WWW.GOODCROWDS.

ORG

Good News
Grant Application Form

This application is to be used to apply for funding for social impact, journalism
projects through the Good Crowds crowdfunding platform. You can mail the
completed application to nirat@goodcrowds.org.
 Good News
A MetaGood Project

OVERVIEW

Good News is a project by the MetaGood Trust (www.metagood.org) : a non-profit,

social innovation catalyst founded by IIT & IIM alumni. At MetaGood, we
conceptualize and / or support innovative social impact projects in disciplines such
as technology, arts, journalism, litigation, democracy, education and more.

WHAT IS GOOD NEWS ?

Good News will be the umbrella under which we will fund independent
journalism projects that have demonstrable social impact. We’ll work with
the independent journalism fraternity in India (and abroad) and will invite them to
submit story pitches. Shortlisted pitches will be put up for funding on Good Crowds
– the crowdfunding platform that MetaGood has created - where they will get
funded by citizens donating money online.

Through the funds raised, journalists would be able to report on various issues of
social relevance and importance, thus leading to larger awareness and a better
society.
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A MetaGood Project

WHY IS *GOOD NEWS* IMPORTANT

Deep investigative journalism is vital to the healthy functioning of a society.

Unfortunately, over the last few years, journalism has suffered due to multiple
factors.

THE PROBLEM

Ubiquitous information & its Impact on business models: The internet

enables people to publish information and access information through their
browsers. People typically type in keywords in Google and then look at the top
ranked links rather than devotedly following newspapers. Newspapers haven’t been
able to crack the monetization of their online avatars. News as a paid online service
has yet to catch on as a trend. This leads to news houses relying on offline modes
for most of their earnings and that’s a very precarious spot to be in.

Reduced journalism budgets : Advertisers moving away from print as an

advertising channel. This reduction of budgets leads to a reduction in journalist staff
counts and a reduction in budgets. This leads to many important stories not being
reported on or in sufficient detail.

A consumerist race to the bottom: Most newspapers, in a bid to win market

share, pander to the lowest common denominator. Sizzle over substance is the new
editorial filter. The “news as a public good” point of view gets completely sidelined;
BBC & NPR being notable exceptions.

Lobbies & conflicts of interest: Many newspapers do not take a genuinely

investigative point of view and present reality through biased glasses, mainly due to
a fear of upsetting advertisers who contribute to newspaper earnings or industry-
wide lobbies and pressures.

FALSE SOLUTIONS

Often, citizen journalism is pointed to as the trend, the rise of which balances the
decline of traditional journalism. Unfortunately, while citizen journalism is extremely
exciting and important and has an important part to play – especially, in wide
reporting, in early reporting – it cannot replace an experienced journalist who comes
out with a deep, nuanced story after 2 months of traveling all over the country and
 Good News
A MetaGood Project

meeting different sources and detailed research. Volunteer citizens simply do not
have the time or the energy to pull off those kinds of stories.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD NEWS

What we need are better funding models for deep journalism. Good News attempts
to harness the collective buying power of citizens to fund important journalistic
stories that matter.
 Good News
A MetaGood Project

INVITING STORY APPLICATIONS

We’re launching Good Crowds in January 2010 and are now inviting story pitches
from freelance journalists that they’d like to get funding for. You can submit your
story ideas to Nirat@metagood.org or Nirat@goodcrowds.org in the format given on the
following page.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING WHILE SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS

1. Some themes that are of interest to us (meant to be a guide and not

restrictive)

a. Climate change

b. Democracy and citizen engagement

c. Consumerism & its costs

d. Sustainable business

e. Inner change in people

f. Social innovation & enterprise

g. Poverty

h. Education

i. Human rights

j. Natural resources: water, oil, forests

2. MetaGood will be releasing these stories under appropriate Creative

Commons Licensing so that they can spread and have maximum impact.

3. We WILL give all credits to the journalist (the byline). You will be free to link to
the story from your websites, resumes etc.

4. Initially, we’re looking to fundonly those story pitches with a total budget of
less than Rs 1,00,000.
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Please fill in the application form in the format given below and mail it to
nirat@goodcrowds.org .
 Good News
A MetaGood Project

APPLICATION FORM

1. Project Title

2. Location Of The Project

3. Brief Summary Of The Story

4. Deliverables

5. Social Impact Through The Story

a. What change can be brought about through this story ?

b. Who are the beneficiaries and what is the nature of the benefit ?

c. What next steps / follow up actions would be required to enable this

impact ?

6. Similar coverage published in mainstream media ?

7. Project Budget

a. Remuneration for your time

b. Travel Expenses

c. Other expenses

8. Timelines

a. Research

b. Interviews / field research / discussions / phone interviews

c. Synthesis
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A MetaGood Project

d. Writing

9. Journalist Details

a. Biography

b. Links to past work

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APPENDIX 1: ABOUT METAGOOD

MetaGood is a registered non-profit trust founded by Nirat Bhatnagar – an alumus of

IIM Bangalore & IIT Kharagpur. MetaGood arose from Nirat’s belief that deep change
is required in how we function as a society and in how we do business. And that
more and more people need to start getting involved in setting things right.

MetaGood will play the role of a social innovation catalyst through the projects it
conceives and supports.

Some of the projects that MetaGood has conceived of and is running are-

• Good Crowds: An online crowdfunding platform that will enable individuals to

fund social innovation ventures.

• Good Stories: Documenting the story of 140 unique individuals who are
making a difference through their work and lives. The stories are organized
under themes such as Inspiring Career Transitions, Inspiring Students,
Inspiring Social Entrepreneurs, Stories Of Sustainable Business etc.

• Good News: Enabling deep, investigative journalism by allowing individuals to

fund journalistic story ideas with social impact that are proposed by
journalists .
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APPENDIX 2: ABOUT GOOD CROWDS

Good Crowds is an online crowdfunding platform launched by MetaGood

(www.metagood.org) that will enable social impact projects to raise crowdfunding.
Projects we will fund consist of (but are not limited to):

1. Journalistic Projects
a. Inspiring journalistic projects such as Inspiring Stories
b. Investigative journalism projects that cover important issues in detail
2. Social Engineering & Social Design Projects
a. Crowdfunding of social engineering projects / pilots being carried out at
the engineering and design schools within India
3. Art & Film Projects
a. Documentaries, art installations that have social impact
4. Litigation projects
a. Public interest litigation projects for progressive policy change
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A MetaGood Project

APPENDIX 3: THE METAGOOD TEAM

Nirat Bhatnagar (Founder): 6+ years of experience in management

consulting, VC funded startups & innovation consulting. IIM Bangalore + IIT
Kharagpur

Babitha George: 7+ years of experience in design-led innovation firms,

FMCG & education consulting. IIM Ahmadabad

Ayush Chauhan: 7+ experience in setting up a design-led innovation firm &

retail banking. IIT Delhi + IIM Ahmadabad
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CONTACT

Nirat Bhatnagar

M: + 91 9899692572

E: nirat@goodcrowds.org / Nirat@metagood.org

W: www.goodcrowds.org / www.metagood.org