Programs
The Independence Public Media Foundation (IPMF) funds and supports community-centered media and media-making across the Greater Philadelphia region.
Media as a Tool to Build Power
The Foundation’s goals reflect an expansive definition of media, including filmmaking, journalism, digital equity, and creative expression, as a pathway for building power with communities.
Through invited proposals, film nominations, and the Community Voices and Digital Equity open calls, IPMF supports building and strengthening networks of people who are creating and sharing information, ideas, and stories for justice and change.
What We Fund
We Prioritize organizations and projects that meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, women, people who are LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and people directly impacted by mass incarceration.
- Serve communities that are directly impacted by systemic racism and other forms of oppression.
- Directly address systemic inequality.
- Feature collaboration between multiple partners.
- Must be based in the Greater Philadelphia region (this includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania. Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties in New Jersey. And, New Castle County, Delaware).
Community Storytelling
The Community Storytelling program supports people's ability to tell their own stories. The program makes grants to community-owned media and for community storytelling projects.
Digital Equity
The Digital Equity program makes grants to help communities connect to fast, reliable, and low-price internet. The program supports projects that provide computers and computer training for jobs and life skills to people in need.
Journalism
The Journalism program supports newsrooms and projects that partner with communities. The program makes grants to projects that focus on social change and share information that is important to the community.
Film
The Film program funds and trains local filmmakers to produce and complete their films. The program focuses on local films and filmmakers from underrepresented communities.