Deadline: 1 October 2019
Are you working on a media project that can deepen understanding of the effects of climate change on individuals, families and communities? Will this project be complete and ready to launch in the next 6 months? Are you looking for outreach and engagement funding to maximize the impact of your work? If yes, then apply now!
Strong stories can help keep this issue at the forefront of the public conversation as critical decisions are being made by policymakers, businesses and communities about how to best protect against and mitigate the effects of climate change. To that end, the Fledgling Fund is looking for projects that provide new perspectives on climate change. More specifically, they are interested in stories that highlight how climate change exacerbates economic inequality and health disparities. They seek projects that have a unique power to inspire, educate and mobilize diverse audiences.
Fledgling will award 3-5 outreach and engagement grants that range from $15K to $25K and will give priority to projects that are well positioned to make an impact quickly. They welcome both short-form and long-form documentary films and are open to others forms of non-fiction storytelling. In all cases, they will look for a solid plan to reach key audiences and engage them around climate change through the lens of public health and economic justice.
What Fledgling Consider
- THE STORY Fledgling sees storytelling as a lever to improve the lives of the most vulnerable. They know that a strong filmmaking vision and a beautifully crafted story are essential. They are looking for non-fiction, compelling, and timely stories that illustrate the urgency and impact of climate change. Projects should have unique power to inspire, educate and mobilize diverse and sometimes overlooked audiences. They will give priority to those projects that seek to reach a U.S. audience and focus on American communities.
- STAGE OF PROJECT Fledgling understands that audience engagement planning and implementation can happen at any point in the life of a project. However, before committing funds, they need to understand how the story develops and whether it can carry the project’s outreach and engagement goals. Typically, film projects have at least at a rough cut that they can review. They will give priority to projects that are complete or will be ready to launch within 6 months and can be deployed to influence the political and social conversations around climate change and the need for action.
- ISSUE AREA Fledgling is interested in those projects that highlight the immediate and long-term health and economic impacts of our changing climate. Climate change is an urgent issue and the effects on individuals and communities are wide ranging – including but not limited to increases in diseases related to poorer air and water quality, a greater number of heat related illnesses and deaths, increases in and changing patterns of vector-borne diseases, forced migration, sea level rise and economic insecurity. Successful projects will have the potential to engage audiences around climate change through the lens of public health and economic justice.
- AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT AND DISTRIBUTION Fledgling is seeking projects that can be quickly deployed and are looking for thoughtful, ambitious and achievable ideas about using the content. Having nonprofit or other partnerships in place, unique plans to build viewership and timely calls to action will help a project stand out.
- BUDGET Fledgling will consider the overall budget and prioritize projects where their outreach and engagement funding can play a key role in moving a project forward or seeding an idea for greater impact and momentum. Funding may not be used for production expenses. They will prioritize projects that have secured most of their production funding and have a solid plan in place to close any budget gap.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications from individual filmmakers and media makers are welcome.
- Student projects are not eligible.
- Before receiving a grant, all applicants must have a 501c3 fiscal sponsor based in the United States. This does NOT need to be in place for you to submit the application, but it must be in place for the funds to be disbursed.
- Priority will be given to the projects that have not yet received funding from the Fledgling Fund.
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted online via given website.
For more information, please visit https://www.thefledglingfund.org/documentary-fund/