Philanthropic Funding For Documentaries in Canada

Philanthropic Funding For Documentaries in Canada:
Towards an Industry-Wide Strategy

Examining the innovative initiatives that have been successfully introduced in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to engage the philanthropic sector to support the production and dissemination of documentaries.

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Philanthropic Funding for Documentaries in Canada (2015)


Initiatives examined in the report include BRITDOC, the Documentary Australia Foundation(DAF), The Fledgling Fund, JustFilms, the Chicago Media Project, the International Documentary Association’s Fiscal Sponsorship program, and Impact Partners. The goal of this examination was to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of these initiatives and how they might be applied to the Canadian context.

The findings show that compared to these other jurisdictions, Canada is behind in leveraging funding from the philanthropic sector. The Canadian sector, including grant-making foundations, corporate and individual donors, represents a significant untapped resource for the documentary community.