Community Stories (formerly California Story Fund)
Funding Amount
$7,700 - $10,000
Deadline
Deadline not published
Grant Type
Foundation
Deadline history & next window
- Cycle
- Annual
- Tracked since
- April 2026
Source: the cycle recorded on this listing. Confirm dates with the funder.
Overview
Geographic Scope: California, United States
Community Stories is an ongoing story-gathering effort to document community life in California. This program coincides, at times, with thematic initiatives conducted by California Humanities. The program awarded grants in Summer 2016 to support community-based documentary and storytelling projects.
Award Categories
Grants support various storytelling formats including:
- Documentary films
- Multimedia exhibits (online and physical)
- Radio shows and podcasts
- Website archives
- Oral history collections
- Interactive digital projects
- Community engagement programs
Focus Areas
Projects have explored:
- Rural community resilience and economic transitions
- Asian American history and activism
- Food movements and agricultural history
- Filipino American immigration stories
- Homelessness and housing
- Lumber trade and environmental history
- Bilingual education
- African American cultural history and redevelopment
- Indigenous communities and languages
- LGBTQ+ history and activism
- Veterans' experiences
- Jazz and music history
- Reproductive justice
- Refugee experiences and integration
- Folk art and creative reuse
What California Humanities actually gave
Source: IRS Form 990, 2024
- Grants in 2024
- 41
- Total given
- $858K
- Median grant
- $25K
- Range
- $5,500–$50K
- By dollars: California 84%, New York 6%, Illinois 5%. Top recipient cities: San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Whittier, CA.
- 0% of grants with a stated purpose were for general or operating support.
- 59% of recipients were new grantees, not repeat recipients.
Example grants
FJC · New York, NY
Core programs
$50K
From the Heart Productions Inc · Oxnard, CA
Core programs
$50K
Kartemquin Educational Films · Chicago, IL
Core programs
$45K
Visual Communications · Los Angeles, CA
Core programs
$40K
International Documentary Association · Los Angeles, CA
Core programs
$35K
Focus Areas & Funding Uses
Fields of Work
- Humanities
- Arts
- Grassroots
Categories
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