Community Storytelling

Focus Areas
Film
Media Training
Immigrant Voices
Archives
Representation in Media
Community-Centered Journalism
Media Policy
Movement Media
BIPOC Stories
Collaborative Audio
Community Radio
LGBTQIA+

The Greater Philadelphia region is a hub for BIPOC-led grassroots media groups and projects with deep roots in the communities they serve. At the same time, they have to go through hoops to gain access to resources that would help them grow and strengthen their organizations, support the important role they play in their communities, and give them equal footing with white-led/mainstream media organizations.

IPMF believes that storytelling builds and strengthens community resilience and brings ideas to life. Through the Community Storytelling program, the foundation supports storytelling that centers, preserves, and highlights the complex experiences of diverse and marginalized communities through a lens of care and compassion. The program supports:

  • Projects or organizations that aim to increase the representation and visibility of storytelling by communities harmed by systems of oppression and media erasure. 
  • Independent filmmaking by emerging and professional storytellers to tell their own stories and share it with a wider audience. 
  • Community radio networks and collaborative audio storytelling that report, discuss, connect, and distribute news and stories important to neighborhoods in the region. 
  • New and existing archives, community history projects, and BIPOC stories that help communities deepen their connections, reclaim narratives, and build power. 
  • Projects or organizations that aim to increase local audience engagement with independent filmmaking, community storytelling and archives.

Examples of this work include:

  • BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, a fellowship designed to support emerging Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers. 
  • Presente Media, a Latinx collective of journalists and filmmakers producing bilingual media focused on social justice. 
  • G-town Radio, a community radio station in Germantown focusing on local news, ideas, sounds not heard on mainstream radio.

See our glossary for definitions of terms we use to describe our work

What We Support

    Projects

    $31,000 - Awarded March 2023

    Focus areas
    Movement Media
    Immigrant Voices
    Archives
    Description

    For a community-owned multimedia archive that highlights arts and culture work for social change by Latinx communities in Philadelphia.

    $10,000 - Awarded March 2023

    Focus areas
    Representation in Media
    Description

    To support a weekly morning talk show that highlights the accomplishments of and current events relevant to the Southwest Asian & North African community, with a focus on LGBTQIA+ individuals.

    $600,000 - Awarded March 2023

    Focus areas
    Movement Media
    Description

    Three-year grant for continued support of Leeway Foundation's Media Artist-in-Residence Program which pairs media artists with nonprofits to work collaboratively on media projects important to their communities. Also support for the “Care Fund” and general operating support.

    $250,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Representation in Media
    Archives
    Media Training
    Description

    A two-year grant to The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM) ($250,000), for general operating support and the promotion and archiving of the stories of Black girls and women. TCGM's mission is to be a public ritual for the protection, praise, and grace of the ordinary extraordinary Black girl.

    $225,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Movement Media
    Description

    A two-year general operation grant to help Spiral Q remain a strong resource for the marginalized populations it serves, helping them to amplify their stories for change and justice.

    Stay in Touch

    Sign up for our Community Zine to get notified of available grants and stay up-to-date on grantee work.