Financial Structure / Financing Plan; Resources for the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund

Next deadline is March 6, 2008 by 4:00 p.m. Details »

CIFVF
666 Kirkwood Ave., Suite 203
Ottawa, ON K1Z 5X9

Eligibility Criteria »
Read the CIFVF's Mission and its eligibility and selection criteria for funding film and video projects.

Guide - Development »
Before investing time and resources preparing an application, you should ensure that you and your project meet the Fund’s eligibility criteria. To this end, you should begin by reading the CIFVF’s Eligibility and Selection Criteria for Film and Video Applications.

Guide - Production & Post Production » provides advice on how to complete an application for development or production or post-production financing.

The CIFVF gratefully acknowledges the financial participation of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Le Fonds reconnait L'appui financier du gouvernement du Canada par l'entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.

Website design and development.

FINANCIAL STRUCTURE/FINANCING PLAN
The financial structure or financing plan indicates how an individual project is to be financed; that is, where all the money is to come from. It is presented in the form of a table that provides a breakdown of the amount of money from each source either at development or production depending on the stage of the project. The number of sources can range from two to as many as fourteen or fifteen. In some cases, producers like to indicate in their financial structure the nature of the participation- whether the source of financing is a pre-sale, equity, loan or grant. When the financial structure is not final, producers often include an additional column to indicate whether the financing is confirmed or pending.

The financial structure should list all sources of funding, including broadcasters, funding agencies, foundations, corporations, tax credits, private investors, distributor advances, producer’s investments and deferrals. The monetary value of services or goods provided for free such as stock footage or editing services should be included. With respect to producer and crew deferrals, it should be noted that the CIFVF restricts these deferrals to a maximum of 35%. (It should be noted that each funding agency has its own policy and maximum on deferrals.)

EXAMPLE OF A FINANCIAL STRUCTURE

An example of a fictional financial structure is provided below.
Title: The Fictional Documentary

Date September 20, 2002
You will find below a chart that can be used by producers to prepare their own financial structure. The chart is provided in the Excel format and will automatically calculate the total dollar amounts and percentages. Please do not use the “delete” function on the percentage column as it will delete the Excel recipe.

Development Budget (Microsoft Excel)