The Fledgling Fund Partners with The Arthur M. Blank Foundation

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has awarded a one-year, $50,000 grant to The Fledgling Fund to support outreach and audience engagement activities for select film projects to advance knowledge and spur action around the Blank Foundation's program interests.

The goal is to identify and support film projects that tell compelling and important stories, represent a unique perspective or an intriguing solution to an entrenched social problem, and have strong potential as a vehicle for social change. The Fledgling Fund develops clusters of documentary films around timely issues where film can play an important role in raising awareness, highlighting possible solutions, and when possible, engaging key audiences in measurable social change. The Fledgling Fund supports films in seven program areas (Economic Justice and Systemic Poverty, Education Experiences, Environmental Justice, Field Building, Girl's Empowerment and Women's Leadership, Health and Wellness, and the Justice System) and special projects. Fledgling has supported Emmy Award winners like "Freedom Riders" and "Good Fortune."

The Fledgling Fund works at the intersection of film and social change. It provides financial and in-kind support to filmmakers, collaborating with other foundations and organizations in the field to make this work successful. The Fund supports films that can bear witness to the challenges faced by vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in ways that statistics cannot, thereby creating a broader understanding of social problems to inspire concrete action.

"The Fledgling Fund is delighted to be collaborating with The Arthur M. Blank Foundation," said Diana Barrett, Fledgling's president and founder. "At Fledgling, we strongly believe that well-structured and creative audience engagement initiatives can leverage media's ability to ignite social change by moving people from awareness to action. This generous grant from the Blank Foundation will allow us to deepen and extend our work--helping our grantees achieve even greater impact."

"Through film and the arts we have to power to change people's minds about what's possible," said Blank Foundation President Penelope McPhee. "Like the Blank Foundation, The Fledgling Fund believes in the power of artistic expression, and more specifically, storytelling to engage new audiences around critical issues that are important to our communities."

Other Information:

About The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation:
Formed in 1995, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation promotes innovative solutions to improve the lives of youth and their families, seeking results that move communities beyond what seems possible today. The Foundation invests in early childhood development, education, green space, and the arts and leads giving programs for each of the Blank Family of Businesses, including the Atlanta Falcons. Mr. Blank co-founded The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, in 1978 and retired from the company as co-chairman in 2001. Through the foundation and his family's personal giving, Mr. Blank has granted more than $250 million to various charitable organizations. Visit the Foundation web site for more information (http://blankfoundation.org/).