Pop Culture Collaborative Reveals 2024-2025 ‘Becoming America’ Grant Recipients

Valerie Complex
·5 min read

Pop Culture Collaborative, the philanthropic fund working to transform the narratives harming Black and Indigenous people, people of color, immigrants and refugees, Muslims, and religiously diverse people in America, announcef its 2024-2025 Becoming America Network grantees.

Through this grant program, 45 entertainment projects using storytelling to drive narrative change will receive funding totaling over $4 million. Each network member receives a grant ranging from $25,000 to $75,000, access to a range of in-person and virtual network gatherings, and the opportunity to apply for rapid response funding.

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In 2020, the Pop Culture Collaborative launched Becoming America, a multimillion-dollar fund supporting artists, producers, movement organizations, and cultural organizers to ignite public yearning for a just and pluralist nation where everyone belongs. To date, more than 120 grantees across the U.S. have engaged over 100 million people with their funded projects.

“At the Pop Culture Collaborative, we’re firm believers that achieving a just and pluralist society in the U.S. requires collaborative efforts between social justice movements, pop culture storytellers, cultural strategists, researchers, and funders,” said Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Chief Executive Officer of Pop Culture Collaborative. “Through initiatives like Becoming America, we’re investing in exceptional artists, producers, and cultural strategists ready to create transformative storytelling that challenges toxic narratives and fosters a culture of democracy across the nation. The stories we tell now will define the nation we will become.”

The recent closure of Participant Media underscores the need for philanthropic efforts to invest in artists who create justice-centered projects and values-driven storytelling, driving meaningful dialogue and progress for our collective future. Becoming America’s network is a multigenerational ecosystem of narrative leaders, content creators, entertainers, and culture makers who will work together to create the content and mass audience experiences that helps millions understand key societal moments and accelerating cultural change.

Culture Collaborative was founded in 2016 by pop culture for social change field leaders in collaboration with a network of philanthropic foundations led by Unbound Philanthropy, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, Pop Culture Collaborative support has helped bring to life projects like the launch Issa Rae’s Color Creative, America Ferrera’s Harness organization, Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Alliance, as well as the Oscar nominated writer-director’s critically acclaimed film, Origin. Learn more about Pop Culture

Collaborative and past Becoming America Grantees HERE

The 2024 cohort features five storytelling networks: 1) Pluralist Visionaries, 2) Trans Futurists, 3) Democracy & Society, 4) Reproductive Justice, and 5) Truth Seekers.

The Pluralist Visionaries will support social justice and cultural leaders who are shaping meaning for millions of Americans as they navigate the complexities of today’s world.

Allied Media Projects | Adrienne Maree Brown
ALOK Enterprises Inc. | ALOK
Next River | Mia Birdsong
Women Make Movies, Inc./SELL BY DATE | Sarah Jones

The Trans Futurists will elevate the voice and visions of Trans and nonbinary leaders as cultural stewards of the America we are becoming.

Imara Jones
Geena Rocero
Chase Strangio
Hope Giselle
Ty Defoe
Jordyn Jay

Democracy & Society will rewrite the story of our nation’s progress, centering the BIPOC, women, queer, gender expansive, and disabled people who are the original creators and stewards of American democracy.

Joy to the Polls: Bringing Music and Democracy Together
Addition | To See Each Other
American University | GoodLaugh Comedy Tour
Amplifier Foundation | Stories of Revolutionary Love
Caring Across Generations | Care in Common
Center for Working Families Funds | Real Housewives of Politics
How To Citizen | How To Citizen 
Fandom Forward | Saving Our Progress: Building Fan Organizing Power in Gaming
Forment Productions | America, Who Hurt You?
Harness Community | Protect the Sacred’s Ride to the Polls: Riding for Democracy & Honoring 100 Years of Citizenship
Islamic Scholarship Fund | Muslim Girls DTF: Discuss Their Faith
Kyla Searle | This Is How We Win
Lachi Music LLC | Mad Different (Multidisciplinary Digital Content Series)
National Domestic Workers Alliance | The Legeacy Project
Offsides Production | Friday Night Semites
Question Culture | SONGS FROM THE HOLE 75
TaskForce | Into Action Lab || WE are Democracy Social Content
The Center for Cultural Power | Movement to the Ballot Box
The Mash-Up Americans LLC | Mash-Up’s Tikkun Olam – Our Season of Repair
Upenndo | From Soil to Soul: Igniting Environment Justice

Reproductive Justice will center bodily autonomy—the human right to control our sexuality, gender, and reproduction—as integral to the liberation of BIPOC communities and to the nation’s collective freedom.

F Collective, Inc. | United States of Abortion + Reproductive Justice Collaborative Content Production: Repro Justice Media Consortium and United States of Abortion
Gutsy Media | ALL ABOVE ALL Reproductive Justice Narratives
 Renee Bracey Sherman & Regina Mahone | Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve
Rola Productions | How to get an abortion in a banned state
SisterSong Inc | RJ in the Culture
URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity | URGE Micro-Influencer Engagement Program.

The Truth Seekers will popularize the idea that to know ourselves, we must know our history, creating momentum for the movement to protect every person’s access to racial history, queer studies, and social emotional learning in K-12 education and public life.

Comfrey Films | Under False Colors ○ Culture House | Black Twitter
Equis Institute, (Re)Writing Latinés Into the Greater American Story Online
F Collective, Inc./The Meteor | Undistracted
Moore + Associates, LLC | Gone Native
Picture Motion Campaigns, LLC | Movie Night, Presented by PicMO
Sawaha LLC | “American Muslims: A History Revealed” digital series event tour and curriculum development
Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs/The Center for Art and Abortion | Origin Film Buyout
United We Dream Network | Just Flavors

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