Fiscal Sponsorship Overview | How to Apply | Current Projects | FAQs | Contact

The Film Society is dedicated to supporting emerging and established filmmakers. We want to help you create the best project possible. When you apply for fiscal sponsorship you are beginning the process of preparing your project proposal for funding organizations. Our staff works closely with you to develop your project proposal into one that we know funders will want to see.

At the Film Society we want to ensure that you and your project are likely candidates for funding, and we work with you until your proposal is ready. Sometimes this means many proposal drafts before we accept you for Fiscal Sponsorship, but it will be worth it in the long run. We will not sponsor a project that we do not believe in.

Fiscal sponsorship is available to the Film Society’s Filmmaker Pro members. The program is run by former staff members of Film Arts Foundation, which enjoyed an excellent reputation over three decades as one of the finest fiscal sponsoring organizations in the country. Numerous funding sources put considerable trust in the program and many Film Arts fiscal sponsorship projects went on to considerable acclaim, including winning Academy Awards. The Film Society is now the keeper of that fine legacy and brings an organization-wide dedication to the stewardship of all its Fiscal Sponsorship projects.

We can extend fiscal sponsorship sponsor to any entity (meaning an individual or a business) that has a United States IRS-issued Social Security number, tax ID or EIN and a valid U.S. mailing address.

The Film Society has a special affinity with Bay Area filmmakers but is also well known and well respected nationally and internationally. We meet in person with filmmakers based in the Bay Area and consult by phone and email for those who reside out of state. Since our staff attends numerous film festivals, we are available to meet with filmmakers at various events around the world.

In addition to the one-on-one care the fiscal sponsorship team brings to each project, the Film Society has a full suite of professional-development workshops and classes—many of which will be online by mid-2009—for filmmakers interested in learning more about fundraising as well as budgeting, legal issues, marketing, theatrical distribution and ancillary markets.

SFFS fiscal sponsorship is designed to help you step-by-step through the process of getting your film funded, made and seen.

The SFFS Program | How Donations Work | Funding Resources | Year End Report