People's Media Fund Announces $4.3 million in Grants to 44 Organizations and Projects
PHILADELPHIA, August 6, 2026—People’s Media Fund (PMF) announces over $4.3 million in grant renewals to 44 Greater Philadelphia organizations and projects supporting community-led and owned media, where community members of all ages tell their own stories, share life-saving news and information, and equip social justice movements with media and narrative strategies to advance change.
Through its grants renewal cycle, the foundation provides ongoing operating and project support to organizations building a local media ecosystem where communities most impacted by media erasure, systemic racism, and other forms of oppression have the power to tell their own stories and shape narratives that promote liberation, joyful imagination, collective memory, and accountability.
In a landscape where funding to Black and Brown-led organizations has been on a steady decline, the foundation is proud to share that over $3.4 million of this year’s renewal grants were awarded to BIPOC-led organizations.
"Amid DEI backlash and rising fascism, we have a responsibility to care for one another, and we strongly encourage our funding colleagues to leverage their influence, privilege, and resources to make bold, sustained investments in Black- and Brown-led organizations, leaders, and communities on the margins," said PMF Program Officer Melissa Hamilton.
The foundation also continues to collaborate with other funders to support community-led and centered media in the region. This cycle includes PMF’s multi-year regranting partnership with Leeway Foundation to support the Media Artist + Activist Residency. The $200,000 grant will support women, trans, and gender-nonconforming media artists working in close collaboration with social justice organizations in Greater Philadelphia to document, reframe, and amplify the issues and campaigns these organizations address.
Below is a full listing of the grants.
Community Storytelling
2Puntos Platform
$100,000
To strengthen 2Puntos' two newsroom model—one led by community women and one led by their editorial team—and expand service journalism that blends community knowledge with organizational expertise and ensures Latine residents in Philadelphia and Norristown have access to trustworthy, actionable information.
5 Shorts Project
$50,000
To sustain and strengthen 5 Shorts’ community-rooted media programming, youth workforce development, and storytelling initiatives for young people impacted by gun violence in Philadelphia.
Actívate Stories
$40,000
To support Actívate's work documenting cultural and organizing histories of underrepresented, multigenerational BIPOC artists, cultural workers, and movement groups in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Afro-American Historical Society of Delaware
$75,000
To support WHGE Radio as a platform to educate, motivate, and unify the Black community and the podcast studio as a tool to encourage teenagers to voice their opinions and become involved in addressing, ameliorating, and/or resolving problems confronting youth.
Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture
$75,000
To support Al-Bustan News' Media Fellowship program to amplify Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) voices, ensure diverse narratives, and prioritize local reporting, mentorship, safety, and community partnerships.
Big Picture Alliance
$100,000
To empower underserved Philly youth to define their own narratives through a pathway of school, summer, and workforce programs that provide mentorship from script-to-screen and curiosity-to-careers.
BlackStar Projects
$200,000
To support the general operations of Blackstar, which elevates the stories of Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers and builds community through independent film.
Centro de Cultura, Arte, Trabajo y Educacion (CCATE)
$100,000
To support media programming at CCATE, including but not limited to Radio REVARTE, the first community and educational radio station for the Latino and immigrant community in Montgomery County.
cinéSPEAK
$150,000
To support the general operations of cinéSPEAK, which focuses on cinema spaces, audiences, and distribution in Philadelphia by featuring the stories of individuals and communities that are often underrepresented in mainstream cinema.
Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA)
$50,000
To support Radio CATA, which seeks to empower farmworkers and immigrant workers.
Communitas Arts + Culture
$25,000
For continued support of Drag Arts Oral History Project, an archive of oral histories of Philadelphia area drag artists, and activation of the existing archive through new multimedia-focused efforts.
DayOneNotDayTwo
$50,000
To support DayOneNotDayTwo's Community Apprentice Fellowship, which provides community-centered journalism training to residents of North Philadelphia.
G-Town Radio (WGGT-LP) 92.9 FM
$75,000
To support the general operations of G-Town Radio, a community radio station serving the Germantown neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia.
Institute for the Development of Education in the Arts (IDEA)
$35,000
To change the negative Camden City news ecosystem with positive news stories through a multimedia program, including zines, podcasts, and journalism training.
Kensington Voice
$40,000
To support Kensington Voice, a bilingual, community-focused newsroom serving Philadelphia's Kensington area, in sunsetting their operations and archiving their news stories.
Temple University Klein College's Center for Community Engaged Media
$75,000
For continued support of the Center for Community-Engaged Media, which supports journalism, media, and civic information systems that center communities and encourage dialogue and care and focuses on efforts that research, expand, and connect information ecosystems in the Philadelphia region.
Lil' Filmmakers
$100,000
To strengthen Lil' Filmmakers' infrastructure and support their education and workforce initiatives, while activating their space for youth-centered community events that build pathways to opportunity for the next generation of storytellers.
Love Now Media
$50,000
To support Love Now Media in building Love Now Network, a movement of media makers who make work that resists oppression, isolation, and fear by telling stories rooted in strength, joy, abundance, wellness, activism, and action.
West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
$40,000
To support the Paul Robeson House's ongoing archival development, digitization, and community programming and collaborative public engagement activities that expand access to and care for community-based archival collections.
Philadelphia Asian American Film Foundation
$75,000
To amplify, protect, and nurture Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) stories through the annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and curated programming throughout the year.
Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival
$75,000
To amplify Latine/x/a/o storytelling, field building, and narrative strategy by celebrating culture, honoring stories, and creating spaces and experiences where Latines are seen, heard, and felt—across Philly and beyond.
PhillyCAM
$500,000
To support the general operations of PhilyCAM, a community media center where residents express themselves, learn from each other, and produce and share media reflective of the experiences of everyday people.
Philly Youth Media Collaborative
$45,000
To connect and promote organizations that engage youth in the creation, analysis, and distribution of media—and work together to support youth in becoming critical thinkers, engaged global citizens, and media professionals in service of a healthy democracy and equitable media industry.
Resolve Philly
$200,000
To strengthen and sustain the Germantown Info Hub as a trusted source of community-centered journalism, engagement, and local information while expanding opportunities for resident contribution and long-term neighborhood support.
South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
$100,000
To support the general operations of SAADA, which documents, preserves, and shares stories that represent South Asian Americans' unique and diverse experiences.
Scribe Video Center
$500,000
To support the general operations of Scribe Video Center, a community media arts center that explores, develops, and advances the use of digital media as an artistic means for creative expression and tool for progressive social change.
SIFTMedia 215
$75,000
To develop a network of support for Black and Brown women filmmakers, who often lack the resources to produce, edit, and distribute their work.
South Jersey Emerging Journalists Project
$75,000
To train and support emerging journalists of color in producing high-impact, solutions-focused reporting that amplifies underrepresented voices across South Jersey.
Taller Puertorriqueño
$40,000
To amplify the voices of artists and marginalized communities through a retrospective video documenting Taller's "We Will Not Hide" work, a yearlong series of events, panels, festivals, and exhibits offering a critical examination and alternative views of the United States’ 250th anniversary.
Termite TV Collective
$50,000
To amplify the stories of Latine and Asian American residents in Norris Square, Chinatown, and Cambodia Town, by providing media training, sharing community stories, and developing Augmented and Virtual Reality projects that prevent cultural erasure and preserve the memories and histories of Philadelphia’s diverse communities.
The Colored Girls Museum
$70,000
To support the Colored Girls Museum’s programs while strengthening the museum’s capacity, and stewardship of its historic community home, as a sanctuary for art, memory, and belonging.
Uptown Radio (WJYN) 98.5 FM
$50,000
To support WJYN, a community radio station in North Philadelphia, that seeks to amplify the voices of a community impacted by poverty, community apathy, and a lack of resources.
We Are the Seeds
$50,000
For continued support of the podcast "From Here with a View," which expands access to and amplifies Indigenous perspectives and voices through storytelling that reflects contemporary Indigenous life and experience and strengthens connections within Indigenous communities.
Youth Set The Stage
$75,000
To continue and strengthen a citywide network of youth media organizations by engaging young creators in collaborative storytelling, amplifying their voices, and providing access to professional development through mentorship, skill-building workshops, and paid media opportunities.
Narrative Shift for Movement Building
Amistad Law Project
$100,000
To amplify the voices of people in communities impacted by mass incarceration, policing, and poverty through the creation and distribution of media work, podcast, and film.
FreePress
$50,000
To provide support for Free Press' "Philly Comunicadores Initiative,” which builds collective power among Spanish-speaking media workers and journalists in the Delaway Valley region by facilitating a collaborative group that provides culturally competent training and resources in Spanish on a variety of journalism and media issues.
Leeway Foundation
$200,000
To support the Media Artist + Activist Residency, which supports women, trans, and gender nonconforming media artists working in collaboration with social justice organizations in Greater Philadelphia to document, reframe, and/or amplify the issues and campaigns addressed by the organization.
Making Worlds, Inc.
$30,000
To build and sustain a community-driven media ecosystem in Philadelphia by operating as a narrative convergence center that supports collaboration, community journalism, and shared research, education, and storytelling infrastructure.
Movement Alliance Project
$100,000
To build on momentum and support narrative strategy infrastructure within the Alliance for a Just Philadelphia and provide capacity-building offerings to the broader movement ecosystem.
Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania (MILPA)
$50,000
To support Radio MILPA, which amplifies the stories of immigrants and poor and working class people, highlighting shared struggles and connecting issues, people, and regions in order to shift the narratives about immigrants to make movements stronger and more unified.
Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
$90,000
To support PCGVR’s unique model of ethical, community-informed, trauma-responsive gun violence journalism through public health research, reporter training, and elevating the voices of Philadelphia’s survivor community as a path to create connections, inform policy, and ultimately reduce the trauma created by gun violence.
Philly Community Wireless (PCW)
$125,000
To support PCW in building community-controlled wireless networks, expanding public internet availability in Philadelphia, and developing shared models of internet access and adoption.
Presenting Our Perspective on Philly Youth News (POPPYN)
$80,000
To support POPPYN, which mobilizes youth to combat oppressive narratives in the media landscape using youth-driven stories that shape movements for social change.
Spiral Q
$75,000
To support the general operations of Spiral Q, which integrates community storytelling to build strong and equitable communities characterized by creativity, joy, can-do attitudes, and the courage to act on their convictions.
About People's Media Fund
Formerly known as WYBE Channel 35, the People's Media Fund (PMF) was founded in 2018 when WYBE sold its broadcast license as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadcast Incentive Auction and received a one-time payment of $131.5 million. With these funds, PMF moves resources within the Philadelphia region toward community-owned media and internet, and catalyzes movements for justice through narratives that educate, inspire, and encourage action toward a more liberatory future.
Header Photo Credit: Rachael Warriner (@rayephoto)
