"Pools of Light" Approved for Fiscal Sponsorship by Chicago Filmmakers!

August 4, 2010

According to The Foundation Center, 54-year-old a national nonprofit service organization, Fiscal Sponsorship "is a formal arrangement in which a 501(c)(3) public charity sponsors a project that may lack exempt status. This alternative to starting your own nonprofit allows you to seek grants and solicit tax-deductible donations under your sponsor's exempt status."

Bitter Jester Creative is very excited to announce that as of today, our work-in-progress documentary titled Pools of Light, about the the history of Angola and the establishment of an Angolan middle class through education, has been awarded Fiscal Sponsorship by the Board of Directors of Chicago Filmmakers (CF)! More information about CF is below.

According to their website, CF "provides fiscal sponsorship for select independent film and video makers who are soliciting funds from private foundations, government agencies, and individual donors for their noncommercial film or video project. CF is able to accept grants and/or contributions from sources which require a federal exempt tax status, i.e. a non-profit organizational status, on a filmmakers' behalf. For individual contributors, this arrangement allows for charitable contribution deductions on federal tax returns."

What this means for Bitter Jester and Pools of Light

• Bitter Jester can actively apply for federal and other grant funds;
• Individuals can now donate money and receive a tax credit;
• The film is continuing to gain a strong reputation and prestige;
• Bitter Jester is one step closer to telling this amazing story!

Notable previous projects that have received Fiscal Sponsorship from CF include Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train (2004) by Deb Ellis and Dennis Mueller, Halsted Street, USA (1997) by David Simpson, Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin' Women (1988) by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, and Never Turning Back: The World of Peggy Lipschutz (2008) by Jerri Zbiral.

CF is a 36-year-old media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation and understanding of film and video as media for artistic and personal expression, as well as media of important social and community impact. The mission of CF is to provide an opportunity for artists to make films outside the mainstream marketplace, to distribute and exhibit this work, as well as to build audiences and to increase media attention for it. Recognizing the impact of mass media in contemporary society, it is additionally their goal to provide culturally diverse audiences with alternative images to those reflected in mainstream media and to broaden access to media education to include those typically left out of the process. For more information on Chicago Filmmakers, please click here.