Fiscal Sponsorship. Join the largest documentary-specific fiscal sponsorship program in the US, established in 1998.
About the Program
For over 30 years, IDA's fiscal sponsorship program has been helping independent documentary projects of all types get funded, finished, and seen. Our fiscal sponsorship program is open to independent filmmakers and documentarians, regardless of education, background, or previous credits. Whether this is your first project or you've been making documentaries for as long as we've been sponsoring them, we can help.
What is Fiscal Sponsorship?
Fiscal sponsorship is a contractual relationship in which a 501(c)(3) public charity, such as IDA, agrees to sponsor a project that furthers our mission for the purpose of fundraising through grants and donations. This is often an effective alternative to starting your own nonprofit. The arrangement allows you to seek grants and solicit grants and tax-deductible donations for your documentary, with the oversight, support, and endorsement from one of the most long-standing and trusted charities in the field.
Why IDA?
IDA knows documentaries. It's all we do. We are the largest documentary-specific fiscal sponsor in the world.
IDA is dedicated to supporting the vital work of documentary storytellers and championing a thriving and inclusive documentary culture. Our fiscal sponsorship program has helped thousands of independent documentaries get funded, finished, and seen.
On average, we administer over 10 million dollars in donations and grants to our sponsored projects. We work with films in all stages of production, including the crucial phases of distribution, outreach, and engagement.
Our fiscally sponsored projects have access to full-time program staff with expertise in fiscal sponsorship. We have the infrastructure to take on documentary projects of any size, and importantly, our policies and procedures are specifically designed to be conducive to filmmakers and responsive to production timelines.
As fiscal sponsors on your project, IDA will not take any ownership of your work, nor will we infringe on your creative control copyright or prevent you from future sales or profit from your project. IDA seeks to be as non-intrusive and supportive as possible in monitoring projects.
We accept applications year-round from documentary films (e.g., features, shorts, series, XR) or media projects related to the documentary genre (e.g., podcasts, festivals, online communities).