(Miami) The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications from place-based foundations for the second year of a matching grant program seeking to inform and engage residents on pressing issues through news and information projects. The deadline for the Knight Community Information Challenge contest is Sept. 23.
“In a democracy, access to information is essential for a community to function properly. It’s a core community need – and one we believe place-based foundations should be addressing at this critical time,” Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, said.
More local foundations are doing just that: a Knight-funded report by J-Lab: the Institute for Interactive Journalism, recently found that 180 community, family and other foundations have contributed nearly $128 million in grants to news and information initiatives in the United States since 2005.
Knight Foundation created the $24 million, five-year Challenge to help place-based foundations find creative ways to fund media projects to inform residents about the issues that matter most to them. To help foundations identify opportunities, techniques and technologies that could benefit their communities, Knight provides free consultants who are well-versed on tools and projects from across the country. Also, Knight Foundation will host its third Media Learning Seminar March 1-2, 2010, where place-based foundations can learn more about media trends and the information needs of communities in a democracy.
In the challenge’s first year, $5 million was awarded to 21 projects. The ideas included asking donors to fund news beats at a non-profit Internet start-up, launching neighborhood news bureaus run by citizen journalists and creating “digital public squares,” or online news hubs where people can view and discuss important local information.
The challenge is part of Knight’s Media Innovation Initiative, whose seven projects include an effort to explore national media reform, increase broadband access nationally and transform journalism education, among others.
To apply, or learn more about the challenge, visit www.informationneeds.org.
For more on Knight Foundation’s Media Innovation Initiative, visit http://www.knightfoundation.org/mii.