The Renaissance Journalism Center (rjcmedia.org) today announced that it awarded a $20,000 grant to the Nichi Bei Foundation, nonprofit publishers of the Nichi Bei Weekly.

The grant, one of three, represents the first awards under the Center’s Media Greenhouse, which supports ethnic media, community media, and nonprofit groups in an effort to incubate and test innovative models for gathering and distributing news. This support includes grants, technical assistance and training for news organizations.

The goal of the Media Greenhouse is to foster growth and improvement in journalism. All projects awarded the grant will share what is learned with the greater journalism and philanthropic communities.

The grant to the Nichi Bei Foundation will support the launch of an online community hub to serve the news and information needs of the pan-Asian American community. The award will help the Foundation expand its content, audience and fundraising capabilities by going online.

The other two grants were awarded to the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) and Oakland Local.

The Nichi Bei Foundation expresses our deep appreciation to the Renaissance Journalism Center, its executive director Jon Funabiki, and the individuals associated with the Media Greenhouse program for their support and belief in our efforts to advance not-for-profit journalism.