Our Hometown Blog

Last week, our friend and industry expert Mr. Kevin Slimp hosted a webinar alongside Vicki Whiting from Kid Scoop News focused on helping news publications find funding via government, corporate and foundation grants.

During the session, Kevin identifies several different types of grants that may be available to newspapers and offers advice for applying based on his own experiences working alongside publications who have done so in the past.

In the presentation, he introduces several great resources for finding grants:

• SBA.gov is largely considered the best resource for finding grants and financing assistance.
• Grants.gov is a massive database of federal grants and can be filtered by funding type, eligibility requirements, and agency. Kevin warns that browsing the database can take some time, but offers the best chance of finding a good match for your newspaper.
• The Economic Development Administration often awards grants to depressed communities in order to stimulate economic growth and create jobs.
• Kevin also mentions Small Business Development Centers as a local resource that can help a newspaper.

He also offered the following advice when applying for a grant:

• Do your homework to find the grant that fits you best. It will take time and effort, but it will be worth it in the end.
• Determine the amount to request in your grant. Consider any additional training that would be required to bring new staff members up to speed, or that would be required for new systems implemented due to the additional funding.
• Be sure to include information to help make your case in addition to the standard required paperwork. For example, including documents that demonstrate how additional training would benefit the entire staff can make it more likely for your request to be considered. Show them you have a plan in place.
• Get your paper work in as early as possible. It is often a long process.

Although last week’s webinar was not offered as a part of the ongoing Kevin Slimp Webinar Series that is available free to Our-Hometown customers, Kevin has agreed to send a recording of the session to anyone who wants to watch due to the high level of interest on the topic!

If you’re interested in viewing a full-length recording of the session, you can fill out the short form available here (or click the button below) and Kevin will get back to you with a link to the recording.

Kevin has more LIVE WEBINARS coming up as a part of our Kevin Slimp Webinar Series, including later this month on September 15th at 3PM when he presents on Getting People to Pick Up Your Paper in 2022. Our-Hometown customers can click here to register for this event, or keep an eye on your e-mail inbox as we’ll be sending more information in the days ahead.

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