*** PLEASE NOTE: The Tyee is in the process of launching a brand new, non-charitable monthly giving program that allows readers to directly support our core reporting capacity. In the next few months, we will be slowly phasing out charitable donations to the fellowship fund.

If you have given to The Tyee's fellowships before, or are a current monthly donor, expect to be contacted in February 2012 with more information. If you are a first-time donor, or would like more information about the switch, please get in touch with our community manager, Shannon Smart, at 604-689-7489 or ssmart@thetyee.ca. ***

Your opportunity to create the best independent journalism in BC.

In our short time online, The Tyee has broken many important stories that may never have been published otherwise.

But our resources pale compared to corporate media's.

Serious journalism costs serious money. So we created two Fellowship Funds to increase our ability to bring you the serious journalism you need.

The Tyee Fellowship Funds are a way for readers to make tax deductible donations, and give independent journalists from all over B.C. the support they need to work on longer series that relate to important issues of public interest. The support to file freedom of information requests, run up phone bills, and travel to where the stories are unfolding.

Two funds, and why

• The Tyee Investigative Fellowship Fund
• The Tyee Solutions Fellowship Fund

Their names tell you a lot. The investigative fund provides resources for reporters wanting to research and document unfolding, possibly hidden problems facing BC. The solutions fund provides support for journalists seeking to report on and explain promising experiments that might lead to solving those problems.

The goal of each is to educate and engage citizens in thinking through our shared future.

We leave it to you to decide which approach appeals most to you by contributing to the fund of your choice.

And in making your donation, we invite you to tell us which issues most concern you. The environment? Poverty? Aboriginal rights? Multiculturalism? Workplace safety? The shifting economy? Please let us know.

How will it work?

We'll be beginning our next fellowship fundraising drive in 2012, and will make our call-out to journalists to submit proposals for fellowships shortly after. Like last time, a blue ribbon, independent advisory board will select winning entrants. The resulting journalism will be published first on The Tyee, but will be made available for publication elsewhere, the findings rippling out well beyond The Tyee's readership.

The advisory board, which operates at arm's length from Tyee editors and staff, comprises UBC Journalism Prof. Mary Lynn Young, Langara Journalism Prof. Ross Howard and nationally known journalist and instructor Vivian Smith. To read their impressive bios, click here.

How can I donate?

The two funds are held at and managed by Tides Canada Foundation, a national public foundation. Guaranteed: Your tax deductible, charitable donation goes directly to supporting individual journalists.

Learn more about donating to The Tyee Fellowship funds here.

Building on success

In our first four years The Tyee has run over 1,200 original articles, including many investigative and solutions oriented pieces taken up by the wider media. Some examples include:

• Toxics: Your Right to Know, by Amanda Euringer -- finalist for a 2009 National Magazine Award.
• Teaching that Inspires, by Nick Smith.
• Rough Weather Ahead: How global warming will hit BC, by Chris Wood.
• No Fares! Time for a free ride on public transit, by Dave Olsen.

Clearly we have become a catalyst for wider public education. Our audience keeps growing by leaps and bounds.

We thank you for helping us become an independent media experiment gaining local, national, and global attention.

More information:

• Donate to The Tyee Fellowship funds.
• Apply for the fellowship (includes application criteria).
• Learn about the independent advisory board that will select recipients for the Fellowship Funds.