Giving Compass' Take:

• Layoffs within the journalism sector have been one effect of COVID-19, but a program called Microloans for Journalists has emerged as a way for journalists to lend to each other. 

• How can donors contribute to this program or help expand microloans for journalists? 

• Learn how to help nonprofit news during this time. 

The last month has shown us that the news industry, despite a dramatic spike in readership, is in no way immune to the coronavirus. Layoffs, furloughs, closures, salary cuts: On Monday, The Dallas Morning News became only the latest newsroom to announce pay reductions for its staff.

To help support journalists during this time, ProPublica reporters Robert Faturechi, Ryan Gabrielson and Topher Sanders, and OpenNews program director Sisi Wei launched Microloans for Journalists, a program for United States journalists to lend to other journalists.

Microlending as an idea is usually associated with the deeply impoverished in the developing world; Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank are credited with originating the modern iteration of the concept, for which they won the Nobel Peace Prize. But journalists have been helping other journalists for about as long as the profession has existed.

The way it works is that journalists in need (borrowers) can sign up to receive a loan of $500 while other journalists (lenders) and sign up to lend.

Then the Microloans for Journalists team verifies that the borrower is a professional journalist who’s been furloughed or laid off and match a lender with a borrower. The two will handle the exchange between themselves. Borrowers are expected, in good faith, to pay the lender back within a year, though the website notes that since this is only a matching program, there’s no way to ensure that happens.

Read the full article about microloans for journalists by Hanaa' Tameez at NiemanLab.