Rolling Deadline: Please Apply Here!

Fund for Women Journalists

FAQs Selection Committee

Promoting the work and advancing the role of women and nonbinary journalists across the globe is critical to advancing transparency and diversity in the news media.

The Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists (FWJ), the first funding initiative of its kind, supports journalists and journalism projects including, but not limited to, professional development opportunities, investigative reporting and media development initiatives led by women and nonbinary people. Established with a $4 million gift from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, FWJ has supported more than 330 journalists from 47 countries since its inception in 2015.

Applications for FWJ are accepted on a rolling basis and are open to journalists of all nationalities. Learn more about application guidelines here. Questions not answered in the guidelines can be directed to Taylor Moore at tmoore@iwmf.org.

Apply to the Fund for Women Journalists >>

Applicant FAQs

Reporting Case Studies

Professional Development Case Studies

“This Fund will give outstanding women journalists the ability to turn their reporting ambitions into reality.” — Howard G. Buffett

Zainab Bala

Austyn Gaffney

Supriya Vohra

Makepeace Sitlhou
I have always wanted to do this story, but because I couldn’t access funding, it stalled for a very long time. The [Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists] gave me the opportunity to make this project a reality. It brought me closer to the people, to be able to see their stories through their eyes from places that rarely make it to the news.
Zainab Bala
In-depth field reporting is one of the most important aspects of environmental reporting. While we often talk about the repercussions of an extractive industry on the environment, the communities that live close to it, and the various ways in which their lives become intrinsically associated with those very extractive industries, their stories often fall through the cracks. The IWMF grant gave me the opportunity to look into those cracks, and bring those stories out. In turn, this form of reportage, where the lines between right and wrong are blurred, has come to become my strength.
Supriya Vohra
Featured

Pakistan’s Khwaja Sira Fight for Their Right to Be

| Alizeh Kohari

This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists. Bindiya Rana had two lifelong dreams: for the khwaja sira to live fully and freely, and to personally…
Featured

Alberta White’s Last Chance

| Melba Newsome

Alberta White was exactly one year out from her release date when prison officials told her she had 45 minutes to collect everything she owned and get on a bus. It was Black Friday 2019,…
Featured

The plans for giant seaweed farms in European waters

| Nathalie Bertrams

At a testing site way off the Dutch coast a breakthrough was made this summer. Some 12km (7.5 miles) out at sea, a converted fishing boat mechanically harvested a batch of farmed seaweed. The kelp…
Featured

The fires below

| Austyn Gaffney

On a hot, dry, windy summer morning in 2014, rancher John Bailey drove along the edge of a wildland fire in southeast Montana. The fire had started inconspicuously — no lightning strike or neglected campfire involved,…
Featured

Cultivar, Distribuir, Comer: La Ruta Hacia La Soberanía Alimentaria

| Katia Joana Rejón Márquez

La comida es fundamental para la supervivencia del ser humano. Pero, ¿nos hemos puesto a pensar en todo lo que implica ese proceso y en los actores involucrados en la producción, distribución y consumo? ¿Cuáles…