Are you a journalist with a great idea for a high-impact story that “Follows the Money” but few resources to get it done? The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism would like to hear from you.
The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism provides experienced journalists with grants up to $15,000 and the editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories with a strong economic, financial or business angle. You don’t need to be a business reporter to apply — many of our previous Fellows have been generalists, or cover beats such as health care, education or the environment. Others have focused on issues such as economic inequality or corporate accountability.
Given the enormous changes in federal spending and policy priorities now coming out of the new administration in Washington DC, we are particularly interested during the in story proposals that examine the impact of these changes.
The upcoming deadline to apply for Spring 2026 Fellowships is April 13, 2026.
We consider proposals from both freelance and staff journalists in all forms of media — text, audio, photo, and short-form video — and encourage those that combine formats to create a multimedia package. We look for projects that focus on important local or regional topics, as well as those that tackle compelling national or international stories or report on under-covered communities or issues. Journalists from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
What kind of stories do we support? Here are some examples of our previous Fellows’ work:
- The Deadly Secrets Behind “Breakthrough” Alzheimer’s Drugs The Lever
- Prison telecoms providers are shifting strategy by exploiting tablet services Prism
- The Revolution That Died on Its Way to Dinner New York Times
- ‘They Were Traumatized’: How a Private Equity-Associated Lender Helped Precipitate a Nursing-Home Implosion Politico
- California cuts back on safety enforcement as farm workers toil in extreme heat Los Angeles Times and Capital & Main
- Black Farmers and Ranchers. It’s a Dying Deal Center for Public Integrity
- Across America, clean energy plants are banned faster than they’re being built USA Today
- The EminiFX trap: Inside the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that targeted the Haitian community The Haitian Times
- Private equity sold them a dream of home ownership. They got evicted instead. Insider.com
- Who Killed Overtime Pay? Capital & Main
- The promise and perils of the new fertility entrepreneurs NewYorker.com
- Hurricane fallout creates financial ruin for Puerto Rico’s seniors with reverse mortgages USA Today and the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
You’ll find answers to many questions in our Frequently Asked Questions, as well as more information on our current Fellows and their projects here. The Fellowship Stories page contains links to all of the stories they have published. All our past Fellows can be found on the following pages: 2024 Fellows; 2023 Fellows; 2022 Fellows; 2021 Fellows; 2020 Fellows; 2019 Fellows; 2018 Fellows; 2017 Fellows; 2016 Fellows; 2015 Fellows; 2014 Fellows.
We accept applications twice a year. Applications for the Spring 2026 Fellowships are due April 13, 2026; Fall 2026 applications will be due October 12, 2026. We will also consider time-sensitive projects on a case-by-case basis outside of the deadline periods. If you have a project that might qualify, or further questions, please contact us at mcgrawcenter@journalism.cuny.edu.
