NJ Civic Info Consortium (NJCIC) Research Project

This repository contains research and exploration materials related to the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium.

Project structure

• chats/ - Conversation transcripts and meeting notes
• research/ - Research findings and documentation
• repos/ - Cloned repositories for exploration
  • njcic-grantees-map/ - Interactive map of NJCIC grantees
  • ccm/ - Center for Cooperative Media tools and projects

About NJCIC

The New Jersey Civic Information Consortium is the first publicly funded nonprofit in the United States dedicated to supporting local journalism and civic information needs. Established in 2018 through bipartisan legislation, the Consortium has invested $12+ million in local news and civic media projects since 2021.

Key facts

• Founded: 2018 (operational 2021)
• Type: 501(c)(3) nonprofit
• Host: Montclair State University
• Total Funding: $12,070,438
• Grants Awarded: 135
• Coverage Years: 2021-2025
• Counties Reached: 18 of 21 NJ counties (86%)
• BIPOC-led Projects: 48%

Impact metrics (since 2021)

• Stories Published: 13,407+
• News Briefs Published: 16,694+
• Ethnic/BIPOC & Spanish-language Stories: 5,900+
• New Storytellers Trained: 1,601
• Stories Amplified Across Platforms: 2,300+
• Residents Trained on Public Meeting Coverage: 158

Member universities

1. Montclair State University (host)
2. Rutgers University
3. Rowan University
4. The College of New Jersey
5. New Jersey Institute of Technology
6. Kean University

Related repositories

njcic-grantees-map

Interactive web map visualizing NJCIC grantees across New Jersey.

• Tech: Leaflet.js, Tailwind CSS, Airtable API
• Live Site: https://njcivicinfo.org/map/
• Features: Filter by year, county, focus area; daily data sync from Airtable

ccm

Collection of free tools for journalists from the Center for Cooperative Media.

• Tools: LLM Advisor, Invoicer, Sponsorship Generator, Event Budget Calculator, and more
• Tech: React, Vite, HTML5, Tailwind CSS
• Research: NJ Influencer Social Media Scraper with AI analysis

Research documents

• NJCIC Consortium Research - History, mission, funding, impact
• Grantees Map Analysis - Technical analysis of the mapping project
• CCM Repository Analysis - Technical analysis of CCM tools

Contributors

• Madison McCool — Grants and communications manager, NJCIC
• Joe Amditis — Assistant director, Center for Cooperative Media

Links

• NJCIC Website: https://njcivicinfo.org/
• Center for Cooperative Media: https://centerforcooperativemedia.org/
• NJ News Commons: https://njnewscommons.org/