Boosting Journalism
Local media needs help. Shrinking local newsrooms and small news startups don’t have travel budgets to send journalists out to tell stories about solutions from other places. We fill that gap.
Stronger Cities
Metro areas are where our most complex problems, from health to climate change to racial inequity, are most deeply felt. They’re also where innovative solutions can help the most people.
Travel Grants
Our travel grants enable journalists to do on-the-ground reporting, which is so critical to telling stories about what’s working and why with texture, color, and deep understanding.
About Neal Peirce
The journalist Neal Peirce spent a career writing about the people, programs, and ideas making cities and metropolitan regions work better for all their people. And he was constantly on the road to get the story.
Stories by Our Grantees
Reimagining Urban Highways
As Baltimore considers tearing down a blighted highway that displaced hundreds of Black families, similar projects in Upstate New York offer lessons. Giacomo Bologna went to Buffalo and Rochester to get the stories for the Baltimore Banner.
Assessing an Experiment with Free Transit
As other cities walk back initiatives to make transit free for riders, a two-year old program in Albuquerque is sticking around. Erin Rode went there for Next City to find out why.
Unarmed Response Teams Improve Public Safety
To handle certain emergencies, cities have begun deploying specialized teams of medical and mental health professionals alongside or instead of police. Wesley Vaughan went to Portland and Albuquerque to report for Prism on how these experiments are working.
Getting Ahead of Coastal Erosion
Sea level rise threatens a coastal road in Carlsbad, Calif. Daniel C. Vock went there for Bloomberg Citylab to report on how the city is weighing a strategy of retreat before an emergency forces the issue.
3 Experiences with Reparations
In 2022, Evanston, Ill., created the first U.S. reparations program to atone for its history of racial discrimination. Michela Moscufo went there for NBC News to talk with residents about what they are doing with their $25,000 checks.
The Road to Zero-Emission Buses
Outside of big cities, options are limited for running public transit without fossil fuels. H. Jiahong Pan went to Grants Pass, Ore., to report for the Daily Yonder on how new electric buses are working.
Across the nation, cities are tackling problems like climate change, racial inequities, affordable housing, crime, and public health. Yet resources are shrinking for journalists to get out in the field to report on solutions and spread ideas that make communities stronger.
Our travel grants make stories happen.