planting a small seed: introducing Solidarity Stories Microgrants
June 21 is the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice – the day the sun’s light shines the longest – and World Localization Day – an occasion to celebrate local solutions that strengthen communities.
So we are especially excited to announce that, starting today, The Marigold Effect is offering Solidarity Stories Microgrants to support DC-area photographers, photojournalists, and filmmakers who are shining a light on local efforts to reimagine our economy.
Too often, the economic stories that dominate headlines focus on the stock market, giant corporations, and national and international politics – from trade wars to real wars. Mostly, these are stories of economic strife and division. But there are other stories unfolding all around us, including right here in and around Washington, DC. Good stories. Solidarity stories.
These stories are found in worker cooperatives, community gardens, credit unions, mutual aid networks, and other ways people come together to meet their own needs while caring for one another. Together, these efforts make up what is sometimes called the solidarity economy.
These stories rarely make the front page. Yet they hold some of the most important lessons about how communities prioritize care and cooperation in the present while imagining different – brighter – futures.
These stories deserve to be shared, and the storytellers deserve to be supported.
That’s why we’re offering up to twenty-six $1,000 microgrants to photographers, photojournalists, and filmmakers documenting solidarity economy efforts in the Washington, DC, metro area (aka the DMV).
Throughout history, here and around the world, images have awakened people’s spirits and moved people to action – from the abolitionist movement in the 1800s, to India’s freedom struggle and the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1900s, to various social movements today. To be part of positive change, people need to see not only what’s wrong with the current system, but also which better alternatives are within reach.
A visual story supported by a Solidarity Stories Microgrant might document a worker-owned business, a neighborhood food-growing initiative, a tool library or seed swap, a thriving “buy nothing” group, tenants trying to buy their building and convert it into a co-op, a mutual aid network, or some other community-based effort to build economic life around cooperation and sustainability rather than exploitation and extraction. Visual stories could take the form of photo essays, articles with original images, short IG-style videos, or something else.
If you’re a photographer, filmmaker, or photojournalist – whether professional or amateur – interested in documenting the solidarity economy in the DMV – and maybe already doing it – we hope you will apply.
Applications are due August 12, 2026. We will then randomly select up to 26 grantees from the eligible applicants, each receiving an upfront award of $1,000 taxable income by September 8, 2026. Visual storytelling projects will be submitted to The Marigold Effect by November 10, 2026 and shared publicly.
Creators maintain copyright of everything they produce and can use the stories however they like. The Marigold Effect and the documented solidarity economy efforts will have license to use the visual stories for promotional and educational purposes – but not to sell them.
The links to learn more and apply are below.
Our hope is to grow the microgrant program into a more fully supported visual storytelling residency for the region that offers mentorship, training in ethical storytelling and financial activism, peer connections, and collective public engagement. If you’d like to help support this work and future grants, we would be grateful for your financial contribution.
For now, on a day that celebrates both light and locality, we’re happy to plant this small seed.
Review Solidarity Stories Microgrant eligibility requirements and FAQs