in the past year;
• You travel abroad for your production and this trip has not yet taken place;
• The production for which you are requesting funding goes beyond the local level and is aimed at a broad audience;
• The employer/client is prepared to pay a portion of the costs (e.g. fee) that is in proportion to the total costs;
• You have not previously received money from the Postcode Lottery Fund for journalists in the past calendar year;
• You mention any other subsidies (applications) for the same production;
• You submit a complete application. Incomplete applications will not be assessed.

Application Requirements

• You submit a fully completed application form, written in good Dutch, in which you highlight the background and explain how the journalistic elaboration will take shape;
• You have at least 1 letter of intent from an employer or client (editor-in-chief) who wants to proceed with publication/broadcasting if the quality and relevance are proven. The Postcode Lottery Fund for journalists encourages applicants to apply for a letter of intent from a medium with a large reach. Submitting multiple letters of intent and publishing reports in various, less obvious media, in order to reach a larger and more varied audience is appreciated.
• A complete budget: please include a clear budget of all the costs and benefits of this trip with your application, so that it becomes clear what the costs are and who directly or indirectly contributes to the trip. The Postcode Lottery Fund only reimburses travel and accommodation costs (no food/drink or the journalist’s hours). If you also receive a subsidy for this production from another institute or fund, it is necessary to include a proof copy.
• You submit relevant publications (maximum 3 files) of previous work.

For more information, visit Free Press Unlimited.