Knight Community Challenge Winners Quick Reference Guide informationneeds.org
Use #infoneeds when you tweet about the challenge
USE #INFONEEDS WHEN YOU TWEET ABOUT THE CHALLENGE 1
What is the Knight Community Information Challenge? The Knight Community Information Challenge is a five-year initiative to engage community and place-based foundations in meeting local information needs. Now in its third year, the Challenge was founded on three key beliefs: •
Information is a core community need, as important as clean air, jobs and good schools.
•
As traditional media have struggled, residents aren’t getting the local information they need to take action on the issues that affect their lives.
•
Foundations can and should help residents be informed about the issues that shape their communities.
The challenge has three related opportunities: •
The Media Learning Seminar, a gathering of foundation leaders to explore ways to meet information needs;
•
Access to circuit riders, or technical support to guide grantmakers attempting information projects;
•
A matching grants contest to support experimentation.
To be eligible for the grants contest, applicants must be a U.S. community or place-based foundation, projects must meet a local information need and foundations must match Knight’s investment. Following are the winners of the grants contest’s first three rounds. Their projects help build awareness, cultivate community action and capacity and strengthen local news and residents’ voices on issues.
www.informationneeds.org
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Action
Providing platforms for civic engagement and action
Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties ROUND I
Digital Public Square
$550,000
To create a digital public square that makes local issues in Palm Beach County easy to understand, discuss and act upon. • www.yourpbc.org
Minnesota Community Foundation ROUND I
Minnesota Idea Open
$500,000
To foster a deeper understanding of community issues by engaging citizens in problem-solving efforts through a community-wide contest. • www.mnideaopen.org
Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan ROUND II
GreenSpace
$352,000
To foster support for creating more livable communities by developing an information hub focusing on southeast Michigan’s green spaces and natural resources. • www.cfsem.org
Silicon Valley Community Foundation ROUND II
Envision Bay Area
$302,000
To increase resident involvement in Northern California land use issues by launching an information campaign that explains the impact of planning decisions on everyday life. • www.siliconvalleycf.org
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque ROUND III
$205,500
To save energy, money and resources by creating an environmental news and information hub called Dubuque 2.0. • www.dubuque2.org
Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo ROUND I
Dubuque 2.0
GrowNY (The Green Table Virtual Meeting Place)
$188,000
To promote community dialogue around revitalizing Buffalo by creating a forum where environmentally-concerned groups can exchange information and boost engagement. • www.growwny.org
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Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation ROUND II
TheDuSu.com
$122,000
To attract and retain young adults in Duluth and Superior by providing the information they need to thrive in the region through a local Web portal. • www.TheDuSu.com
Rhode Island Community Foundation ROUND II
Community Forums
$102,000
To promote community engagement around Rhode Island’s pressing challenges in six key areas through public forums on radio and online. • www.rifoundation.org
ACT for Alexandria ROUND II
ACTion Alexandria
$102,000
To encourage community problemsolving in Alexandria, Va. by creating an online site where residents can post problems, debate solutions and share successes. • www.actforalexandria.org
The Park City Foundation ROUND I
Community Footprint
$86,740
To help promote a dialogue on conservation in this weather-dependent community by creating a site where the community can measure its environmental footprint and exchange information and ideas. • www.parkcitygreen.org
Community Foundation of North Florida ROUND II
We The People
To revitalize the dialogue among the diverse residents of Tallahassee, Fla. by creating a virtual and real world forum for exchanging perspectives on issues. • www.tothevillagesquare.org/we-thepeople
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$72,000
Awareness
Creating awareness campaigns about community issues
The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County ROUND II
Ready, Set, Learn
$104,000
To raise awareness about the importance of early school readiness for atrisk children through a digital information campaign. • www.readysetlearn-early.org
The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County ROUND I
A Civic Blast
$100,000
To help inform and engage 18 to 30-year-olds who have not attended college through relevant content distributed through new media channels. • www.gysd.org/events/2010/us/co/civicblast
Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation ROUND II
$94,400
To strengthen community knowledge and pride in New York’s Chautauqua County through an online cultural treasure hunt. • www.amazingcounty.com
California Community Foundation ROUND II
Be Counted, Represent
$72,000
To encourage Los Angeles Latinos to participate in the U.S. census through a dual Internet-mobile phone application. • www.votolatino.org/becounted
West Anniston Foundation ROUND III
Amazing County
West Anniston Today
To provide credible information on the effects of industrial waste in West Anniston, Ala., through a call-in radio program and website. • www.westannistonfdn.org
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$67,000
Capacity
Building community capacity to address information needs and use of digital tools
Central Carolina Community Foundation ROUND I
Foundation for the Carolinas ROUND I
BG Time
$383,332
To promote civic engagement and digital literacy among seniors by creating an online site staffed by and for them. • www.bgtime.org
Thoughtbox
$277,686
To create a central site where critical dialogue about the community is compiled, archived and disseminated. • www.thoughtbox-charlotte.org
Centre County Community Foundation ROUND II
Central Pennsylvania 2-1-1
$225,000
To help residents in 15 Pennsylvania counties get vital civic information through a 2-1-1 phone information service. • www.centrecountycf.org
Black Hills Area Community Foundation ROUND III
Knowledge Network
$205,500
To provide greater access to local news and information by creating a site that aggregates and curates content developed by media, local governments, citizen journalists and others. • www.bhacf.org
Austin Community Foundation ROUND III
ACCESS News
$185,500
To inform Austin’s English- and Spanish-speaking deaf community through reports on public access television and an interactive website. • www.austincommunityfoundation.org
Community Foundation of South Alabama ROUND I
Connect Southwest Alabama
To connect people, information and ideas in South Alabama by creating a dynamic community information system to store and share civic knowledge. • www.communityendowment.org
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$169,005
Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County ROUND I
Community Information Action Agenda
$87,500
To help meet the information needs of this rural Wisconsin community by creating an action agenda to address gaps and opportunities in the local media landscape. • www.cfswc.org
ROUND II
Community Information Action Agenda
$152,000
The River Partnership of Community Foundations
River Partnership Online Network
$141,000
ROUND II
To inform and engage residents around Mississippi River issues via a series of websites that localize national stories and foster discussion. • www.fundersnetwork.org/participate /river-partnership
The Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Central Virginia ROUND I
Greater Lowell Community Foundation ROUND II
$120,000
To transform a proven innovation into a national model for community foundations to utilize and inspire citizens to lead change. • www.connectnetwork.org
The Open Indicators Consortium
$62,000
To help the public easily digest local information by creating a series of open-source data visualization tools. • www.openindicators.org
Manatee Community Foundation ROUND I
Connect Network
Manatee Connects
To connect Manatee citizens and agencies through a virtual town square focused on nonprofit and civic news and information. • www.manateeconnects.org
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$41,250
News
Strengthening credible professional news sources
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven ROUND I
The Boston Foundation ROUND I
The Valley Independent Sentinel
$500,000
To create an online news site that provides vital community information to five close knit towns in Connecticut’s Lower Naugatuck Valley. • www.valleyindependentsentinel.org
CommonWealth Magazine
$400,000
To help deepen the coverage of public policy by strengthening the reporting and online reach of an award-winning quarterly journal. • www.commonwealthmagazine.org
ROUND III
CommonWealth Online
78,000
To empower more residents to voice their opinions on Massachusetts issues by providing polling software for a website centered on politics and policy. • www.commonwealthmagazine.org
Community Foundation of New Jersey ROUND II
NJ Spotlight
$352,000
To expand residents’ knowledge and understanding of New Jersey issues by creating an in-depth, public interest online news service. • www.njspotlight.org
Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice ROUND II
The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County ROUND III
The Florida Independent
$352,000
To strengthen investigative reporting in Florida by creating a statewide, nonprofit online news network. • www.floridaindependent.com
I-News
$305,500
To better inform Colorado residents by expanding public-interest investigative reports across the state. • www.inewsnetwork.org
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Hartford Foundation for Public Giving ROUND II
CTmirror.org
$302,000
To deepen news coverage of Connecticut by creating an online news site focused on state government and public policy. • www.ctmirror.org
Health Foundation of South Florida ROUND II
Health News Florida
$302,000
To strengthen knowledge of health issues by expanding Health News Florida’s coverage in the state. • healthnewsflorida.org
Berks County Community Foundation ROUND I
Community Information Hub
$255,000
To help inform Berks County residents through a new local news Web portal created by a public television station. • www.bctv.org
The Pittsburgh Foundation ROUND III
Public Interest News
$253,000
To engage Pittsburgh residents around local news and information by creating an online source for professionally produced public-interest news. • www.pittsburghfoundation.org
Arkansas Community Foundation ROUND II
Write For Arkansas
$252,000
To provide more in-depth coverage of community and economic development issues by boosting the reporting staff at community newspapers in Arkansas. • www.writeforarkansas.org
The Chicago Community Trust ROUND I
Community News Matters
$250,000
To stimulate new ways to provide the Chicago region with local news and information by providing grants to the region’s media innovators. • www.cct.org
ROUND II
Community News Matters
$202,000
El Paso Community Foundation
Newspaper Tree
$203,000
ROUND III
To relaunch NewspaperTree.com, which will bolster in-depth reporting on issues affecting both sides of the border at El Paso.
• www.newspapertree.com USE #INFONEEDS WHEN YOU TWEET ABOUT THE CHALLENGE 9
Resources for Human Development, a partner of William Penn Foundation ROUND I
The Seattle Foundation ROUND III
Public School Notebook
$200,000
To help better inform Philadelphia parents and education advocates by developing the digital format for a print publication covering local schools. • www.thenotebook.org
Crosscut
$185,500
To provide comprehensive coverage of hot topics and to translate complex issues into plain language on a local website. • www.crosscut.com
Alaska Community Foundation ROUND III
Alaska Public Telecommunications
$175,500
To connect Alaskans and bolster the state’s public media by adding an interactive website to public radio and television offerings. • www.alaskacf.org
Tulsa Community Foundation ROUND III
Tulsa Issues Reporting
$153,000
To encourage debate and action around women’s issues, such as teen pregnancy and female incarceration, through an online news hub. • www.tulsacf.org
Lander Community Foundation ROUND II
WyoFile.com
$122,000
To increase the availability of information on complex state issues by supporting an online news site focused on Wyoming. • www.wyofile.com
New York Community Trust ROUND III
Feet in Two Worlds
$110,500
To broaden civic discourse in New York City by strengthening the ethnic media through digital training. • www.feetintwoworlds.org
Dade Community Foundation ROUND III
South Florida Public Affairs
To raise awareness about South Florida issues by expanding an online video website offering in-depth public policy news. • www.dadecommunityfoundation.org www.informationneeds.org 10
$103,000
Marajen Stevick Foundation ROUND I
Access to Basic Information
$100,000
To explore ways to better inform residents living below the poverty line through Web, radio, television and cellphone alerts. • www.cu-citizenaccess.org
The Minneapolis Foundation ROUND I
Donor-Funded News Beats on MinnPost
$100,000
To support in-depth coverage of key community issues by introducing donors to funding news beats at the news site MinnPost.com. • www.minnpost.com
Greater New Orleans Community Foundation ROUND III
The Lens
$63,000
To broaden New Orleans residents’ discourse and understanding about the use of hurricane recovery dollars by enhancing data visualization on an online news site. • www.thelensnola.org
Voice
Providing places where citizens can share news and information with their communities
The San Diego Foundation ROUND I
The People’s Post
$500,000
To expand online news coverage in Southern California through professional and lay journalism and community-based digital storytelling. • peoplespost.voiceofsandiego.org
San Antonio Area Foundation ROUND I
NowCast SA
$488,500
To enhance community coverage by developing neighborhood-based communications centers that produce live streaming and on-demand video broadcasts. • www.nowcastsa.com
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ROUND III
NOWCastSA/Texas Week
$205,500
To increase the flow of community news by giving a local news site heightened visibility through additional reports on a San Antonio public television station. • www.nowcastsa.com
Akron Community Foundation ROUND II
Digital Media Center
$350,000
To strengthen community news and information-sharing in Akron by training citizen journalists to create hyper-local content that will be broadcast digitally. • admc.ohio.com
Pacific News Service, a partner of The California Endowment ROUND III
Hawaii Community Foundation ROUND III
Youth-led Media Outlets
$255,500
To raise awareness about the connection between people’s health and where they live by creating a youth-produced news network. • www.newamericamedia.org
Hiki No
$240,500
To engage young voices in original reporting on respected television and web platforms by creating a statewide student news network. • www.pbshawaii.org/hikino
Coral Gables Community Foundation ROUND I ROUND II
Gables Home Page
$155,967
To engage the community with a new online news source using student and citizen journalists. • www.gableshomepage.com
Gables Home Page
$130,000
To nurture civic participation in Coral Gables, Fla. by strengthening the news and information site GablesHomePage. com. • www.gableshomepage.com
Grand Rapids Community Foundation ROUND I
The Rapidian
To help better inform Grand Rapids by establishing neighborhood bureaus that use citizen journalists to generate written, video and audio news about the community. • www.therapidian.org www.informationneeds.org 12
$128,535
Michigan’s Children, a partner of The Skillman Foundation ROUND II
The Raymond John Wean Foundation ROUND III
KidSpeak Neighborhood News
$126,000
To boost involvement in local issues by creating a multi-media youth news service focused on Detroit neighborhoods and schools. • www.michiganschildren.org
The News Outlet
$79,000
To give residents of Youngstown, Ohio a voice by allowing them to vote on stories to be covered concerning underreported issues, people and neighborhoods. • www.thenewsoutlet.org
Cleveland Foundation ROUND III
MyMedia
$69,000
To give teens a louder voice on local issues by training young reporters to create informational products such as videos and podcasts for a local youth website. • www.mycom.net
New York Community Trust ROUND II
Beyond Bullets
To raise the collective consciousness about gun violence in New York by launching a media campaign using youth reporters and roving anti-gun film festivals. • www.beyondbullets.org
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$62,000
Round I: March 2009 Winners Round II: January 2010 Winners Round III: September 2010 Winners
Knight Community Alabama • The CF of South Alabama (I) • West Anniston Foundation (III) Alaska • Alaska CF (III) Arkansas • Arkansas CF (II) California • The San Diego Foundation (I) • Silicon Valley CF (II) • California Community Foundation (II) • Pacific News Service with The California Endowment (III) Colorado • CF Serving Boulder County (I, II, III) Connecticut • CF for Greater New Haven (I) • Hartford Foundation for Public Giving (II)
Florida • CF for Palm Beach and Martin Counties (I) • Coral Gables CF (I, II) • Gulf Coast CF of Venice (II) • Health Fdn. of South Florida (II) • Manatee CF (I) • CF for North Florida (II) • Dade CF (III) Hawaii • Hawaii CF (III) Illinois • Chicago Community Trust (I, II) • Marajen Stevick Foundation (I) Iowa • CF of Greater Dubuque (III) Louisiana • Greater New Orleans Foundation (III) Massachusetts • The Boston Foundation (I, III)
• Greater Lowel Michigan • Grand Rapids • CF for Southea • Michigan’s Chi Skillman Foun Minnesota • Minnesota CF • The Minneapo • Duluth Superio New Jersey • CF of New Jer New York • CF for Greater • Northern Chau • The NY Comm III) North Carolina • Foundation for Ohio • Akron CF (II)
Challenge Winners
ll CF (II)
CF (I) ast Michigan (II) ildren with The ndation (II)
(I) olis Foundation (I) or Area CF (II)
rsey (II)
r Buffalo (I) utauqua CF (II) munity Trust (II,
r the Carolinas (I)
• The Raymond John Wean Foundation (III) • The Cleveland Foundation (III) Oklahoma • Tulsa CF (III) Pennsylvania • Berks County CF (I) • Resources for Human Development with William Penn Foundation (I) • Centre County CF (II) • The Pittsburgh Foundation (III) Rhode Island • Rhode Island CF (II) South Carolina • Central Carolina CF (I) South Dakota • Black Hills Area CF (III) Texas • San Antonio Area Foundation (I, III)
• Austin CF (III) • El Paso CF (III) Utah • The Park City Foundation (I) Virginia • CF Serving Richmond & Central Virginia (I) • ACT for Alexandria (II) Washington • Seattle Foundation (III) Wisconsin • CF of South Wood County (I, II) Wyoming • Lander Community Foundation (II)
Knight’s Media Innovation Initiative Knight Foundation wants to help define and meet the information needs of communities in a democracy. To that end, in just three years, we’ve invested $100 million in a multi-faceted media innovation initiative. Its six projects address media innovation on various levels, including national media policy, technology innovation and the evolution of the World Wide Web. Projects such as the Knight News Challenge, and others, have to date spawned more than 200 media experiments. Find out more about our media innovation projects:
Knight News Challenge Funds innovative ideas for using digital media to deliver news and information to geographically defined communities. www.newschallenge.org.
Knight Community Information Challenge Encourages community and place-based foundations across America to support creative ways to keep communities informed and engaged. www.informationneeds.org.
Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy In partnership with The Aspen Institute, proposes public policy to better meet information needs. www.knightcomm.org.
Universal Access Knight Foundation helps communities across the United States ensure digital access for every citizen. www.knightfoundation.org/universalaccess.
Carnegie-Knight Initiative Strives to transform journalism education in the United States. www.newsinitiative.org.
World Wide Web Foundation Seeks to advance the Web to empower all people and benefit humanity. www.webfoundation.org.
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