Alexia Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Alexia Foundation supports photographers, photojournalists and students in related fields with support for projects that reflect the foundation’s focus on promoting social justice, peace and understanding.
IP TAKE: The Alexia Foundation is a small but significant funder in the journalism space. It has strong roots in photojournalism, but has recently begun to fund multimedia projects that align with its goal of inspiring change through powerful photographic images. It has recently expanded its offerings from one professional and one student grant to include a range of subject-matter specific awards, currently prioritizing climate change and mental health. This is an excellent resource for aspiring and early-career photographers, as its grants come with more than just prize money. Several of them also come with admission to prestigious photography courses in the U.S. and abroad. Past grantees have gone on to win prestigious awards and honors.
This is a transparent and approachable funder. Alexia is proud of its grantees and publicizes not only its winners but also its runners-up and honorable mentions with lengthy profiles. It is also easily approachable, accepting applications for all its grants, with detailed guidelines explained on its website. However, do know that these grants are highly competitive, as they only award one grant in each category per cycle. Grantees are more likely to secure a grant if they’ve partnered with an organization to create a wider impact through their work.
PROFILE: The Alexia Foundation was established in 1991 in honor of Alexia Tsairis, a 20-year-old communications student at Syracuse University who was killed in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Founded by Tsairis’s family, the foundation is based in Spring Lake, New Jersey, and managed by Syracuse University. Its mission is to promote “the power of photojournalism to give voice to social justice, to respect history lest we forget it, and to understand cultural difference as our strength – not our weakness.” It offers photojournalism production grants to photographers who “produce substantial stories that drive change in the effort to make the world a better place.” The foundation has grants aimed at both professionals and students.
Grants for Journalism, Film, and Visual Arts
Alexia’s journalism grantmaking supports individual photojournalists whose projects aim to “inspire change” and portray socially significant issues. Although the foundation’s original mission was to support still photography, it acknowledges that photojournalism has evolved to include a diversity of media and methods and now supports projects that include text, audio, video, VR and other formats. As this is a grant, rather than an award, projects must be in-progress or planned, but not completed.
Alexia awards Professional Grants to professional photographers and visual journalists to support the production “substantial bodies of work” that align with the foundation’s goals of promoting peace and understanding. There are no geographic limitations to funding, and topics of recently funded works include climate change, pollution, poverty, totalitarian governments, indigenous peoples’ rights, labor conditions and nationalism and xenophobia. Past grantees have gone on to win prestigious awards including World Press Photo Awards, the Prix de Paris and the International Center for Photography Infinity Award, among many other honors. Alexia’s professional grants include:
Alexia Vision Grant: Alexia’s flagship grant with no subject matter restrictions. The grant consists of $20,000 and a Sony camera or lens.
Alexia Mental Health Grant: sponsored by the Albany Foundation, a grant of $17,000 for projects that “provide meaningful insight into a mental health issue.”
Alexia Mental Health Support Grant: sponsored by Brother’s Keeper International, a $500 grant to support the winner of the Mental Health Grant in any counseling or support they may need in dealing with their project’s difficult themes.
Alexia Environmental Change Grant: sponsored by Earth Vision Institute, a $15,000 grant for projects intended to “deepen human understanding of environmental change.” The grant prioritizes projects “with strong potential for public outreach.
Alexia Conservation Grant: sponsored by the fStop Foundation, a $5,000 grant for projects that “focus on positive aspects of conservation work in relation to human-wildlife conflict.”
Alexia’s Student Grants support full-time postsecondary students in communications, journalism or related fields. Alexia is looking for “a diversity of creators, issues and approaches” and values “work that elevates understanding and inspires meaningful change.” Alexia currently offers two student grants:
Alexia Vision Grant (student): unrestricted grant consisting of $1,000 stipend, new Sony camera or lens, admission to the Eddie Adams Workshop, permission to audit up to three courses at Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, and consideration for the position of research assistant to the Alexia chair.
Alexia Conservation Grant (student): sponsored by the fStop Foundation, a $1,000 grant for projects that “focus on positive aspects of conservation work in relation to human-wildlife conflict.”
In addition to the professional and student grants, the Alexia Foundation now offers a new Emerging Photographer Grant, sponsored by VII Foundation for both professional and student photographers with less than five years of experience in the field. The winner will be selected from applicants to any of the professional or student grants. The selected applicant will receive admission and tuition to attend Level 3 of the Program for Narrative and Documentary Photography in Arles, France.
Important Grant Details:
The Alexia Foundation’s grants range from $1,000 to $20,000. Examples and information about funded photographic projects is available at the foundation’s past winners page.
The Alexia Foundation’s grants have no geographical restrictions, although student applicants are advised to pursue projects close to where they live. Applicants may come from anywhere in the world.
Alexia awards its professional grants to photojournalists and professionals for the completion of a specific project. Projects may be planned or in-progress, but not completed.
Staff photographers must obtain permission from their employers for consideration, and professionals who have been awarded more than $10,100 in a previous year are disqualified.
Alexia’s student grants support full-time students at two- or four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. Graduate students are also eligible.
Applicants must submit a project synopsis, proposal, bio, CV, and portfolio. Submission fee is $50 for professionals and free for students. Applicants may only submit one entry per year.
Submitted projects must adhere to generally accepted standards of ethics in photography. Photographs may not be altered or toned beyond reason and AI-generated imagery will not be accepted.
Applications are judged by a three-person committee based on the grant topic.
Grant inquiries may be directed to Mike Davis via email.
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