programs
CONNECT
Color Congress brings organizations together through a free membership program to build connection, trust and power through monthly virtual meetups, regional gatherings, and our biennial National Convening.
The 2025 National Convening in Chicago brought together 136 representatives from 93 member representatives for three days to discuss the challenges they share across identity, geography, or the role their organizations play in the documentary field, and design fresh solutions to address them. The members will gather together in regions throughout 2026-27, then nationally in 2028.
SUPPORT
Color Congress strengthens members through organizational development offerings and an annual member-directed fund that resources collective needs or ambitions.
Color Congress members direct an annual Field Building Fund that provides the infrastructure for collaborative, field-led work. In January 2026, the members voted to direct two years of the Fund to launch the Collective Prosperity Lab, 2-3 financial experiments to address organizational financing at a time of economic precarity.
In 2023, the members voted to direct two years of the Fund to launch a series of marketing experiments over two years. You can view the results of that work, called Elev8Docs, below.
RESOURCE
Color Congress practices trust-based philanthropy through grantmaking to documentary organizations across the United States and U.S. islands that aim to address historic or current field needs and conditions.
We are committed to funding the organizations that are a primary gateway through which filmmakers and leaders of color enter the nonfiction field and that offer vital support to the communities they serve. Learn more about what it means to be an intermediary funder.
CHAMPION
Color Congress amplifies the thought leadership, expertise and innovation of our members and staff through original research, writing, social media spotlights and public programming.
Our monthly Medium blog features fresh perspectives on the role of documentary film in our communities and in society.