The gist…

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) funds, presents, and promotes award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television and cable, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens Monday nights at 10:00 PM on PBS. ITVS receives core funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The GPP is made possible through the support of Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

The ITVS Diversity Development Fund (DDF) provides up to $15,000 in research and development funding to producers of color to develop single documentary programs for public television.

Funded activities may include travel, research, script development, preliminary production for fundraising/work-in-progress reels, or other early phase activities.

DDF accepts:
— Projects that have not yet begun production
— Programs that can become eligible for ITVS production funding initiatives as single programs of standard broadcast length (half-hour or one-hour). In rare cases ITVS will consider feature-length programs.

DDF does not accept:
— Proposals for completed projects seeking distribution
— Series proposals or fictional dramas
— Projects intended solely for theatrical release

There is one funding round per year. Applicants may apply for only one project per call. The entire proposal review process takes up to three months. Around five percent of applicants will receive funding.

The deadline for submissions is August 19, 2016.

DDF is not a grant; 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.

For full details on how to apply, go here.