A GUIDE

For grantmakers

This guide for grantmakers highlights how documentaries can increase the effectiveness, sustainability and reach of their gift-giving programs. It also provides resources with examples and study guides.

What kinds of documentary subjects are suitable for support? How can a grantmaker give tax-deductible donations? Why give to documentary?

The guide contains documentary stories showing the broad range of work that is already being made by documentary filmmakers in Australia and how this work intersects with the focus areas of many grantmakers.

“We view documentaries as a jumping off point to reach targeted audiences – to move people, to promote awareness. The film itself isn’t enough. Without outreach and clear, simple steps people can take to get involved, it’s just good art. Non-profits and filmmakers need to pay as much attention to outreach as to the creation and distribution of the film.” – David Morse, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

“There is a large segment of the population that are visual learners. So for them, documentaries can introduce issues, concepts, and organisations that they might have otherwise overlooked. Additionally, documentaries can provide a contextual and compelling face for the organisations that foundations support.”– Joy Moore, Annie E Casey Foundation

“Throughout the twentieth century, media has been one of the dominant creative expressions in American culture. Rather than ‘why fund media’ … [the question] would be, ‘why not fund media?’” – Joan Shigekawa, Rockefeller Foundation