Highlights from our meeting on climate and the environment
Last week in Boulder, CO, we held a meeting to explore philanthropy’s role in amplifying attention to our global environmental crisis. It was 25 degrees and snowing, but thankfully we didn’t have to walk far from our hotel to eTown, our gracious host for the daylong gathering. The day before, the high temperature reached a […]
“The Game Changers”: Planting the seeds of veganism, one meat-eating dude at a time
Question: Let’s say you’re at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, watching the premiere of a documentary about the power and promise of veganism. “A shocking new documentary that will change the way you look at meat,” reads one of the reviews. Immediately after exiting the film, do you:
Success beyond scale: Evaluating outcomes that funders really care about
“Scale”—too often this is the bane of a grantee’s or evaluator’s existence when it comes to assessing the social impact of media projects. Why are funders so stuck on this concept, and what other impact models might matter more? As we’ve been reviewing materials we’ve gathered on media impact over the past several years, these […]
WATCH: Funding environmental journalism—the landscape, best practices & new projects
This month’s journalism webinar marked the second in a series exploring innovative ways to fund reporting on science, health and the environment. This time, we looked at the field of environmental reporting and heard about successful partnerships and scalable models.
Impact spotlight: Sea of Shadows
Last week, in collaboration with Philanthropy New York and the Environmental Grantmakers Association, we held a special screening and discussion of the award-winning film Sea of Shadows, a new film by National Geographic that serves as a blueprint for how a conservation effort can come together in spite of widespread institutional corruption and dangerous cartels. In […]
MIF identifies new learning priorities after yearlong strategic planning process
As part of a new strategic direction informed by a yearlong review of our organization, we’ve been tasked with outlining learning priorities for the year and beyond. We have identified the following priorities: Making the case for media funding Assessing the impact of media funding Understanding the importance of evidence-based science communications activities Presenting/identifying funding […]
6 impact tools for every type of funder and media maker
Here at Media Impact Funders, we’ve been researching best practices in measuring media impact since 2013. In addition to curating impact-related tools, producing original analyses on impact trends, and publishing a monthly impact newsletter, we also convene funders to discuss impact, and conduct research on how funders are thinking about and assessing impact in the […]
10 tips for practicing lean impact in a time of rapid change
While the media and tech landscapes are changing rapidly—requiring nimble and adaptive business practices and new models—the larger social sector funding landscape can be stuck in model for a previous age, planning out discrete interventions and then collecting metrics to examine how many people were touched by them. And media funders—despite often being at the […]
Things we don’t talk about (but should): An open letter to media funders
Next week, several hundred people from national, community, and place-based foundations, as well as newsrooms and other nonprofits, will come together at the Knight Media Forum in Miami. The conference focuses on philanthropy’s role in strengthening local news and information, which is essential for healthy communities and a vibrant democracy. We believe there’s an important conversation missing […]
Here’s how to use our updated impact assessment tools
As you may have noticed, a few weeks ago we completely overhauled our website in an effort to better serve the rapidly changing fields of media and philanthropy. (Here’s an overview of what you can now find.) And with our shiny new website comes shiny new impact assessment resources, which we’re eager to showcase.
The 2018 Media Impact Forum
On May 10, we convened our annual Media Impact Forum at the American Philosophical Society—the home of America’s oldest learned society—in Philadelphia. From its earliest days, the American republic has relied on scientific inquiry to propel our nation forward, in all facets of our life–in commerce, national defense, social policy and creative expression, among many other areas. […]
Chasing Coral and Newtown among Peabody Award winners
This week, the Peabody Awards announced nine winners in the Documentary category, including Chasing Coral—the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning film that uses beautiful time-lapse imagery to document the world’s dying coral reefs—and Newtown—the gripping story of a community struggling to recover from the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. (You can view the […]