Crossposted from Bertha Foundation

Bertha Foundation is excited to announce the launch of the fourth Bertha Challenge: an opportunity for activists and investigative journalists to spend a year working on one pressing social justice challenge and to deliver a body of work at the end of the Fellowship year. Successful applicants will receive non-residential paid Fellowships and project budgets to work independently and together to:

The fourth Bertha Challenge will begin in January 2023 with a focus on food, specifically supporting Bertha Fellows to answer the following question:

Applications open on 23 May 2022 and close on 26 June 2022. Anyone meeting the selection criteria may apply.

To read more about our current cohort of Bertha Fellows visit the main Bertha Challenge page on our website.

At Bertha we know that many activists and investigative journalists are already doing groundbreaking work to investigate and amplify their work and to connect with each other. The Bertha Challenge aims to support this work by providing time to work exclusively on a focused project, the spaces in which to connect with a diverse global cohort of Bertha Fellows and partners, and the resources to develop and deliver tangible projects that speak directly to the Challenge question.

Our Fellowships offer:

• Income for each Bertha Fellow for one year, not exceeding USD $64,900 and commensurate with the applicant’s current or equivalent salary at the host organization – ideally a media outlet for an investigative journalist and an NGO, community organization or social movement for an activist
• A Project Fund of up to USD $10,000 for each Bertha Fellow to produce their final projects that respond to the question posed by the Bertha Challenge, and that is directed towards a specific audience. This could be a series of articles, videos, podcasts, games or drama productions, for example. Joint activist and journalist applicants will have the option to pool their project funding to produce projects on a larger scale
• Access to a Connect Fund of up to USD $5000 specifically designed to encourage collaboration between Fellows
• Regular online discussions with topics on a range of issues from current debates around food to methods of investigation, methods of communicating findings through news media, storytelling, popular education and more
• Peer and mentor support in the form of regular virtual check-ins with Bertha staff and a cohort of Bertha Fellows
• Network development through the global cohort of Bertha Fellows and exposure to relevant partners within and beyond the Bertha network, including our legal partners in the Bertha Justice Network
• A global convening of Bertha Fellows at the start of the Bertha Challenge, and invitations to join alumni convenings after the end of the Fellowship year.