Alicia Patterson Fellowship: 2027

We provide Alicia Patterson Fellowships for six months (paying $20,000) or 12 months (paying $40,000) for in-depth written reporting. The fellowship application opens in May and proposals are due Oct. 1 every year, with decisions in early January. We began providing these fellowships after the Alicia Patterson Foundation merged into the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Learn more about Alicia Patterson here. Thank you for your interest in applying for the Fund for Investigative Journalism’s Alicia Patterson Fellowships. 

Alicia Patterson Fellowships support significant, in-depth written reporting on subjects of public interest. Six-month fellowships pay $20,000, and 12-month fellowships pay $40,000. Applications for 2027 fellowships are due Oct. 1, 2026. Decisions will be made by the end of the year, for fellowships to begin in early 2027.

Eligibility criteria and requirements

• Reporting projects must be for print/online publication (i.e., written projects), and they must be U.S. focused. Fellows aren’t required to live in the U.S., but the reporting project must be focused on the U.S., for publication in U.S. outlets.
• Reporting projects should be in-depth and investigative in nature, and can cover any topic of public interest.
• Freelancers are strongly encouraged to apply for the fellowship. Applicants who are on staff full-time at media outlets may apply, if they intend to take a leave from their job for the fellowship. Fellows may work part-time during the fellowship period, but they may not work another full-time job while also doing the fellowship. 
• Funds are paid directly to fellows monthly for the duration of the fellowship, and funds can be used for reporting expenses (travel, research, records fees, etc.), as well as living expenses during the reporting project. Fellowship funds are paid, reported and taxed like other freelance income; like other freelance work, fellows do not receive benefits other than the grant award. 
• The fellowship is for seasoned reporters who already have a body of in-depth, written reporting work. There is no minimum number of years of experience required for the fellowship, but it is not for journalists who don’t yet have relevant reporting experience. 
• Fellows are required to produce at least four written articles during a yearlong fellowship or two articles during a six-month fellowship. A letter of commitment from a publisher is not required for the application, but proposals should provide a sense of outlets the journalist plans to pitch.

Application components

• Written proposal: Applicants submit a written proposal of no more than three pages, single-spaced, on how they would use an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship, and why. The proposal includes a brief summary of the four articles the applicant will be required to write as an Alicia Patterson Fellow. The proposal includes an overview of the proposed project, an explanation of the investigative/accountability angle, initial findings from the applicant’s own reporting that show there’s a story, and a detailed description of the reporting the applicant would do during the fellowship.
• Applicant bio: Applicants submit a written statement of no more than two pages, single-spaced, on why they went into journalism, what their journalistic experience is, and what their future career plans are. 
• Budget: Applicants submit a detailed budget with their expected reporting expenses and living expenses during the fellowship period, as well as any other sources of income they expect. Applicants also provide their actual total income for 2025 and their expected total income for 2026.
• Work samples and history: Applicants provide three work samples, as well as a list of published work and a list of other awards and fellowships they’ve received.
• References: Applicants provide the names and contact information for two references, along with an explanation of how the references know their journalistic work. 

If you have questions about the fellowship or the application, please email aliciapatterson@fij.org. 

About the Alicia Patterson Fellowships: The fellowships started in 1965, when the foundation was launched in honor of Alicia Patterson, the founding editor and publisher of Newsday and the first woman to run a major U.S. newspaper. At the end of 2025, the Alicia Patterson Foundation closed and merged into the Fund for Investigative Journalism, which now manages the fellowship program.