Facilitator: Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO, Knight Foundation

Scribe: Marika Lynch, consultant, Knight Foundation

During the session, community foundation board members identified common challenges to addressing information needs on several fronts:

• In their communities: How does a foundation step in to fill the gaps in coverage, particularly in the areas the foundation cares about?
• With fellow board members: How do you share the lessons of the Media
• With donors: How do you explain information needs to donors?

Throughout the session, the discussion touched on a range of issues:

Making the transition from “donor services” to community leadership:

Funding in news and information offers a leadership opportunity for community foundations, a way to distinguish themselves from a Vanguard or a Fidelity.

When foundations take a leadership role, Ibargüen said, donors will follow. The foundation will take some heat from the community. Yet in the end, leadership equals asset growth. The key is having the board willing to support the foundation’s efforts.

• One Knight example of assets following leadership: Knight has become a leader in media innovation. Google wanted to enter the field, but realized Knight was already very involved in funding cutting-edge projects. So Google decided to give Knight $2 million towards its efforts.

Participants talked about several ways they have taken a leadership role:

• In West Anniston, Alabama, the community foundation formed from the proceeds of a lawsuit over Monsanto’s pollution in the town. The foundation saw the need for good information about problems resulting from the pollution, as rumors were rampant. So they launched a weekly, call-in radio show dedicated to the topic.
• In Long Beach, Calif., which has one of the most diverse zip codes in the U.S., the foundation worked to unite the community through information. A community-based think tank gathered data on crime, schools and poverty rates, which it presented to residents. Community members then came up with a prioritized a list of projects, based on the needs, which the foundation funded. The end result: the community was informed and engaged around important issues – and ultimately helped transform several Long Beach neighborhoods.

The foundation also saw this effort as an opportunity to use its leadership to demonstrate need and build an asset base.

• In Boston, the Boston Foundation led by Paul Grogan, has been out front in the debate on education reform. The foundation and Grogan are constantly in the headlines on that and other issues, elevating the foundation’s role and influence.
• The San Antonio Area Foundation has taken a leadership role by creating a center for “philanthropy,” a physical center housing different groups. The center also convenes monthly breakfasts on issues.
• Biloxi, with Knight funding, started a similar center after Katrina. Now there is a waiting list for non-profits that want to be housed inside.
• One board member described the disconnect between the assets the foundation holds, and what can be given away. The challenge is to help donors see the needs better, so that they understand emerging problems. In the meantime, foundations can build up unrestricted funds so they can service more areas.

Promoting community engagement

How can community foundations engage residents – with technology and without?

– In Macon, Ga. Knight Foundation is using “serious” games to connect communities, through a game called Macon Money. Participants are given half of a “bond” and have to find the other person who holds the second half. When they do, they earn a certificate that can be spent at local businesses. Hundreds of people of all income levels have participated. The outcome: connecting people who wouldn’t have connected otherwise. Project was “more successful than I ever could have dreamed,” said Macon Program Director Beverly Blake.

Ibargüen: What Chris Hughes said was key: “Real life networks matter.” Virtual networks reflect real life activities. Using Jumo, or using games to engage communities are for affecting real life – not for the purpose of proving you can do a game or use technology.

• In New Haven, Ct. the foundation created GiveGreater.org, a website that informs the community about what non-profits are doing and offers a way to make a donation the foundation ultimately matches.  The project has engaged a group of people that aren’t typical donors, and raised money in the process.
• A key part to the New Haven site: the community foundation let go of its control over the project. Web technology demands that. To be authentic on the Web, to be of the web, you have to let go and let the community take over.
• Knight Foundation also has learned to “let go” with some of its projects. For example, Knight runs a contest in Miami and Philadelphia to fund the best ideas for the arts. Instead of prescribing solutions, the contest asks the community: What would you like to do? What do you think is best? Knight offers the application online. There are few rules and the contest is open to anybody. Applications are short, which democratizes the process and limits the effect of professional grant writers. If Knight likes the idea, the foundation asks for a longer proposal.
• Another engagement example: Central Carolina Foundation is helping to create the next generation of philanthropists by creating a board game called “Teach Them to Give.”

Sustaining community information projects

How can foundations sustain their projects once Knight and other initial funding runs out?

• San Antonio is wrestling with this issue. It has expanded its initial project, by convening 25 organizations under an umbrella group “Community Information Now.” NowCast is the information website; NowData aggregates data from the university, city, other sources for public consumption; NowTech provides digital literacy training.

The foundation is looking to sustain it by selling its services covering live events, and doing live streaming. The project has filmed a few recent seminars from the mayor. It’s searching for other avenues of sustainability.

• In Long Beach, the foundation has turned its databases over the university,

Ibargüen asked the group: How can Knight continue to help community foundations fund news and information projects in the future, once the five year challenge ends? Should it structure the challenge in a different way, perhaps to address sustainability? Knight is continuing to look for insight from community foundations on these issues.