Update on July 13, 2020: We are not accepting new applications at the moment.

The Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, has established the EHRP Emergency Relief Fund, made possible by the support of the Heising-Simons Foundation. The fund will aid journalists facing economic distress because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the emergence of Covid-19, roughly “36,000 employees of news media companies in the United States have been laid off, furloughed or had their pay reduced,” estimated The New York Times. Many publications have also frozen or eliminated their freelance budgets, threatening the existence of independent journalists.

The Heising-Simons Foundation grant will enable EHRP to ensure that journalists whose livelihoods have been directly impacted by the pandemic receive quick financial relief. Meanwhile, EHRP will continue to support reporting on inequality and poverty in America.

“Economic instability has been exposed by the pandemic as the problem of our time,” said Alissa Quart, executive director of EHRP. “If independent reporters in particular are to survive as a species, we must embrace an ad hoc universal basic income—emergency relief payments.”

The Heising-Simons Foundation, a family foundation based in Los Altos and San Francisco, Calif., works with its many partners to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners, and support human rights for all people.

EHRP, founded in 2012 by the renowned author Barbara Ehrenreich, invites U.S. journalists to apply for emergency relief of financial insecurity caused by work lost due to coronavirus. To apply, they should submit no more than 350 words in English or Spanish, including links to work published or broadcast in the last 12 months and a description of their financial situation. Awards will be considered on a rolling basis.

For further information, visit http://economichardship.org/submissions or email economichardshipreporting@gmail.com.