The Granite State News Collaborative has received a $5,000 grant from the Eversource Energy Foundation that will help support the Collaborative’s many ongoing journalism projects.
The grant will allow the Collaborative to focus on issues such as civic engagement, affordable housing, access to economic opportunity, education, environmental justice, as well as health and policing and criminal justice.
Since March of 2020, The Granite State News Collaborative–a collective of more than 20 local media, education and community partners, including many local newspapers– have cross-published more than 4000 shared news stories. Of those, Collaborative reporters have contributed nearly 600 in-depth and investigative pieces that have included single stories, series and projects.
“Because we are working together and because of generous philanthropic and public support we have been able to launch ambitious solutions-focused investigative series on the impacts of exclusionary zoning practices, environmental justice and access to civic engagement, to name just a few,” said Granite State News Collaborative Director Melanie Plenda.
The Collaborative has also launched two new podcasts, a digital public affairs show with NH PBS and helped NHPR launch the first ever Spanish news broadcast in New Hampshire.
“We know that when people have access to news and information about their towns, cities and state, they can hold the powerful accountable, advance solutions and work with one another to build their communities and a future they want to see,” Plenda said.
The Eversource Energy Foundation is an independent, nonprofit philanthropic organization that is funded solely by shareholders from Eversource Energy and is dedicated to supporting communities and making a positive difference in the lives of their customers according to the Foundation’s website. In 2021, the Eversource Energy Foundation contributed more than $5 million to charitable organizations in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
“The company is proud to invest in organizations that provide a meaningful and sustainable impact in the communities we serve, and the Granite State News Collaborative is doing just that – helping to ensure an informed citizenry and supporting local journalism in every corner of the Granite State,” said Eversource Foundation President and Vice President for Corporate Citizenship and Equity Theresa Hopkins-Staten. “With a shared recognition that racially and ethnically diverse, engaged communities are critical to our economic and cultural health, we’re excited to support the collaborative in its ongoing efforts to help our citizens and our state thrive.”
Plenda said grants from organizations like the Eversource Energy Foundation are what make the Collaborative’s work possible.
“We are doing solutions-based journalism in New Hampshire communities that could not be done without support from charitable organizations like the Eversource Energy Foundation,” Plenda said.
For more information about the Granite State News Collaborative and its partners contact Melanie Plenda at melanie.plenda@collaborativenh.org
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