Application Process
We consider creative media projects in three funding cycles as outlined below. Projects that wish to be considered for funding must submit a letter of inquiry using the online form as a first step in the application process. From these initial inquiries, smaller pools of applicants are invited to submit a full application. If your project is selected to move to the next step in our application process, we will request additional material such as a rough or fine cut, or other work sample as well as a detailed budget. Applicants will also be asked about their goals for the project and its potential to affect social change.
If you are requesting funding for outreach, you will also be asked for an initial plan that outlines the project's goals and objectives, audience engagement strategies and your plans for assessing the impact of the project. The Fledgling Fund only makes grants to 501(c) 3 organizations. While an initial Letter of Inquiry may be submitted by a film production company or an individual, you will be required to submit documentation from your fiscal sponsor before a grant can be processed.
Funding Cycles
Cycle 1
| Deadline for Initial Letter of Inquiry | Sept 30th |
| Applicants Notified as to Request Status | Oct 15th |
| Materials Due by Invited Applicants | Oct 31st |
| Applicants Notified as to Outcome of their Request | Dec 15th |
Cycle 2
| Deadline for Initial Letter of Inquiry | Jan 31st |
| Applicants Notified as to Request Status | Feb 16th |
| Materials Due by Invited Applicants | Mar 2nd |
| Applicants Notified as to Outcome of their Request | Apr 15th |
Cycle 3
| Deadline for Initial Letter of Inquiry | May 31st |
| Applicants Notified as to Request Status | Jun 15th |
| Materials Due by Invited Applicants | Jun 30th |
| Applicants Notified as to Outcome of their Request | Aug 15th |
Types of Funding
The primary focus of The Fledgling Fund's creative media initiative is outreach and community engagement. We are interested in supporting film and other media projects that engage key audiences in efforts to affect positive social change. Given this focus, our grants typically fall into three broad categories:
- Outreach and Community Engagement: These grants support the development and/or implementation of strategic community engagement initiatives for feature and short form films. Films should be at a rough cut stage to be considered for this type of funding.
- Grants for Films: Generally these grants support late-stage post production costs. Films should be timely, have strong outreach potential, have completed the majority of production, and have a rough cut to be considered.
- Innovative Creative Media: These grants support the use of emerging technology to engage new audiences around important social issues.
Our existing portfolio of projects will give you a better understanding of the types of projects that we have funded. We also strongly encourage you to review our key issue areas, which provide more information on our areas of interest.
If you are requesting support for outreach or film completion, we recommend that you have a phone consultation with Working Films. These phone consultations are offered as a service to filmmakers at no charge. They can be scheduled by accessing the Working Films website, filling out the short online questionnaire. Be sure to indicate that you heard about Working Films via The Fledgling Fund. Your consultation with Working Films typically will take place within 4 weeks of your submission and can occur either before or after you submit your letter of inquiry. While you are under no pressure to identify a role for Working Films in your project since we work with other organizations as well, we do encourage you to incorporate the ideas from your discussion and consultation with them into your project description. Working Films is a key partner on a number of Fledgling projects; however, they are not involved in final funding decisions for The Fledgling Fund.
Key Issue Areas
- Economic and Environmental Justice: We fund a limited number of projects in this area that focus on the intersection of economic development and environmental sustainability. We are particularly interested in projects that have the potential to inform national and international policy by highlighting the impact of policy decisions on vulnerable populations and communities.
- Girls' Empowerment and Women's Leadership: We look for projects that raise awareness about the challenges faced by women and girls and to build support for solutions. We are particularly interested in those projects that can be effective educational tools for vulnerable young girls, social service providers, advocates and other stakeholders. It is our hope that these projects will inspire change within social and juvenile justice systems and provide hope and positive role models for young women.
- Health Care: We are interested in projects that have the potential to contribute to the larger national and international debates around national and global health issues including: access to care, improving public health, the complexity of global health delivery, and the challenge of making informed decisions about medical care in an era of rapidly changing technology. While we do consider global health projects, we favor those that focus on U.S. health care system.
- Mental Health and Homelessness: We look for projects that highlight the issues faced by those living with mental illness and their struggle to live independent and productive lives. We have a particular interest in those projects that can contribute to our understanding of root causes of homelessness among the mentally ill and other marginalized populations and which build support for solutions.
- Migration and Immigration: We are interested in the plight of new immigrants and the complex issues surrounding migration and immigration in the United States. We look for films and other media projects that have the potential to inform the larger national discussion and give this complex public policy issue a human face.
- War and its Aftermath. We will consider projects that call attention to the human cost of ongoing U.S. wars and their effects on children, families and veterans as well as the consequences of U.S. Policy and the war on terror.
- Innovative Media Strategies: In addition to issue specific projects, we consider projects that test innovative media strategies for social change. We are particularly interested in those projects that have the potential to add to our understanding of how emerging web-based technology and short-form video can be used to engage audiences and move them to action.
- Special Projects: Occasionally, The Fledgling Fund provides support for projects that fall outside of the topic areas listed above. While we are proud to support for these projects, they do not represent high priority topics for The Fledgling Fund. Instead, they are unique projects where we believed our funding could play a strategic and timely role in addressing an entrenched social problem.
Featured Creative Media Project
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB is documentary film that examines and contextualizes the abuses that occurred in the fall of 2003, abuses documented in photographs that remain etched in our national consciousness and will remain so for years to come. The documentary asks: what do those events still ...