LEAVING A LEGACY THAT LASTS FOREVER
The Corpus: A Gift That Keeps On Giving
Philanthropic contributions build a substantial trust corpus, which is carefully invested to grow sustainably over time. A portion of the returns, about 37%, is consistently allocated to support the trust's charitable initiatives. The DCT can provide up to 100% funding for development activities, assisting filmmakers in creating projects that align with the Story Paradigm criteria. Once a project meets these criteria, producers may apply for a production grant covering up to 51% of the production budget. In return, producers receiving production grants commit to contributing 10% of their project's gross profits back to the corpus once they pass the 110% gross profit mark.
Projections
From Start-Up Phase to Legacy
We aim to raise $15M now, with the remaining corpus funded through private and public contributions, leveraging and growing matching opportunities up to the $500M level over 3 years. At this level, the corpus will generate an annual grant budget of $10M in 2028, growing to $50M in 2044. This estimate is based on an average return of 8%.
Because The DCT needs to succeed in creative output as well as financial, $13.5M of the corpus is budgeted to help fund five projects during the start-up phase through 2027. This is the only time corpus funds will be used directly to fund projects of The DCT. In all subsequent years, returns from investments will fund all activities, and none of the corpus will be spent. The eventual goal is to grow the corpus to the $1B mark as quickly as possible to create a perpetual annual investment of grants totaling $50.7M.*
*The perpetual grant budget includes a 3% average annual inflation adjustment for each subsequent ye
Building the endowment corpus
Economic Development
As Utah-based beneficiary companies* grow and become wildly innovative and connected, a new crop of companies will be supported by The Digital Cinema Trust, transforming a blooming film community into a creative juggernaut and a multi-billion dollar industry hub.
Imagine the output of The DCT being the creation of not one award-winning, billion-dollar company, but ten, or even twenty. Imagine the influence for good on the current industry that is mired in remakes, franchises, and mature content.
(*DCT grants can fund projects filmed anywhere in the world by companies headquartered in Utah, or projects with above-the-line roles filled by individuals who are Utah-based, or projects that will be filmed in Utah with at least one above-the-line role filled by a Utah-based producer, director, or writer.)