The Pulitzer Center is thrilled to announce 14 new grantees of the Impact Seed Fund (ISF). They were selected from 271 applications received this year.
Launched in 2022, the ISF is a micro-scale grant that supports educators and researchers in engaging students and communities with educational activities on critical issues including deforestation, ocean biodiversity, climate change, labor rights, and artificial intelligence accountability.
These projects will use Pulitzer Center-supported journalism to engage university students, researchers, educators, civil society organizations, youth-led groups, and Indigenous communities across Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Vietnam. The initiatives will focus on strengthening climate education and literacy among university students, fostering Indigenous knowledge exchange on forest management, and equipping participants and communities with the tools to communicate relevant issues related to climate justice.
Pulitzer Center-supported reports will serve as inspiration for these projects as well as materials for engagement with community members to explain complex climate issues at various intersections, encourage critical thinking among students, advance collaboration between different stakeholders and changemakers, and promote active participation for change at the grass roots. The ISF grantees will implement educational projects from August through December 2025.
“The ISF projects have helped create avenues where students, educators, researchers, and communities come together to exchange knowledge and take collective action—all through an intersectional lens. Pulitzer Center-supported stories—as an integral element in this process—is a testament to the fact that journalism can create impact that goes beyond the realm of newsrooms,” says Grenti Paramitha, who first conceptualized ISF and is the Pulitzer Center's program manager of education in Southeast Asia.
Since the beginning of ISF, the Pulitzer Center has awarded 55 ISF microgrants, starting in Southeast Asia, and expanding to South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Inspired by Pulitzer Center journalism, these grants have supported innovation and collaboration in education across countries. The impact from these projects over the years has revealed that when journalism and education unite, they help create a global community where knowledge-sharing between different actors creates lasting impact.
"The selection of ISF projects reflects the many possibilities of discussing journalism. Through art, community forums, research groups, and many other initiatives, people around the world create new ways to make sense of the world and the best way forward," Fernanda Buffa, the Pulitzer Center's program coordinator for environmental investigations.
Check out the projects selected for 2025 below.
Caption for homepage photo: Cindi Punihaole walks toward Kahaluʻu Bay and a damaged fish pond in Hawaii. Image by Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat. United States, 2024. From the story "Hawaiian Knowledge and Western Science: A Recipe for Reef Recovery?"
