Fund for Southern Communities

Request for Proposals

Media Justice Grant Opportunity Deadline: February 29, 2008

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

Community Media Collaboration Grants or Media Justice Toolkits

 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: (1) Media and/or Telecommunications policy; (2) 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 (3) Promote and advocate corporate and industry media accountability

Priority will be given to proposals that: (1) 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; (2) Prioritize networking and alliance building; and (3) 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 organization, contact person, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, specific grant applying for and listing of attachments.  A project description of three to five pages including a clear statement of the people involved, the organizing plan and its potential impact on the community. Also include a brief narrative of the organization’s staff, volunteer, and administrative structure and a project evaluation plan. Please pay particular attention to your organizing 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 10 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 (2) Promote the leadership of people of color, women, queer people, and youth (3) 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. o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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 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.

Applications Must Include:  A completed coversheet which includes: Name of organization, contact person, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, specific grant applying for and listing of attachments.  A project description of three to five pages including a clear statement of the people involved, the organizing plan and its potential impact on the community. Also include a brief narrative of the organization’s staff, volunteer, and administrative structure and a project evaluation plan. Please pay particular attention to your organizing 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 10 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.