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Define American

Los Angeles, California

Grants

2022 (3 years)
$750,000

Define American is a national non-profit media and culture change organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in America. Founded in 2011, Define American conducts a range of activities to humanize the conversation about immigration in this country, including consulting on television shows, developing and producing original content for a range of platforms, and engaging broad constituencies in online campaigns, live events and other forms of media advocacy. This general operating support grant enables Define American to continue its efforts to uplift and connect the voices, perspectives and experiences of immigrants living in the United States through the news and narratives of popular culture, news media, and the social web.

2019 (3 years)
$750,000

Define American is a non-profit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in America. It does this by creating opportunities for immigrants to share their own stories through social media campaigns and local and regional events, by building awareness and empathy through partnerships with popular culture makers and entertainment media to disseminate accurate and nuanced stories based on the real-life experiences of immigrants through the reach of mass media, and it carries out programming to increase the amount of accurate information about the immigrant experience shared through mainstream news media. This general operating support grant enables Define American to expand its network, which includes growing its College Chapters program, and to develop new and impactful partnerships that help to amplify the voices of immigrants and bring attention to their lived experiences, with the goal of increasing the number of Americans that embrace the immigrant experience as an important part of a strong American democracy.

2018 ( 1 month)
$2,000

Define American is a nonprofit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America. This grant supports Define American 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 Define American 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.

2017 (2 years)
$300,000

Define American is a non-profit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in America. Founded in 2011, Define American has played a critical role in shaping the national discourse on immigration and its connections to race, gender orientation, religion, and socioeconomic status in a rapidly diversifying America. It does this by engaging communities through social media campaigns and local and regional events, raising awareness and empathy through entertainment media, and increasing the amount of accurate information shared through the news media.