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Allied Media Projects

Detroit, Michigan

Grants

2023 (3 years)
$300,000

Critical Minded

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a nonprofit organization that provides network building, amplification, and fiscal sponsorship for projects that use media, art, and technology to advance a more just and creative world. Critical Minded is a fiscally sponsored project of AMP that was created to build the resources and visibility of cultural critics of color through direct support to publications and individuals, research, advocacy, and convenings. This award provides flexible support for Critical Minded, enabling it to be agile in the ways in which it supports critics of color and initiatives led by critics of color. The intended outcomes are a more representative sector of cultural critics able to help the American public interpret cultural narratives.

2022 (3 years)
$600,000

18 Million Rising

18 Million Rising (18MR), housed at Allied Media Projects (AMP), is a national initiative launched in 2012 to increase the civic engagement and build the political power of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). It is an emerging leader in a growing community of digital-first civil and human rights organizations that are using media, technology and popular culture as the main tools for change. 18MR designs online campaigns and storytelling initiatives to amplify the voices of and mobilize its 120,000 members – primarily Millennial and GenZ AAPI – to take action on issues they care about. This grant provides flexible support to 18MR to launch and refine new campaigns and initiatives to meet the changing needs of its members, to build the resilience of its membership to push back against a growing tide of mis- and disinformation, and to launch a new digital organizing curriculum to increase the capacity of grassroots AAPI groups to use the internet and digital technologies for community organizing and advocacy. 18MR aspires to leverage the voices of its members to create more nuanced and accurate narratives about the AAPI experience, and identity and shape policies and institutions to meet the needs of the nation’s fastest growing demographic.

2022 (2 years)
$300,000

A People's Guide to Tech

A project of Allied Media Projects, A People’s Guide to Tech (APGT) produces workshops, zines, books, and educational materials that foster a sense of agency and possibility towards technology. Its work grounds the understanding of emerging technology within our relationships to one another and the planet. APGT focuses on understanding how technologies work, demystifying where and how they are being used within the public sphere, and communicating why it is important to understand their influence in order for more people to have the opportunity to shape and navigate our shared collective futures. The organization aims to foster a stronger sense that the public are creators, rather than consumers, of technology. It does this through its Community Technology Pedagogy, the educational framework of APGT’s writing that situates readers in the content by acknowledging the contexts, pre-existing knowledge, and experiences they bring to the material. The award provides flexible support to APGT.

2022 (3 years)
$300,000

Undocumented Filmmakers Collective

This grant is recommended as flexible support for the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective. Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the creation and use of media for social change, and its Sponsored Projects Program provides fiscal sponsorship, training, and capacity-building to people and projects aligned with its mission. The Undocumented Filmmakers Collective, fiscally sponsored by Allied Media Projects, is a network of artists created to support and uplift storytellers creating narratives essential to democracy, from critically important perspectives, regardless of immigration status. Its activities include skill-building workshops, resource-sharing, and the development of opportunities to showcase the work of its members. It also advocates with organizations serving the documentary film industry to make funding and professional development opportunities available to artists regardless of immigration status. This grant provides flexible support for the Collective; the intended outcome is a more supportive environment for undocumented filmmakers to create work and build careers.

2022 ( 7 months)
$18,000

A project of Allied Media Projects, Our Data Bodies is a research and organizing initiative working at the intersection of justice and technology. It is concerned with data-driven systems and their connection to power and violence. Our Data Bodies creates knowledge, publishes research, co-develops and shares tools of engagement, and supports capacity building for groups on the ground. The award supports a track at the 2022 Allied Media Conference in Detroit, MI, (with a virtual option) focused on the harms of carceral technologies and efforts to end their use. The conference track provides an opportunity for organizers, writers, cultural workers, researchers, and others to grow connections and explore topics such as demystifying carceral technologies, organizing strategies, and rethinking community safety and health.

2022 (3 years)
$900,000

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a Detroit-based nonprofit that incubates new media and technology projects for social good and hosts regular convenings, including its biannual Allied Media Conference. AMP supports and amplifies the work of its network of more than 3,000 media makers, technologists, artists and educators from across the country, the majority of whom are under the age of 25 and identify as coming from historically marginalized communities. This grant provides general operating support for AMP’s growing suite of programs and services to seed and incubate emerging social justice-oriented media and technology projects and organizations, including a fiscal sponsorship program, regular national and regional convenings, and a speakers' bureau. With more than 20 years of experience working on civic media, transmedia, and other participatory, multi-platform approaches to communications and advocacy, AMP provides important services and supports to bring new voices and perspectives, especially those from marginalized and politically targeted groups, into public dialogue.

2021 (3 years)
$16,000

Kairos Fellowship

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a Detroit-based nonprofit that incubates new media and technology projects for social good. The Kairos Fellowship (Kairos), housed at AMP, was launched in 2016 to help diversify the pool of social media organizers working on national, social justice campaigns. Each year, it identifies promising online organizers of color and provides them with year-long mentoring and on-the-job training with national advocacy organizations. As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated dependency on the internet and digital technologies to conduct our daily lives, Kairos expanded its mission to create the conditions for a more equitable and safer internet for all. It rolled out new programming to hold the large technology platforms accountable for disinformation and hate speech spread on their platforms, and it began training community groups how to identify and combat mis- and disinformation in their communities. This grant provides flexible support for Kairos to continue its signature fellowship program to build diverse leadership in digital spaces and to expand its work to curb disinformation and hate speech online.

2021 (2 years 1 month)
$200,000

Critical Minded

Allied Media Projects is a nonprofit organization that provides network building, amplification, and fiscal sponsorship for projects that use media, art, and technology to advance a more just and creative world. Critical Minded is a fiscally sponsored project of Allied Media Projects that was created to build the resources and visibility of cultural critics of color through direct support to publications and individuals, research, advocacy, and convenings. This award provides flexible support for Critical Minded, enabling it to be agile in the ways in which it supports critics of color and initiatives led by critics of color. The intended outcome of this grant is a more robust and multifaceted set of supports for critics of color in the United States.

2021 (2 years)
$750,000

Decolonizing Wealth Project

A project of Allied Media Projects, Decolonizing Wealth Project’s (DWP) mission is to bring forth truth, reconciliation, and healing of our global family from the ails of colonization through education, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. DWP envisions a world where racial equity has become the societal norm, and new systems ensure everyone can live their best lives, thrive in their cultures, and bring about healing from generations of colonial trauma. It activates its mission and vision through three areas of work: shifting philanthropic practice, racial healing, and narrative change. The award provides flexible support to DWP.

2021 (1 year 11 months)
$3,000,000

Decolonizing Wealth Project

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a nonprofit organization that provides fiscal sponsorship to projects at the intersection of media-making and social justice. AMP is the fiscal sponsor of the Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP), a mission led organization bringing truth, reconciliation, and healing to communities most affected by the legacy of colonization through philanthropic giving, racial healing, and narrative change work. This grant provides DWP with flexible support for its primary activities.

2020 ( 4 months)
$24,000

Our Data Bodies

A project of Allied Media Projects, Our Data Bodies is a collaborative, participatory research and organizing initiative focused on the intersections between social, economic, and racial justice, data-driven technologies, and surveillance infrastructures. The award supports Our Data Bodies to undertake research that documents the histories of marginalized communities experiencing and confronting digital surveillance and data driven technologies in several cities in the United States. This will result in the publication of oral histories and lessons learned for community-based organizations and others seeking to undertake similar work.

2020 (2 years)
$200,000

A People's Guide Press

A project of Allied Media Projects, A People’s Guide Press, is a new, independent, nonprofit press dedicated to creating “how-to” guide booklets and collaborative activities to teach community-based organizations and the general public about how the internet and emerging technologies influence economies, relationships, and culture. The organization explores how these technologies work, by demystifying where and how they are being used within the public sphere and communicating why it is important to understand their influence in order for more people to have the opportunity to shape and navigate collective futures. An explicit focus is on producing content that centers marginalized groups including poor and working-class Black, people of color, and LGBTQI communities. The award provides flexible support to A People’s Guide Press as it builds its operations and launches its first publications and related activities.

2020 (2 years 3 months)
$300,000

18 Million Rising

18MillionRising.org (18MR), housed at Allied Media Projects, is a national effort established in 2012 to unite Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth through online efforts and build their civic and political engagement through education and skill building, online campaigns, and storytelling initiatives. This project grant provides flexible support to 18MR to use media, technology and culture to leverage the voices of AAPI youth to create more nuanced and accurate narratives about the AAPI experience and identity, and to shape policies and institutions to meet the needs of the nation’s fastest growing demographic.

2020 (2 years)
$150,000

Undocumented Filmmakers Collective

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the creation and use of media for social change, and its Sponsored Projects Program provides fiscal sponsorship, training, and capacity-building to people and projects aligned with its mission. The Undocumented Filmmakers Collective (the Collective), fiscally sponsored by Allied Media Projects, is a network of artists from across the United States created to support and uplift storytellers creating narratives essential to democracy, from critically important perspectives, regardless of immigration status. The Collective is designed to move resources to undocumented filmmakers via network building within the industry, and to engage in advocacy with power brokers in film and media to ensure they understand how they can legally employ and support undocumented filmmakers, emphasizing how important it is to include empowered perspectives from undocumented people in media coverage. The intended outcomes of this work are that more undocumented filmmakers will have access to opportunities to build their career and participate meaningfully in shaping narratives about the United States from their perspectives. This award provides general operating support for the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective.

2020 ( 7 months)
$25,000

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a Detroit-based nonprofit that incubates new media and technology projects for social good and hosts regular convenings, including its bi-annual Allied Media Conference, for its network of more than 3000 media makers, technologists, activists and artists, most of whom are under the age of 25 and come from historically marginalized communities. This grant enables AMP to bolster the digital security of its 2020 Conference, which is being held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every other June, AMP’s conference brings its network of thousands of social justice media makers and advocates together to build community, share strategies, and launch new ideas into the world. This grant funds AMP to hire a digital security expert to ensure its online conference – the first AMP has hosted at this scale – is safe for its participants and protected from outside harassment.

2020 (2 years)
$600,000

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a Detroit-based nonprofit that incubates new media and technology projects for social good and hosts regular convenings, including its bi-annual Allied Media Conference. AMP supports and amplifies the work of its network of more than 3,000 media makers, technologists, artists and educators from across the country, the majority of whom are under 25 and identify as coming from historically marginalized communities. This grant provides general operating support for AMP’s growing suite of programs and services to seed and incubate emerging social justice-oriented media and technology projects and organizations, including a fiscal sponsorship program, regular national and regional convenings, and a speaker’s bureau. With more than 20 years of experience working on civic media, transmedia, and other participatory, multi-platform approaches to communications and advocacy, AMP provides important services and supports to bring new voices and perspectives, especially those from marginalized and politically targeted groups, into public dialogue.

2019 (2 years)
$200,000

Critical Minded

Allied Media Projects is a nonprofit organization that provide fiscal sponsorship to projects at the intersection of media-making and social justice that are aimed at uplifting and strengthening the work of underrepresented artists, journalists, and activists. Critical Minded, a sponsored project of Allied Media Projects, is a funder collaborative working to build greater racial equity in the field of cultural criticism. Through granting, network building and advocacy, Critical Minded supports the work of cultural critics, arts writers, publishers and editors of color across disciplines, generations and geographies and aims to center their work in public discourse. MacArthur support enlarges the pool of funds available for Critical Minded to make grants to people of color-led media organizations, support individual critics of color, and fund convenings. The intended outcome of this grant is a more robust set of supports for critics of color in the United States.

2018 (2 years)
$200,000

18 Million Rising

18MillionRising.org (18MR), housed at Allied Media Projects, is a national effort established in 2012 to unite Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth through online efforts and build their civic and political engagement through education and skill building, online campaigns, and storytelling initiatives. This award supports 18MR to use new media tools and platforms, as well as other forms of emerging media, to leverage the voices of AAPI youth to create more nuanced and accurate narratives about the AAPI experience and identity, and to shape policies and institutions to meet the needs of the nation’s fastest growing demographic.   

2018 (3 years 7 months)
$450,000

Kairos Fellowship

The Kairos Fellowship, housed at Allied Media Projects, was launched in 2014 to help diversify the pool of social media organizers working on national, social justice-oriented campaigns. Each year, Kairos identifies promising online organizers of color and provides them with year-long mentoring and on-the-job training with national advocacy organizations. This grant provides flexible support for Kairos to expand its fellowship program to include additional cohorts focused on specific issues and geographic regions, refine its fellowship curriculum and strengthen its network of mentors and partners, and continue to grow a community of practice on digital advocacy and civic tech that centers on racial justice and equity.

2018 ( 1 month)
$3,000

Allied Media Projects cultivates media strategies for a more just, creative and collaborative world by serving a network of media makers, artists, educators, and technologists working for social justice. This grant supports 18MillionRising.org and Kairos through Allied Media Projects to participate in a national convening of participatory civic media organizations supported through MacArthur’s Journalism and Media program. The meeting is designed to help coalesce the emerging field of participatory civic media, of which 18MillionRising.org and Kairos is part, by facilitating new connections and collaborations and building a shared sense of identity among a new breed of media and culture organizations using participatory media to amplify historically marginalized voices and strengthen American democracy.

2018 (2 years)
$500,000

Allied Media Projects (AMP) is a Detroit-based nonprofit that incubates new media and technology projects for social good and hosts an annual conference for its network of more than 2500 media makers, technologists, artists and educators, the majority of which are under 25 years of age and identify as coming from historically marginalized communities. This grant provides general operating support for AMP’s growing suite of programs and services to seed and incubate emerging social justice art, media and technology projects and organizations. With nearly 20 years of experience working on civic media, transmedia, and other participatory, multi-platform approaches to communications and advocacy, Allied Media Projects provides important organizational infrastructure to bring new voices and perspectives, especially those from marginalized and politically targeted groups, into public dialogue on a range of issues, such as police accountability, immigrant and LGBTQ rights.

2017 (1 year)
$75,000

Allied Media Projects is a Detroit-based nonprofit that incubates new media and technology projects for social good and hosts an annual conference for its network of more than 2,500 artists, journalists, technologists and educators. It is using grant funds to plan for, implement and evaluate its 2017 Allied Media Conference (AMC2017), which takes place in June and brings together thousands of people from more than 240 locations across the country for four days of workshops, strategy sessions, performances, and exhibits. Now in its nineteenth year, the Allied Media Conference is helping launch new participatory media-based movements, organizations and collaborations designed to bring new voices and perspectives into public dialogue on issues such as policing, climate change, and economic inequality.