Stay up-to-date on the latest news, trends and perspectives in media and philanthropy.

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 from the conference schedule: a discussion of the power imbalance inherent in funder-grantee relationships, and what we can do about it. Read More

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. Read More

Editor's note: Earlier this month, Media Impact Funders brought funders together at Philanthropy New York with organizers and presenters from the first VR for Change summit to explore how immersive platforms offer new ways to engage and mobilize users around social issues. Because this is a new and quickly evolving medium, attendees had many questions. The lively conversation ranged across definitions of new technologies, ways to match funders’ goals to VR productions, emerging research on impact, and the costs of supporting such projects as platforms continue to roll out. Diana Barrett of the Fledgling Fund has thought through many of these questions in her own practice. In this post adapted from a piece published in the online publication Immerse, she shares what she’s learned about the impact of VR, and how Fledgling chooses the projects they support.  Read More

By Meghan Ventura | Community & Operations Manager, Games for Change With VR’s promise to help us see the world from someone else’s point of view, one word has become nearly synonymous with virtual reality projects on real-world issues—empathy. Read More

Agenda 9 a.m.—Welcome and Introductions   Vince Stehle, Executive Director, Media Impact Funders David Rousseau, Vice President and Executive Director, Media & Technology, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation 9:15 a.m.—Returning to Public Media’s Roots A conversation with NPR’s founding architect and one of today’s leading public radio reporters on how public media has served us for the last 50 years and where it will take us in the future. Bill Siemering, President, Developing Radio Partners Korva Coleman, Newscaster, NPR 9:45 a.m.—Policy Visions, Platform Realities How have the founding policy visions for public broadcasting translated into current cross-platform efforts to serve all Americans with news, education and insight? Korva Coleman, Newscaster, NPR (moderator) Michael Copps, former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Thomas Hjelm, Chief Digital Officer, NPR 10:30 a.m.—Spectrum Auction: The First $2 Billion  With federal cuts looming, the spectrum auction may breathe life into local news and the public sphere. What are the plans for the first $2 billion? How much of it will go to public media? Tim Isgitt, Managing Director, Humanity United Patrick Butler, President and Chief Executive Officer, America’s Public Television Stations 10:50 a.m.—Networking Break   11:20 a.m.—Tech… Read More

This post originally appeared on the Ford Foundation's Equals Change blog on Sept. 21, 2016. Not everyone knows the name Sir Tim Berners-Lee, but they certainly know his invention: the World Wide Web. And if being responsible for one of the most important innovations in human history wasn’t enough, early on Berners-Lee made the generous and vital decision to give it away for free. Read More

According to the United Nations, every minute, 24 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. Worldwide, there are 65 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. It's overwhelming to think about how much violence in the world there is to have that many refugees. To that end, the U.N. has recognized June 20 as World Refugee Day as a day to send a message to governments across the globe that they "must work together and do their fair share for refugees." Read More

Media Impact Funders and Foundation Center Announce New Mapping Tool for Media and Philanthropy Read More

By Games for Change Every year, the Games for Change Festival celebrates the most impactful digital games that touch on social issues and aim to inspire their audiences to action. As video game’s audience increases—with gamers in 60 percent of American homes, according to the Entertainment Software Association—so does their potential to impact even more lives. Read More

“It was too close for comfort, but maybe that was the point,” writes The Case Foundation’s Louise Storm of her first virtual reality experience. Viewing the New York Times’ series “The Displaced”—which tells the stories of three children displaced by war—her initial response was tears. But then the chief of staff to CEO Jean Case began to think about all the uses of the technology for social impact. “I can’t wait to see what the clever do-gooders of the world do next with this medium,” she observes. Read More

Following the buzz in journalistic circles, it seems clear that interactive stories and productions have the potential to engage audiences in new and exciting ways. But how does this work exactly—and when should funders be stepping in to invest more seriously in such experiments? Read More

What is it: A campaign launched by Ford in late January that seeks to raise awareness about inequality in all its forms and what can be done about it. Ford asked people on social media one question: “Finish this sentence: Inequality is…” Read More