The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are major federal sources of funding for documentary films. As a result, getting funded is quite competitive. Program officers from both agencies recently participated in the WIFV/Docs In Progress Documentary Roundtable to help demystify what kinds of documentary projects are appropriate for their funds and share more on the process of requesting funds.

Wow!  Thanks to more than 200 of you, Docs In Progress raised more than $17,000 in our Winter and Summer Fundraising campaigns.

Some crowdfunding quick tips from Docs In Progress Treasurer Kiley Kraskouskas of Thinking Forward Media and Docs In Progress Executive Director Erica Ginsberg.

Fiscal sponsorship is something that many documentary filmmakers seek out so they can raise grant funds which are only given to nonprofits and are able to accept contributions from donors who want a tax deduction. How to decide on the right fiscal sponsor? So much of the emphasis has been on what fiscal sponsors are looking for in fiscal sponsorees and yet fiscal sponsorees also should explore all their options to find a fiscal sponsor who is a good fit for their project.  Too many filmmakers focus only on which fiscal sponsor takes the lowest admin fee and not enough on all the other factors which can make or break a successful fiscal sponsorship relationship. After giving talks at the Foundation Center on Fiscal Sponsorship in the Arts, our Executive Director Erica Ginsberg adapted her presentation into this list of considerations.

And nope we don’t mean the midnight Black Friday Sales. Rather, we mean getting an early start on the giving season.

This year, why not give to Docs In Progress? We recently kicked off a new fundraising initiative -- a scholarship program which will allow those who cannot afford to take our documentary production classes and youth documentary filmmaking summer camps to do so.

With the economic downturn upon us, it would seem that the outlook for documentary funding in the United States looks bleak. Individual donors are tightening their belts. State and local government funds are being cut across the country, with arts funds often the first to suffer. Corporations facing smaller profits or losses translate into less money being put into their foundations. And media-friendly community foundations have not been immune from the souring economy since many are vested in the stock market (with one - the JEHT foundation which has funded a number of video and audio documentaries on topics related to the legal and human rights implications of the war on terror - has actually ceased to exist as a result of putting too many eggs in the Bernie Madoff basket).

In spite of these depressing facts, funds are still out there. It's just that the competition for them has increased and only the strong and scrappy will survive. That's one of the reasons we are going to draw on our in-house fundraising talent, Sam Hampton, to teach both aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers everything they need to know about coming up with fundraising proposals. And it's also why we decided to continue our fascination with the power of the Internet as a tool for fundraising by looking at two very different approaches.

Just when you least expect it, you may be in a situation where you have an opportunity to pitch to a potential funder, broadcaster, distributor, or someone else who can have a positive influence on the life and trajectory of your film. You might only have a few minutes though. Are you ready? Filmmakers Doug Block and Aviva Kempner have years of experience with the proverbial "elevator pitch" and share their tips.