The Public Policy Forum (PPF), the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF) and the Michener Awards Foundation (MAF) are launching a timely, non-partisan granting initiative to support journalists at small- and medium-sized media outlets in covering the 2025 federal election. The Covering Canada: Election 2025 fund seeks to enhance journalistic coverage by providing financial resources to ensure high-quality information is produced for Canadians during this campaign. 

Application process and eligibility criteria

• Grants of up to $35,000 per outlet/journalist will be awarded to support election-focused journalism involving travel that would not have occurred but for the grant.
• Grant recipients will need to demonstrate how their work will add material additional benefit to the journalistic coverage of the election (e.g., a reporter travels from Iqaluit to attend a stop on the leaders’ tour and then brings that reporting back to their community, or that a reporter travels to Iqaluit to cover a local candidates’ debate and report back on community issues);
• The grants will primarily support Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations (QCJO) with fewer than 20 editorial staff;
• If an organization or independent journalist is too small to be a QCJO or of a nonprint/digital format, an exemption may be granted, particularly if the applicant is a journalist with a strong reputation and a solid publishing history;
• Grants will be awarded with an eye to diverse representation from a range communities. To the extent possible, funds will be allocated to journalists across Canada proportionate to the Canadian population per province;
• Applications will be received on a rolling basis and grants awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to enable grantees to increase their election coverage;
• Reportage to be published during the last 21 days of the campaign will be emphasized; and in order to ensure fairness and credibility, attempts must be made to include multiple perspectives from the federal parties.

To obtain reimbursement, recipients must:

• Submit evidence of coverage (web links or print) for each per diem of expense
• Submit receipts for all out-of-pocket expenses

The successful applicants will be expected to provide a brief report that highlights the results and impact of this funding.