Meet the 2023 Impact Campaign Fund Grantees

Note: The application to the Impact Campaign Fund is now closed. The latest open call is archived below.

Firelight Media invites our community of previously supported filmmakers and impact producers to apply to the Impact Campaign Fund, now in its fourth year. This is a dedicated fund to resource audience engagement and impact campaigns led by current or former Firelight Media-supported filmmakers. The size of funds will be in the range of $10k-$25k with an anticipated announcement and disbursement in late summer 2023. In addition to funding, grantees will have access to mentorship and impact strategy support.

Firelight Media is interested in supporting nonfiction filmmakers and impact producers to pursue their dream impact- and engagement-related projects.

• We will consider impact projects that address a range of themes and issues.
• We will consider different types of impact from qualitative to quantitative. 
• We will consider impact projects with ambitious or narrowly-focused goals.
• We will consider impact projects that are dialogue-based or outcomes-driven.
• We will consider impact projects that are local or national in scope.

We take notice when projects are socially relevant, address or engage underrepresented issues or communities, and are accountable to the communities their films represent. We will not shy away from projects that are smaller in scale, hyper local, or with discrete impact objectives.

• Must be for a film that is either:
  1) Directed by a Firelight Media-supported filmmaker or
  2) Directed by a filmmaker of color that also includes a current or former Firelight Media-supported filmmaker or impact producer on the team
• Funding is only for audience engagement and impact campaigns of documentary films of any length that are in the stage of late post-production (at least rough cut stage) or release phases.
• The film must be far enough along that we can at least see a rough cut by the application due date: May 22, 2023. 
• The project activities and focus must include the U.S.

Projects will be selected based on:

• the strength of the story;
• the project’s social relevance and ability to respond to pressing, though longstanding, equity issues (e.g., healthcare, housing, worker protections, safety of incarcerated people);
• the viability of plan proposed; and 
• the ethics and accountability of the approach.

The application is currently closed.

Please contact grants@firelightmedia.org for any questions.