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

    $10,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Youth
    Description

    The “What is Sex?” podcast provides a platform for adults to reflect on their early experiences with sexuality and bodies in order to heal and better support young people in their development.

    $50,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Representation in Media
    Description

    For general operating support of Uptown Radio.

    $50,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Immigrant Voices
    Description

    For signal improvement planning and community programming at Radio CATA.

    $120,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Youth
    Description

    A two-year grant for general operating support.

    $211,000 - Awarded December 2021

    Focus areas
    Media Policy
    Description

    A two-year grant to assess and recommend corrections to the policy failures that enable digital-redlining and other exclusionary practices that disproportionately harm low-income families and communities of color.

    Stay in Touch

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