I’ve been reaching out to non-profit mental health organizations all over the country to discuss the possibility of partnerships, primarily in the hopes of getting funding. Usually starting with some cold emails, I ended up having a meaningful discussion with about 7 different organizations, but none of them were able to commit any funding to us.
In hindsight, I probably should have expected this – non-profits don’t have a ton of extra cash to throw around, and during the pandemic especially everyone has been strapped for cash. That being said, I’m really glad I had these conversations, because we were not only asking for funding, but a partnership on two additional levels:
- Script review: since our film showcases seeking therapy and sessions with a therapist, we wanted a mental-health authority to review our script and make sure we were accurately representing this process
- Marketing & screenings: once the film is complete, we can partner with them to promote the film and have screenings with their organizations
The conversations all went really well, and eventually, meeting someone from an organization called CERI East Bay led us to ARTogether. After a great discussion with them, they invited us to apply for their mini-grant of $500, and we just learned we received it! $500 isn’t enough money to make a film of the caliber that I’m hoping to make, but it’s enough to offset a major expense like equipment or a location that I would have to cover otherwise.
More importantly, I think it adds legitimacy to our film. Now, I can use this to approach for profit institutions like BetterHelp and see if they will match. With the ARTogether partnership in our arsenal, I think larger funding institutions will believe more in our project as well and we can move to get more.
In total, I’m hoping to shoot this 15-minute short with at least $5k. I’m funding half of this myself, so with this grant we are at $3k so far. $2k is SUPER achievable to find from another grant (I also applied to the Roy W. Dean grant via From the Heart), or from a corporate sponsor. We can also do fiscal sponsorship with ARTogether and see if we can do some tax-deductible matching.
All in all, $500 isn’t a ton of money from a film perspective, but I think the partnerships and legitimacy that it adds to our production is definitely a strong step that will lead to more!
Have you received grants to fund your film before? If so, which ones did you find, and what do you think makes a strong grant application?
