The Center for Public Integrity, a 20-year leader in nonprofit investigative journalism, will speed its transformation into a 21st century news organization with a new $1.7 million grant from Knight Foundation.

‘America needs investigative journalism, and investigative journalism needs new funding sources,’ Eric Newton, Knight Foundation’s vice president for journalism, said. ‘The Center for Public Integrity will use digital technology to turn those needs into an opportunity to show what can be done.’

From today’s release:

The grant will enable the center’s non-partisan, award-winning watchdog journalism to engage national and international audiences more effectively using all forms of digital media. Specifically, the grant will allow the center to:

‘ Hire a chief digital officer to develop a new digital strategy aimed at increasing the impact of the center’s journalism and increase the center’s impact

‘ Develop new ways to engage the center’s audience in selecting, producing and delivering stories, including through a redesigned website

‘ Launch the Ujima Project, an open source computer-assisted reporting tool for investigative reporters internationally

‘ Help produce at least 30 new major reporting projects over the next two years

‘ Experiment with new fund-raising models and for-profit revenue streams.

More about this grant, and about the center’s digital transformation.