Change doesn't trickle down.
It rises up. –
At Knight Foundation, we ignite in every person the power to shape thriving communities

That’s what has become clear to me since I joined Knight Foundation two years ago. And that’s the vision now leading us forward: empowering the people who make a difference.

Our values are the same. Knight remains unwavering in our commitment to the First Amendment. We support work to strengthen local journalism, cultivate artistic expression and drive economic growth. We want to connect people to each other and to the places where they live and work. What’s new is how we pursue those commitments.

This shift grows out of a strategic examination we began soon after I arrived. We looked hard at the challenges facing our country: unprecedented attacks on the rights to speak, create and publish freely. Declining trust in institutions. Growing polarization. Unreliable information. Widening inequality. Fraying social bonds. We asked ourselves where and how Knight Foundation could have the greatest impact.

The answer was clear. The power to make change remains where it always has: with the people.

Not with institutions. Not with algorithms. With individuals who are deeply invested in their communities, who have the ideas and commitment that will solve these challenges.

I’ve seen it in my travels as Knight’s president. In Detroit, Macon and Akron, where residents are breathing life back into historic downtowns. In Philadelphia, Miami and San Jose, where vibrant culture binds people together. In St. Paul, Charlotte, N.C., and cities across the country, where local newsrooms are finding new ways to thrive by collaborating with the communities they serve.

And we’re all seeing it today in towns and cities around the country, where people are standing up for their neighbors, insisting on the right to speak and peacefully protest, and supporting local community and advocacy organizations.

The power to make change in this country isn’t lost, we’re reminded again and again. It’s local.

That makes our path forward clear. We’re building change from the ground up. We’re betting on the visionary leaders who are making things happen — the skilled, tenacious people who know what solutions will work because they live with the problems.

This is our animating ambition at Knight Foundation today:

We ignite in every person the power to shape thriving communities.

Jack and Jim Knight understood something essential: a thriving community is built on a healthy local information ecosystem and an engaged, empowered public. That’s the soil in which democratic self-government grows.

We will move with the urgency this moment demands. We will join with our philanthropic partners to meet the scale of the challenges. And, together, we will fuel the work of people all across the country whose ideas and drive will help our communities, our democracy and our country to flourish.

People make change happen. They always have. Knight Foundation is here to make sure they always will.