ODYSSEY IMPACT AWARDED $1.5 MILLION FROM LILLY ENDOWMENT TO GROW FAITH’s VOICE IN BUILDING MORE COMPASSIONATE COMMUNITIES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK, February 3, 2020– Odyssey Impact, a leading faith-based social impact organization that promotes action for social change through award-winning films, has received a $1.5 million-dollar grant from the private philanthropic foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc. This generous contribution aims to create ongoing opportunities for people of faith to work alongside secular communities around issues of hope, justice and compassion that are lifted up by some of America’s leading documentaries.
The funding will support Odyssey Impact’s efforts to empower coalitions of change-makers and help faith communities get involved by bringing healing and the insights of faith to a wider, mainstream audience, united around common causes.
“We are extremely grateful that Lilly Endowment believes in our mission at Odyssey Impact to support the influence we’re making within the faith and secular communities. The funding provided will assist us in continuing our mission on a grander scale. We recognize the time is now to connect, engage, and push critical messaging from our social impact campaigns that are driven by these remarkable documentaries, to the forefront. The faith community has so much to offer and this grant enables us to help it go into the wider world and work alongside businesses and civic groups to deliver the change that makes our communities stronger and more compassionate,” stated Nick Stuart, President and CEO of Odyssey Impact®.
For over 30 years, Odyssey Impact® has worked with faith leaders, change-makers and influencers, taking its documentaries and impact campaigns to venues as varied as The White House, Google, and hundreds of businesses and congregations across the country, to enable faith communities to bring their contribution to some of the key issues of our time, in places where they can make the most difference. Odyssey Impact®’s network is comprised of over 1,500 national and regional faith leaders from diverse religious traditions, congregations, denominations, divinity schools and seminaries. Odyssey Impact provides opportunities for screenings that inspire shared engagement among the community and their faith-based partners. By the end of 2022, Odyssey Impact® will reach more than 10 million people through its high profile, documentary film productions, social impact campaigns, and scripted television films and series.
Odyssey Impact’s social impact campaigns will continue to highlight the human journey, inspire change and promote healing in the critical areas of race, gender, violence, the environment and injustices in the criminal and economic system. Odyssey Impact® believes in showcasing the power of storytelling to address the root causes of these issues using multimedia content which will amplify and raise awareness of these stories – leading to a shift in attitude that results in changes in action.
For the past three decades, Odyssey Impact® has created 60 long form video, 22 scripted television movies, 996 short form videos and 15 documentaries. This includes Peabody-winning documentary Newtown, Milwaukee 53206, The Rape of Recy Taylor, winner of the Human Rights Award at the Venice International Film Festival, and Lessons From A School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, winner of Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Stay updated with the latest on Odyssey Impact®
WEBSITE: https://odyssey-impact.org/
FACEBOOK: @OdysseyImpactNYC
INSTAGRAM: @OdysseyImpactNYC
TWITTER: @OdysseyImpactNY
About Odyssey Impact®
Odyssey Impact® drives social change through innovative storytelling and media, connecting faith and secular communities. Founded in 1987 as the National Interfaith Cable Coalition, Odyssey Impact® is an interfaith 501c3 that harnesses the goodwill of faith based and secular organizations to build awareness, change attitudes and catalyze actions for social change through award-winning films, powerful stories, impact campaigns and coalitions of change makers. Odyssey Impact® has partnered on campaigns with organizations like Google, Prison Fellowship, The Vera Institute of Justice, ACLU, NAACP, Emory Candler School of Theology, WISDOM, Healing Communities USA and more.
###
PRESS CONTACT:
Michelle Huff Elliott | Simone Smalls
Strategic Heights Media
media@strategicheights.com
212-634-7176
