The Pop Culture Collaborative supports the growth of a pop culture narrative change field capable of inspiring most Americans—including our leaders and icons—to navigate their lives as pluralists, actively engaged in the hard, delicate, and ultimately, joyful work of belonging—and even thriving—together in justice. Our grantmaking approach reflects our belief that pop culture stories and experiences have a critical role to play in helping people discover, experiment with, and embody pluralist identities, behaviors and norms.
Grants are awarded to United States–based nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, and individuals (with fiscal sponsorship) working to drive transformative experiences for mass audiences (i.e., more than 1 million people) through pop culture stories, media, and social networks. These include initiatives focused on the development and distribution of content, design of audience engagement strategies, and the creation of immersive narrative environments through cultural, narrative, and behavioral change approaches. Major Grants range from $20,000-$100,000 over 12 months and $100,000-$200,000 for multi-year grants.
The Pop Culture Collaborative has three grantmaking areas:
Pop Culture Collaborative grantee partners are strategizing, creating, and collaborating to increase the American public’s yearning for a pluralist society rooted in justice.
These grantees are most often working in one or a combination of these sectors: social justice movement building, entertainment and/or the arts, advertising and brands, journalism, academia, digital content (online and/or video), science and/or technology, immersive and/or experiential media, and/or pop culture communities (e.g., fandoms). That said, we welcome relevant ideas and approaches from any sector.
In partnership with the Pop Culture Collaborative, our grantees:
The Pop Culture Collaborative accepts proposals by invitation only.
We have created a simple process for potential grantees to self-evaluate whether they are a match with the Collaborative’s goals and guidelines, and if so, to submit an idea for our consideration. It is important to note that an idea submission is not a proposal. The Collaborative will respond only to idea submissions that the staff team has reviewed and deem a potential match.
STEP 1: Please read our grants overview page as well as the Pop Culture Collaborative’s Infrastructure and/or Rapid Response grant guidelines.
STEP 2: Read our Grantmaking Frequently Asked Questions.
STEP 3: Take our brief self-assessment quiz to see if your project idea and/or organization is a good match for the Collaborative’s goals and guidelines.
STEP 4: Submit your idea through our submission portal if you believe the idea is a match for the Collaborative’s goals and guidelines. Please note that this is not a proposal but a brief opportunity for the Collaborative to learn more about your work.
We appreciate you sharing your vision and creativity with us!
The Pop Culture Collaborative provides grants to artists and organizations or companies that support artist cohorts, from various disciplines, locations, and industries to bring their artistic vision to mass audiences, while also contributing to field-wide efforts to build public yearning for a pluralist America.
We seek to create a large, networked community of artists who believe that their creative work and leadership have the power to inspire millions of Americans to actively co-create a pluralist society.
Areas of interest include:
The Pop Culture Collaborative supports artists, activists, strategists, researchers, and other practitioners in the entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic fields to build a robust pop culture change field capable of achieving widespread narrative and cultural change at scale. Together, they can form narrative networks that have the knowledge, connections, skills, and infrastructure that can align and create transformative narrative environments in our society.
Areas of interest include:
The Pop Culture Collaborative supports grantees to unearth new data, develop analysis, and share insights with and among entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic sectors in order to inform content development, advance cultural strategies, and activate collaborations in the pop culture for social change field.
Areas of interest include:
The Pop Culture Collaborative supports social justice organizations and initiatives to design, coordinate, and activate long-term narrative change strategies at the pop culture (mass audience) level.
Areas of interest include: