About the Foundation.
Indigenous Screen Foundation (ISF) is a registered charity established in 2026 with the key objective to strengthen Indigenous-led education and training pathways in Canada’s screen-based creative industries, with a focus on Indigenous youth. ISF will achieve this through a structured grantmaking program for qualified non-profits, charities and post-secondary partners across Canada.Â
IM4 Media Lab, Loretta Todd
Building pathways for the next generation.
Alongside funding, ISF will undertake its own charitable activities to improve employment opportunities for Indigenous youth, and educate Canadian and international audiences about Indigenous history and contemporary realities with the goal of fostering improved economic and cultural outcomes for Indigenous peoples.
ISF’s mission is to support the next generation of talent by building a strong Indigenous workforce in Canada’s screen sector and by fostering education, healing and reconciliation through Indigenous storytelling.
Indigenous Screen Foundation and its relation to the Indigenous Screen Office.
ISF is an affiliate of the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO). Although they are two separate organizations, they will share resources and collaborate, particularly in the first 3-5 years while ISF is establishing itself and building capacity as an organization.
Multiple federal government reports have concluded that the administrative burdens of working in the Canadian bureaucratic environment pose a barrier to Indigenous economic development. ISO and ISF are committed to having an all-Indigenous staff and Board and working with efficiency, transparency and accountability. ISO is already proven as a transformational change agent in the Canadian broadcasting and screen sector with broad impact supported by an Indigenous-led approach. The strategy of sharing resources between ISO and ISF is intentional and aligned with the Indigenous context of our work.
Board of
Directors.
Brock Roe
Chair
Allan Clarke
Vice-Chair
Dorothy Christian Cucw-la7
Secretary
Tabitha King
Interim Treasurer
Trina Roache
Director
Thomas Darnay
Director
Dr. Heather Igloliorte
Director
Cathy Mattes
Director
ISF Team.
Kerry Swanson
CEO, ISF Program Manager
ISO Team.
Kristy Assu
Director, Funding Programs
Savanna Chiblow
Senior Manager, Marketing and Digital Communications
Nicole Hill
Director of Finance, CPA
Suzie Hill
Finance Coordinator
ISO and ISF: distinct mandates, shared purpose.
Area | ISO Indigenous Screen Office | ISF Indigenous Screen Foundation |
|---|---|---|
History | ||
History | Established in 2017, the ISO is a leading independent Indigenous-led non-profit organization with a mandate to foster narrative sovereignty and Indigenous-made storytelling on-screen. Since inception, ISO has delivered more than $50m in funding to support the creation of a robust Indigenous screen sector in Canada. | Incorporated in 2025, the ISF is an Indigenous non-profit and registered charity with a mandate of supporting education through training in the business and art of on-screen storytelling and through the presentation of Indigenous-made screen-based works. |
Services | ||
Services | Delivers annual funding to support all stages of the creation cycle for screen-based content, specifically film and television content. The ISO’s funding is directed primarily to Indigenous-owned production companies. | Provides programs, gifts and grants, and research-based resources to support training and education for emerging Indigenous screen-based storytellers and Canadian audiences. |
Funding | ||
Funding | Is funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, with core funding of $13m annually allocated in the federal budget. ISO was recently allocated additional new funding from the Online Streaming Act, as mandated by the CRTC, to support Indigenous film and tv productions and administers the Canada Media Fund’s Indigenous Program. | Will develop its own funding sources from qualified donors in the philanthropic sector to achieve its specific charitable mandate, starting with the Mastercard Foundation as its inaugural donor. |
Shared resources | ||
Shared resources | Although ISO and ISF are two separate organizations, they share resources and collaborate on select initiatives where our mandates are aligned. ISO administers the ISF Youth Training and Education Fund through a shared Memorandum of Understanding. To reduce administrative burden and streamline communications and efficiencies, ISO and ISF share key leadership, with the same Board of Directors, CEO, and Director of Finance. ISO provides office space in its head office location in Six Nations of the Grand River to ISF. | |
The people behind the progress.
Inaugural donor
Inaugural donor · visual placeholder
