Next Proposal Deadline:
Septemebr 26, 2008
Proposals must be in the office by 5:00pm

The Fund for Southern Communities will be accepting proposals for the following categories on September 26, 2008:

1. General Grants Cycle

2. Media Justice Initiative

Please see below for Application Guidelines for each.

PLEASE NOTE: Late or incomplete proposals will not be considered for funding! - Please contact our office 404-371-8404 if you have any questions about applying for a grant through the Fund for Southern Communities or if you would like to consult with a Program Officer.

1. General Grants Cycle

Some things to consider before applying for a General Grant-

Is your organization working for social change? (What is social change?)
Is your total organizational budget $150,000 or less? (for Media Justice grants the maximum eligible budget is $500,000
Is your organization located and doing work in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina?
We do not fund direct services, social services or special events.

If you fit these basic guidelines, your organization may be a good fit for the Fund for Southern Communities.

Call us at 404.371.8404 to schedule a one-on-one phone conversation with our Program Officer to have an intimate and comprehensive discussion about your organization, mission, programs, and how they may fit our funding guidelines.

Download our Application here:

General Grant Application- MS Word format

General Grant Application- .RTF format (use only if you do not have MS word)

2. Media Justice Initiative

Community Media Collaboration Grants or Media Justice Toolkits

The Fund for Southern Communities, as part of the Funding Exchange's Media Justice Fund, seeks proposals for grants in two categories:

Grants will be awarded to: 1) Community Media Collaboration (CMC): projects that address media policy, infrastructure or accountability within the context of a social justice issue or campaign; 2) Media Justice Toolkits (MJT): popular education materials for social justice activists and the general public on media justice issues.

The Media Justice Fund was founded in recognition that social and economic justice will not be realized without the equitable redistribution and control of resources that necessarily includes media and communication technologies. We believe in the rights of all people and communities to have their information and communication needs met. The Media Justice Fund supports leadership of people of color, low-income and LBGT communities, and youth working within traditionally marginalized communities to organize around media to affect accountability, infrastructure and policy.

Community Media Collaboration RFP

Grant Amount: Between $5,000 and $10,000 for one year.

Introduction

Community Media Collaboration (CMC) grants support campaigns that change the structure of the media and a community's right to use and be fairly represented within it. Specifically, the CMC supports projects that work within communities to increase community access to media; promote corporate media accountability, and/or to change the regulations that govern media. Projects must include collaborations between media advocacy groups and community activists organizing for social justice. This grant is not intended for the creation of specific pieces of media unless these pieces are part of a larger community organizing effort.

Criteria for Funding

CMC proposals must impact one of the following areas:

• Media and/or Telecommunications policy;

• Expand and/or establish community media infrastructure (i.e. increasing access to low-power radio-frequencies (LPFM), expanding community access to broadband and wireless Internet services, creating a community newspaper by disfranchised communities, etc.); or

• Promote and advocate corporate and industry media accountability

Priority will be given to proposals that:

• Strengthen and build media, Internet and/or telecommunications capacity for low-income communities, communities of color, community-based organizations, immigrants, limited-English communities, youth, seniors and other social justice constituencies;

• Prioritize networking and alliance building; and

• Promote the involvement and leadership of communities affected by the project.

Proposals should include an analysis of the power relationships in communities involved and state how social justice organizing advances changes in the media. Proposals should clearly describe how the groups would evaluate the success or failure of their campaigns.

If requesting support for on-going projects, funding should support new activities that will enhance the scope or effectiveness of existing activities.

Core areas of interest for CMC proposals may include but are not limited to:

• Holding corporate media accountable

• Example: A San Francisco Bay Area media justice organization campaigns to hold local Clear Channel radio stations accountable to the community demand that the public airwaves promote justice and peace rather than violence and war.

• Directing attention to biased coverage of specific constituencies or issues

• Example: A media justice organization in Brooklyn organizes against negative media portrayals of Afghan, Muslim and immigrant women.

• Broadcasting formally marginalized voices in the media

• Example: A media justice organization in Falls Church , VA works to bring the voices and perspectives of the Vietnamese American community to the mainstream media.

• Creating community-based media

• Example: A media justice organization out of Philadelphia launches a nationwide campaign to train community members in creating their own radio stations .

• Addressing city, county, state, or federal media policy

• Example: A San Francisco media justice organization builds a cross-sector coalition to ensure public interest was protected in the city's agreements with Comcast.

Eligibility

CMC grants are open to any organization working for media and/or social justice located within Georgia , North Carolina and South Carolina . The Fund for Southern Communities supports activities by organizations that are tax-exempt under the Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c)(3), or have established a relationship with a fiscal sponsor with IRS tax-exempt status.

The grants will support organizing efforts to reform media policies, establish community media infrastructure and promote accountability by media corporations.

Application Materials

• A completed coversheet which includes: Name of or ganization, contact person, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, number of people reached in the last full calendar year, specific grant applying f or and listing of attachments.

• A project description of three to five pages including a clear statement of the people involved, the or ganizing plan and its potential impact on the community. Also include a brief narrative of the or ganization's staff, volunteer and administrative structure and a project evaluation plan. Please pay particular attention to your or ganizing strategy and goals.

• Full demographic profile of the board and staff of each organization; we give strong consideration to geographic, cultural, ethnic and programmatic diversity among its funded projects.

• A line item budget for the proposed project, line-item organizational budgets for the preceding Fiscal Year and current Fiscal Year, including amounts and sources of both income and expenses;

• A letter from the IRS certifying the non-profit, tax-exempt status of the organization or its fiscal sponsor.

Send 6 copies of Grant Applications to :

The Fund for Southern Communities

315 West Ponce de Leon Avenue

Suite 1061

Decatur , Georgia 30030

Media Justice Toolkits RFP

Grant Amount: At least $5,000 for one year

A media justice toolkit is comprised of materials in print, audio, video, digital, web-based or PowerPoint formats that provide language and understanding around media policy and advocacy. A toolkit can introduce social justice activists to the basic tools and resources that are necessary to change existing media policy as well as present ways in which community groups can use media to promote issues related to social justice.

A media justice toolkit can…

(1 ) Examine the impact of media policy on marginalized communities (communities of color and low-income communities )

(2) Provide people with the skills and knowledge to support or create community controlled, independent media infrastructure

(3) Train people to use a progressive framework when analyzing media and its role

within the community

(4) Outline concrete steps that lead to media justice action and activism

Successful proposals will…

(1) Demonstrate how constituents are included in the design phase of the project and explain how the toolkits will be distributed within the target community

• Promote the leadership of people of color, women, queer people, and youth

• Demonstrate how the work will affect not just people today but members of the community in future generations. Generally, this means that the work is directed toward permanently changing a system, institution, or policy.

Examples of what toolkits might be…

• Media Regulations: understand local, national, or international media regulatory policy and ownership.

• Example: Produce a workshop that provides a glossary of terms and readily

accessible examples about the transition from analog broadcast to digital broadcast of television and radio programming.

• Technology: understand the ways in which technology is used to support or deny broad and diverse access to media.

• Example : Produce a video with news stories, interviews or statistical data about broadband, dialup and wireless connection in underserved communities.

• Relationship to Social Justice Work: understand the interplay between social justice movements and media activism.

• Example : Write feature-length articles specifically focused on linking media activism to social justice history.

• Community-Controlled Media: understand how to organize and support locally

controlled, progressive media sources.

• Example: Explain the process of setting up a Low-Power FM radio station or Community Wireless that provide a forum for community voices.

• Best Practices : understand historically successful models from other communities on

taking action to affect local, municipal, state or federal policymaking on media issues.

• Example: Create popular education materials incorporating the experiences and knowledge of local media makers and community activists around issues of radical media history, policy, advocacy, organizing and training.

The media justice toolkits are not limited to the examples above.

Eligibility

The grants will support organizing efforts to reform media policies, establish community media infrastructure and promote accountability by media corporations.

Applications Must Include:

• Full demographic profile of the board and staff of each organization; we give strong consideration to geographic, cultural, ethnic and programmatic diversity among its funded projects.

• A line item budget for the proposed project, line-item organizational budgets for the preceding Fiscal Year and current Fiscal Year, including amounts and sources of both income and expenses;

• A letter from the IRS certifying the non-profit, tax-exempt status of the organization or its fiscal sponsor.

Send 6 copies of Grant Applications to :

The Fund for Southern Communities

315 West Ponce de Leon Avenue

Suite 1061

Decatur , Georgia 30030

Decision-making Process

All application materials are carefully read and evaluated by the Grants Committee of the Fund For Southern Communities Activist-Advised grants committee.

About the partners

The Media Justice Fund (MJF) is a new initiative operating within the Funding Exchange National Network to make local and regional media justice grants. The MJF is grounded in the belief that social and economic justice will not be realized without the equitable redistribution and control of media and communication technologies. The MJF supports leadership of people of color, low-income families, LBGT and youth, working within marginalized communities to organize around media and communication technologies to affect media accountability, infrastructure and policy change. Please click here to read more about the Media Justice Fund.

If you have questions regarding this RFP, please contact

404-371-8404 or grants@fundforsouth.org

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