Documentary funding alternatives to social networks

by Jennifer
(England)

Question: Where can I find documentary funding without going down the social network route?

My colleague and I have produced a documentary. We have self funded up until now. We still are looking for funding to pay for the archive source images. We do not really want to go down the social networking route.

Hope you can give some suggestions.

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Desktop Documentaries | Answer

Hi Jennifer. First of all congrats on your documentary and nearing completion!

Finding funding for your documentary depends a lot on the subject matter of your documentary, so without knowing what your documentary is about it's a bit difficult to give you specific advice.

For example, if your documentary focuses on health care, then you would want to approach people and organizations who care about that topic or theme.

When you say you don't want to raise money through social networking, I'm assuming you mean crowdfunding, Facebook, etc?

If that's the case, your other options include documentary film grants, broadcast pre-sales, friends and family, local businesses/corporations, foundations, local humanities/arts councils, government grants, etc.

You could also attend pitch fests at the big film festivals such as the IDFA in Amsterdam.

This is actually quite a huge topic that is fully researched and explained in my Documentary Fundraising Course. A comprehensive list of funding sources and ideas can be found in there.

Other resources for you include The Foundation Center and Morrie Warshawski's book Shaking the Money Tree.

I hope this at least points you in the right direction. Good luck!

Please leave additional feedback, questions and comments below.

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