According to latest numbers, 1 in 4 Americans don’t want the COVID-19 vaccine. Whether due to hesitancy, fear, mistrust or politicization, it’s clear that we’re not out of the woods yet. In this webinar—the third discussion MIF has hosted about addressing vaccine hesitancy—we heard from philanthropic leaders on the various ways they are supporting media efforts to increase vaccine confidence and access. (The first session of our Media Impact Forum focused on guidelines for developing a communications framework to address hesitancy, and the second session looked at messaging strategies from the Colorado Health Foundation, the Ad Council and others. Watch those discussions here.)

In this webinar:

Estelle Willie of the Rockefeller Foundation provided an overview of Rockefeller’s equity-first vaccination initiative, which focuses on supporting community-based organizations to increase access to vaccines, as well as accurate information to help people make informed decisions. Willie also shared details about the work Rockefeller has done to understand the motivations and hesitations behind getting vaccinated.

Open Society Foundations’ Brett Davidson shared details about OSF’s work supporting The Peoples Vaccine, a campaign focused on ensuring fair access through affordable vaccine prices around the world by pushing back on pharmaceutical company monopolies of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments, and encouraging the sharing of vaccine technology, know-how and intellectual property to scale up production.

Lastly, using the experience from its prior work on HIV, Kaiser Family Foundation and the Black Coalition Against COVID co-developed an information campaign featuring comedian and TV host W. Kamau Bell called The CONVERSATION: Between Us, About Us. We heard about the campaign and its outcomes, and the process for developing a new campaign for Latinx/Spanish-speaking communities.

Watch the discussion:

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Media Impact Funders

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Media Impact Funders traces its roots back to the Council on Foundations, a longtime philanthropy-serving organization. Formerly Grantmakers in Film, Video & Television, MIF began on a volunteer basis in 1984 as an affinity group for funders interested in the power of film to highlight social issues. Reflecting changes in technology and media behavior over the past decade, it was renamed Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media (GFEM) and formally incorporated in 2008 to advance the field of media arts and public interest media funding. It had 45 members and was headed by former MacArthur Foundation Program Officer Alyce Myatt. GFEM was renamed Media Impact Funders in 2012 and has since expanded its strategy to include a broad range media funding interests such as journalism, immersive technologies, media policy and more. Since that time, MIF has grown to more than 80 organizational members representing some of the largest foundations, and holds more than 40 in-person and online events yearly.