Financing / Crowdfunding : Ask Me Anything (AMA) Wednesday 10/9 to Thursday 10/10 - Alternative Funds To Help Finance Your Film by Rick Davis

Hi, Rick Davis. Hope you're doing great! Thanks for having this AMA! Would asking doctors and small businesses for donations be considered donor-advised funding?

Rick Davis This sounds like a very interesting event especially since I'm pondering financing my own shorts.

Hi Rick Davis - thanks for having this AMA and spending your day with us. I have not seen the webinar so forgive me if this question was answered within...Question: What are the key elements that foundation grant committees look for when assessing whether a film project is a good fit for their funding?

Hi Rick Davis I’ve been building toward using tokenization as a method for financing my thriller/horror feature. Any thoughts on using this approach? Any advice?

Hi Rick Davis - thank you so much for doing this AMA. When seeking these types of funds, would you advise still having ROI projections in your pitch package? Thanks, again!

Thank you so much Ric Davis, am in Uganda and methods like crowd funding cañnot work here. Should i just opt for international fundings,.

Hi Rick Davis - thanks for hosting this. As a creator and budding Producer in Nigeria, what kind of project would I need to have to pique the interest of possible investors, especially as the budgets are almost always under $1 million? What is that 'It' factor that could get them interested?

An excellent AMA Rick Davis! Just impressive seeing the questions already asked. It's important to see the opinions and results of this vital post!

Maurice Vaughan, donor-advised funds (also known as a DAF) are specific accounts for philanthropic contributions and are very common in the United States. DAFs are like foundations but typically just for individuals. If you're fundraising for your film and speaking with doctors, you should definitely be asking them if they have a donor-advised fund and would be open to investing those funds in your film (note this link: https://lohas.org/social-impact-entertainment/). You can also ask for a direct donation from them. Q4 is the time when most parties make charitable donations. LOHAS can help if they agree to supporting your film with either their DAF or a donation.

Leonardo, the question of what foundations look for was not covered in the webinar because, in short, every foundation is different. You should be looking for foundations that have a mission that aligns with that in your production and a history of making meaningful grants to support projects that support that mission. There are many foundation databases out there (here is one: https://www.grantmakers.io/) to help identify such foundations. Then, the key is to build a relationship with one or more of their grantmakers (sometimes called program officers), share what you're doing, and let them know that they could use their grant funding to support your film (and, by extension, their mission). If they would like to have their grant funds invested in your film, LOHAS can help them do that (https://lohas.org/grantmakers/).

Rick Davis I think I need to watch the webinar first! Dont know about any of the alternative routes...

Reggie, sorry but I don't know anything about tokenization, though LOHAS can accept donated cryptocurrencies from parties that want to support your production.

Sam, regarding ROI projections in your pitch materials, yes, I would recommend still including that information even when seeking tax-advantaged, charitable support because (if working through LOHAS) we can have those funds invested in your production with returns flowing back to the philanthropic pockets of the donors or grantors; therefore, they should be interested in the financial upside that you may be able to offer (so they can use those returns to invest in your next film!).

Gira, you should definitely approach international foundations that support your area of interest and let them know that they could be using their grant funding to finance your production (and how that could help raise awareness about issues they care about). They may not know they can do that if you don't tell them.

Sifa, note my answers to Gira and Leonardo above. You need to identify charitable parties that align with the message you're promoting in your production and then seek their support.

Thank you for the answer and link, Rick Davis!

Great info, Rick Davis. Thanks so much!

Thank you so much, Rick Davis - this is very helpful!

Rick Davis Hi Rick, thanks for doing the AMA. My question is about Sponsorship/Philanthropic finance. I’ve heard that a filmmaker may need to create a charity, so that the financiers can get the benefit of tax-relief on their donations. Is that one of the best pay-offs for a philanthropic giver?

Geoff Hall, yes, if you have parties that want to support your film with a foundation or donor-advised fund grant or a direct charitable donation, then you will want to have a nonprofit vehicle in place to receive the philanthropic funds and either invest those in your film and/or use them to cover production costs. LOHAS establishes those nonprofits to support entertainment productions when you have donors or grantors interested in contributing to your film. In addition to watching my Stage 32 webinar, you may find this downloadable brochure of help with your fundraising activities in this vein (https://lohas.org/alternative-fundraising-strategies-for-social-impact-e...).

Rick, thanks So much for your expertise! For our first feature l, we ran a successful crowdfunding campaign. In the process l, we cashed in a lot of favors. We can’t go back to the same family and friends. Advice Von avoiding this “siloing” in future?!

Sean T. Clark, that's one of the nice aspects of soliciting philanthropic funding to support your film because you're not asking for traditional investment capital but rather funds that they've already set aside for tax purposes (e.g., in their DAF or family foundation) or which they plan to donate at year's end. Please note the handout that was part of my Stage 32 webinar because it's designed to be given to past or prospective supporters and lays out their charitable options and why they might want to use those types of funds to help finance your film.

@rick, how would DAFs work when the film turns a profit. If it's a tax write off, then the investors possibly seek a profit of continue to use it as a write off.

Rick Davis thank you so much for your answer. It is extremely helpful. My current film, Seeing Rachel is about human trafficking. Our aim is to adopt a UK and US charity, to help support their work and highlight the problem of human trafficking in our world. We have already chosen our UK charity and have interviewed the CEO on our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@SeeingRachel-hcp

Your work is very interesting to us and we fit into your 'Social Impact Entertainment' frame, very well. I'd like to discuss this further with you. May we connect, please?

Hawk Younkins, if parties use their DAF to make an investment in your film and that investment returns a profit, then those pro rata returns flow back into that party's DAF so (ideally) they can invest in your next film. There are no tax consequences for the original donor or their DAF when the funds are returned to the DAF (i.e., they do not receive an additional tax deduction for the investment upside being added to the DAF from the film's returns).

Geoff, you should definitely watch my Stage 32 webinar, and as noted in that webinar and the downloadable brochure link I shared in my previous answer, as soon as you have donors or grantors that would like to support your production, contact us at the email address provided in the brochure, and we can help those parties make those contributions and then deploy them to support your film production.

Thank you everyone for all of your questions. I hope the answers I provided and the links I shared were helpful, and I hope LOHAS has an opportunity to support your social impact entertainment productions in the future.

Thanks again for having this AMA, Rick Davis! It was very informative!

Great information and presentation Rick! Thank you for enlightening us all on this element of funding!

Thank you, Rick for taking the time to answer all these questions!