Competition

Our grants support storytellers and organizations who are already telling African stories beyond stereotypes. While the work we support is as diverse as Africa itself, the common thread that connects all our grantees is that they tell better stories of Africa and tell stories of Africa better through content creation, advocacy, research, and capacity building. We do not fund stories and projects that reinforce poverty, corruption, conflict, disease and poor leadership, or show the continent as broken, dependent and lacking agency will not be considered.

Eligibility: See our Grant Categorization for a better breakdown of these categories and to ensure you’re a proper fit: https://africanofilter.org/documents/Who-we-fund-categories.pdf

Our grants are broadly of two types:

1. Grants to generate more nuanced and contemporary content that feeds plural and progressive new narratives about Africa.

1.1. Project Support Grants

Project Support Grants support the development and delivery of nuanced, contemporary stories and creative projects on the continent by storytellers who are using art, pop culture, narrative media, innovation, digital platforms, tech and creativity to challenge stereotypical narratives about Africa. Project support grants must be for a specific project with a clear start and end date and project milestones. The grants are awarded to strengthen platforms, projects and initiatives and empower them to create more content that presents alternative views of Africa. They are awarded to applicants based on the strength of their project proposal, with priority on applicants who are using the grant to expand on or scale up an on-going or regularly executed project. The main outcome of project-based grants is that a wider audience is reached, whether online or in person. Grants are worth up to $10,000.

1.2. Kekere Storytellers Fund

The Kekere Storytellers Fund offers microgrants to exceptional emerging artists, journalists and content creators on the continent and the diaspora, who are doing ground-breaking work and creatively challenging harmful narratives within their local and digital communities using art, media and pop culture. The Kekere Storytellers Fund ensures that ANF reaches and supports emerging narrative changemakers and storytellers on the ground and not just well-established storytellers. Grants are worth between $500 and $3000.

1.3. Last Mile Film Fund

This fund is open to filmmakers in the continent and the diaspora. It supports narrative-changing films that are in the final stages of production. Films must have appealing storylines that challenge stereotypical narratives of Africa and advocate for Better Representation of the African continent. The fund offers grants of up to $10,000 for feature-length films and up to $5,000 for short films.

2.Grants to support and strengthen the storytelling ecosystem on the contenent:

2.1. Operational Support Grants

Operational Support Grants are awarded to organizations within the arts, culture, content, media and advocacy sectors who are supporting contemporary and empowering narratives of Africa through programme delivery, job creation, residences, networking opportunities and skills building for creatives, artists, journalists on the continent. Operational support grants are for narrative change organizations and platforms, media houses, festivals, galleries, digital platforms etc and can be used to support operating costs of mission-aligned organizations. The grants are worth up to $15,000.

2.2. Capacity Building Grants

Capacity Building grants are awarded to organizations within the arts, culture, media, content creation and advocacy sectors who are focused on strengthening other organizations’ infrastructure, management and governance, training and building the competences of individuals within the sector, enabling them to be more effective and sustainable. Grants are worth up to $15,000.

In addition to the external funding agency’s submission procedures, this opportunity must also be submitted for Departmental, HSS Faculty, and Research Initiatives and Services (RIS) institutional reviews and approvals via Memorial's Researcher Portal (RP). In order to facilitate the HSS Faculty’s administrative review, please ensure "Heather C. O'Brien (Grants Facilitator)" and “Matthew Milner (Grants Facilitator)” are added as "Team Members" on your RP file. Allow at least 10 business days for these reviews to be completed.

In accordance with University-wide approval protocols, all tabs of the RP file must be completed, the completed application must be uploaded to the “Attachments” tab, all supporting documentation including support for cash and in-kind commitments and/or letters of support must also be uploaded, and “Submit” must be pressed in order for HSS to begin its administrative review and provide approvals. HSS cannot guarantee timely completion of an administrative review for application files that are incomplete. For more detailed submission instructions and information, please consult the HSS Research Support Services website.

If you plan to apply to this competition or other research funding opportunities (as either PI or CI), e-mail an HSS Grants Facilitator, Heather C. O’Brien (HSSResearchAdmin@mun.ca or 864-8603) or Matthew Milner (HSSResearchGrants@mun.ca or 864-8050), to notify the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of your intent to apply. E-mailing the intent to apply as early as possible will help to facilitate an efficient review. A Grants Facilitator can answer any questions you may have about internal or external submission procedures and may also be able to help with proposal development.