Eight newsroom projects all aimed at engaging and growing audiences have been awarded funding from the Institute for Nonprofit News (formerly the Investigative News Network).  The INNovation Fund awards, totaling $223,810, will make possible a range of projects that include events, mobile app development and citizen reporting. 

“We are pleased with the depth and breadth of these awards that reflect the enthusiasm with which INN members embrace innovation,” said Brant Houston, chair of the INN board, said. “And we thank the Knight Foundation for their crucial support that helps our members advance in the digital journalism world.” 

There were 38 proposals submitted in this third of four rounds of INNovation Fund grants.  INN will open the final round for applications August 3, 2015. 

The eight grant recipients are: 

Banyan Project — $35,000 to create an Engagement/Conversion Digital Tool-Set, which will be used in all of this news co-operative’s affiliated sites, using technology to better target and categorize comments for increased engagement and developing metrics to build membership. It will also be made available to anyone using the Largo WordPress CMS.

Connecticut Health Investigative Team — $20,000 to plan a daylong health fair targeting a quarter-million new consumers of health insurance in Connecticut. The project will engage readers on social media to help develop the agenda, and partner with corporate sponsors and exhibitors, including the largest health insurer in the state.

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange — $30,610 to begin a membership program that both sustains the topical nonprofit’s work in the long term and creates a mutually beneficial, customized relationship with specific subsets of the specialized, mostly professional audience working in juvenile justice, tied to their individual financial capability and interests.

Investigative Post — $35,000 to leverage its social media reach using paid Facebook and Twitter posts and to see whether this is a legitimate and financially feasible approach to building audience loyalty for a regional nonprofit news brand. Investigative Post is based in Buffalo, N.Y.

New Jersey Spotlight — $35,000 to stage a one-day multi-tracked event entitled “The Symposium for NJ Cities.” This event will convene local, state, and perhaps national leaders along with interested citizens to share plans, success stories and discuss needs of major New Jersey cities on a multitude of critical civic issues.

Seattle Globalist — $17,200 to organize a series of community media training workshops on a variety of skills. These workshops will train new and interested citizen journalists from a multitude of diverse backgrounds who contribute to its daily publication, and will generate revenue from workshop fees.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting — $31,000 to develop a mobile app, Stories for Service, that will enable younger military veterans of Iraq and Afghan wars to use the camera, text and recording features to record their stories. Students from West Virginia University will help curate the stories and prepare for airing.

WyoFile — $20,000 to conduct a ‘road show’ to far-flung parts of Wyoming to greatly expand their audience. Funds will support travel and promotion of five events.