Guidelines
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What is the Diversity Development Fund (DDF)?

The Diversity Development Fund seeks talented producers of color to develop single programs for public television. Projects should speak to the ITVS mission to serve underserved audiences with programs that take creative risks, explore complex issues, inspire dialogue and express points of view seldom seen on commercial or public television.

The Diversity Development Fund (DDF) provides up to $15,000 in research and development funding to both seasoned and emerging producers of color. Funded activities may include travel, research, script development, preliminary production for fundraising/work-in-progress reels or other early phase activities. The fund is supported in part by the Ford Foundation.

Applying to ITVS

Please read the following guidelines carefully and complete the online application. Incomplete applications will not be processed. You may submit only one application to the Diversity Development Fund. You may only have one proposal under consideration at ITVS at any time.

The Diversity Development Fund is not a grant

Accepted applicants receive funding in the form of a Development Agreement that assigns ITVS certain important rights over the project during the term of the contract. The independent producer maintains creative, editorial and financial control of the project, owns the copyright to the program and delivers all elements within six months of the contract date. ITVS retains the option for U.S television broadcast rights, among others, up to 90 days after the receipt of all deliverables required under the contract.

Who is eligible to apply

• Be a citizen or legal resident of the U.S. or its external territories.
• Be an "independent producer." This means that the individual applicants a) own the copyright of their production, b) have artistic, budgetary and editorial control of their project, and c) are not regularly employed by a public or commercial broadcast entity or film studio, including public access stations.
• Be at least 18 years old.
• Have some previous film or television production experience in a principal role (director, co-director, producer, co-producer) as demonstrated by submitting a previously completed work sample. For dramas only, applicants may apply with completed works on which they were writers but not necessarily director or producer.
• Identify themselves as belonging to one or more of the following communities:
1. African American
2. Arab American
3. Asian American
4. Latino/Latina
5. Native American/Native Alaskan
6. Pacific Islander

• Individuals who do not meet ITVS's definition of an “independent producer”
• Students
• Current signatories of ITVS production contracts who have not completed delivery
• Producers representing foreign-based production entities
• Producers regularly employed by a public or commercial broadcast entity, including public access stations
• Organizations such as universities, foundations and nonprofit media organizations

• Projects that have not yet begun production
• Programs that will bring new audiences, topics and voices to public television
• Television programs in any genre, including drama, documentary, docudrama, animation, experimental or innovative combinations
• Single programs of standard broadcast length (56:40 or 26:40). In rare cases ITVS will consider feature length programs.
• Programs that can become eligible for ITVS production funding initiatives

• Solely for distribution
• Series proposals
• Intended solely for theatrical release

• All materials must arrive in the ITVS office by Friday, September 26 at 5:00 PM PST. This is NOT a postmark deadline. The entire review process takes up to three months.
• Notification is as follows:
• All applicants will be notified of their status by mail within eight weeks.
• A small group of finalists will be asked to submit additional information.
• Finalists will be notified of their status by mid-December.

The decision to fund

ITVS’s main aim is to develop long-term relationships with filmmakers. The detailed guidelines for ITVS funding explain the process and criteria for program funding. There is no automatic right to ITVS funding. Decisions as to the creative merits of an application are entirely at the discretion of ITVS’s director of programming. Applications will be judged and may be turned down on creative merit or on other subjective grounds, such as the program’s ability to fulfill ITVS’s mission. The most common reason for not selecting a project is that the creative quality of the proposal is not strong enough to support funding in the opinion of the director of programming who may act on the advice of ITVS staff.

All decisions regarding funding are made solely by ITVS, which is an independent nonprofit corporation, and are not within the control of any other public or private entity.

ITVS’s decision regarding funding is final. ITVS has no obligation to the applicant to release any details of ITVS’s decision-making process or internal discussions regarding the application, all of which are confidential and cannot be provided to the applicant except that, at ITVS’s sole discretion, ITVS may choose to discuss with applicants aspects of rejected submissions in an effort to improve the application for a future submission to the same or a different ITVS funding initiative. Material submitted to ITVS may be disclosed by ITVS to its employees and possibly to people outside ITVS and, therefore, ITVS cannot promise to keep confidential submitted materials.

Inevitably, many applications will have to be turned down and some applicants may be disappointed at this result. Formal appeals against the final decision cannot be considered, except that ITVS may, at its own discretion, review a claim that ITVS’s procedure for processing the application was not adhered to or was misapplied. In this case, if ITVS and the applicant cannot resolve the claim, the applicant may submit a written notice of protest to the director of programming within five business days of the event giving rise to the complaint. The notice shall state with particularity the basis of the protest, the facts upon which the protest is based and include copies of any documents relevant to the claim. The director shall review the written notice and may issue a written decision determining the validity of the protest which shall be final. All decisions by ITVS, whether regarding the choice to fund a program or regarding the application process, are final and not subject to appeal within ITVS or in any court or administrative agency.