Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation

For immediate release: February 16, 2006

Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation Announces $3.8 Million in Grants to Journalism Organizations

(Oklahoma City) ---- Robert J. Ross, President and CEO of the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, announced today the distribution of $3.8 million in grants to 34 journalism organizations nationwide.

Edith Kinney Gaylord founded the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in 1982 to support local and national efforts to improve the quality of journalism practices among various media. The Foundation provides funding for projects that promote excellence and instill high ethical standards in journalism.

Organizations awarded grants from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation include:

$2,000,000 to the University of Oklahoma for Phase Two of Gaylord Hall which will add 34,500 square feet of space to the 66,000 square-foot facility. The expansion will add resources for all students and specifically for students in public relations and advertising and those in the College’s new Ph.D. program. Combined with a previous grant of $500,000, the total support for the building is $2.5 million.

$200,000 to TCC Group (New York, NY) for the Challenge Fund for Journalism III, a grant program in collaboration with the Ford Foundation and the James L. Knight Foundation. The program, for organizations in the journalism field, seeks to enhance organizational capacity and readiness for individual donor fundraising and supports participant organizations with a matching challenge grant to assist in implementing donor development strategies.

$150,000 to the University of Central Oklahoma for conversion of the radio and television broadcasting facilities to digital technology.

$120,000 to Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) to hire an ethicist professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

$100,000 to Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) to purchase 12 cameras for the news department as a part of the digital equipment conversion.

$85,000 to the Alfred Friendly Foundation (Washington, DC) to fund professional development opportunities for mid-career print journalists from developing countries and the American journalists who serve as their newsroom mentors.

$75,000 to the American Press Institute (Reston, VA) for “Our Readers Are Watching,” a seminar that will go into newsrooms for intensive ethics training.

$60,000 to the National Press Foundation (Washington, DC) for the Next Generation Project including fellowships for college journalists and presentation costs for a five-day program in Washington, DC.

Grants ranging from $50,000 to $75,000 include Bethany College (Bethany, WV); East Carolina University (Greenville, NC); Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (Washington, DC); Oklahoma Baptist University; Native American Journalists Association (Vermillion, SD); Associated Press Managing Editors Foundation (New York, NY); and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (Madison, VA).

Grants ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 include the American Society of Newspaper Editors Foundation (Reston, VA); Fund for American Studies (Washington, DC); Investigative Reporters and Editors (Columbia, MO); Maynard Institute (Oakland, CA); San Francisco State University (San Francisco, CA); South Dakota State University (Brookings, SD); National Association of Black Journalists (Adelphi, MD); National Judicial College (Reno, NV); Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, DC); Savannah State University (Savannah, GA); Florida International University (North Miami, FL); Daniel Pearl Foundation (Encino, CA); and Students Publishing Company (Evanston, IL).

Grants ranging from $2,000 to $25,000 include Religion Newswriters Foundation (Westerville, OH); Winona State University (Winona, MN); Washington News Council (Seattle, WA); Century Community Charter School (Inglewood, CA); Oklahoma Christian University; and Edmond Public Schools Foundation.

For more information on the Inasmuch Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, please visit our websites at www.inasmuchfoundation.org, and www.journalismfoundation.org or call 405-604-5292.

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