2013 Knight Community Information Challenge from Knight Foundation

*Note: If you missed the June 21 Office Hours, a recorded version is available online* 

With the July 1 deadline in the Knight Community Information Challenge right around the corner, we wanted to give folks one last chance to ask questions about this funding opportunity for community news and information projects.

We hope you’ll join us at 12 p.m. ET on Friday, June 21 for Office Hours (register here). There won’t be a set agenda or presentation. Instead, we’ll be available to take questions from any potential applicants.

This year the challenge, which offers matching funds to community and place-based foundations, is evolving. While it continue to be an open contest for all kinds of media projects, we’re particularly interested in open government projects that improve the way citizens and governments interact. The challenge is also offering up to $50,000 in seed funding to community and place-based foundations (though open government projects may be considered for larger grants). Our goal is to provide the support funders need to test their ideas and assumptions, and evolve as need be, before going on to the more costly process of building out a full project.

In case you missed it, here are the top five things to know about the Knight Community Information Challenge and some insights and info on applying. If you’re looking to see how past winners have successfully used challenge funds, you can read more about how foundations are:

·       discovering that good information promotes social change;

·       opening up data to local residents and

·       experimenting with mobile projects.

A series of in-depth case studies also details how four community information projects went from idea to impact.

We look forward to chatting with you on the 20th!

And in the meantime, if you have a question that’s not answered in our FAQ, you can always e-mail us at [email protected] or ask us on Twitter by tweeting @knightfdn and using #infoneeds. A recording of a previous webinar is also available online.

By Elizabeth R. Miller, communications associate at Knight Foundation

Related: “New focus, opportunity for funding community news and information” on Knight Blog by Susan Patterson and Bahia Ramos, and “Opportunity for funding Open Gov, information tools in Knight Community Information Challenge” on Knight Blog by Chris Sopher