Community Impact – Page 38 – Knight Foundation

Program Area: Community Impact

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—May 23, 2019—The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced a three-year, $600,000 investment in the expansion of Read Charlotte, a collaborative, community-wide initiative that engages families, educators and other local partners to improve children’s literacy from birth to third grade.

“The Charlotte community has rallied around Read Charlotte’s mission, demonstrating that children’s literacy is a key local priority,” said Charles Thomas, Knight Foundation program director for Charlotte. “Knight Foundation hopes to build on this momentum, supporting a promising initiative that engages all members of the community and promotes literacy, an important prerequisite for building a more informed Charlotte.” 

Read Charlotte is working to increase the reading proficiency of Charlotte’s third graders from 39 percent to 80 percent by 2025. Reading proficiency at third grade is a critical predictor of school, career and life success. For example, children who are not reading at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

Knight’s investment will help the organization grow its “Transformation Network,” a group of literacy-focused school partnerships in in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The Network will more than double the number of under-resourced schools it works with, from 12 to at least 30. It will launch a recruitment program to double the number of volunteer literacy tutors needed to serve 1,500 students. Additionally, it will expand its innovative programming to enable more families to support their children’s reading development at home. 

“The Read Charlotte Transformation Network has worked tirelessly to improve early literacy in this community, and our top priority right now is scaling these efforts,” said Munro Richardson, Read Charlotte executive director. “This new funding from Knight Foundation equips us to respond to community requests to bring more schools into the Transformation Network and grow our efforts.” 

The Transformation Network launched in fall 2018 at 12 schools. In less than a year, 50 partners worked with schools to coordinate the distribution of 23,981 books to nearly 4,000 students at “Book-A-Palooza” events. In addition, they hosted 17 Family Literacy Nights, where over 1,000 parents learned effective ways to support their children’s reading at home; and they recruited 152 volunteers to provide fluency tutoring to almost 200 third graders.

Earlier this year, Read Charlotte launched its second-annual “Commit to 80” campaign, in which, during a two week period, nearly 1,300 Charlotteans pledged their commitment to the community goal of reaching 80 percent third grade reading proficiency by carrying out specific, evidence-based practices and strategies.

Read Charlotte’s Lead Funders made five-year commitments that support operations through 2019. This new support from Knight Foundation, along with recent commitments from Bank of America, Albemarle Corporation, C.D. Spangler Foundation, Ann Dunlap Hendrix Charitable Fund and The Belk Foundation brings the organization closer to creating transformative change in Mecklenburg County by 2025. Read Charlotte has an additional $3.9 million to raise for the remainder of the 10-year initiative. 

About Read Charlotte

Read Charlotte is a collaborative, community-wide initiative to double the percentage of third grade students reading at grade level from 40% in 2015 to 80% by 2025. Housed under the Foundation For The Carolinas, Read Charlotte is organized as a backbone organization leading a collective impact effort across Mecklenburg County. Focusing on the continuum from birth through third grade, Read Charlotte builds collaborative partnerships and provides resources on proven practices and/or programs. Read Charlotte plays a leadership role but does not directly operate the programs. Working groups comprised of experts and community members have helped to select strategies, identify community indicators and define a strategic plan that will guide Read Charlotte’s work through 2025. For more information, visit readcharlotte.org. 

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.

Contacts 

Elise Esasky, Communications Manager, Read Charlotte, 770-366-7486, [email protected]

Lauren Dickinson, Communications Officer, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305-908-2694, [email protected]

Photos: kf.org/rctnpics (Please credit Read Charlotte)

Image (top): Courtesy of Read Charlotte

To collect and analyze parking (off-street and on-street) and transportation data (Clipper Card usage and vehicle ownership) at at least six GreenTRIP Certified projects in San José so that community members can understand the impact of parking reductions in new developments.

To advance the transformation of Guadalupe River Park by improving natural resources, promoting economic impact and fostering social cohesion in downtown San Jose through research, collaboration, and community engagement.

Macon has always been a special place. Nestled in the heart of Georgia, the city has a rich history, long roots in arts and culture, beautiful architecture and southern hospitality that makes it as charming as its residents. At the same time, it has faced challenges brought on by urbanization, deindustrialization and dwindling commerce, resulting in issues from depopulation and blight to declining economic opportunity. 

Recognizing these effects, Knight Foundation has worked alongside local partners to provide strategic support for our urban core’s revitalization. We all want to see this area become the vibrant, inclusive community we know it can be — a place where every resident of Macon is able to live, work and play.

To that end, over the past 10 years, we have provided more than $29 million in support for Macon’s urban core. It’s important to note that our investment has been made in collaboration with key partners; it’s also important to note that much of this work builds on our early work with the College Hill Alliance. The Alliance was launched in 2009 with an initial $2 million investment from Knight, and has resulted in more than $200 million in private and public investment in the city. To date, Knight has invested more than $7.5 million in the initiative.

To better understand the impact of this support, we worked with HR&A Advisors to evaluate the impact of funding on four specific projects, detailed in a report released today. The report shows us that these grants, all made in partnership with others, have played a significant role in shaping the revitalization of Downtown Macon. The report also provides recommendations for advancing Macon’s success.

Most notably, this funding has laid a foundation for collaborative investment in the community. We saw many lean in to activate the vision set forth by the Macon Action Plan. Macon’s philanthropies, organizations and residents are moving forward with a renewed spirit of collaboration and a collective vision for the urban core. From the recent announcement of the Ocmulgee National Historical Park status, to the opening of a state-of-the-art children’s hospital,  to the most recent announcement of Mercer’s revitalization of Capricorn studios, there is daily evidence we are intentionally working together to ensure Macon is better tomorrow than it is today.

We’ve also seen that the funding has democratized revitalization efforts in the community, becoming catalysts for civic engagement in Macon. The Macon Action Plan and Downtown Challenge have engaged more than 2,500 individuals, ensuring that our residents’ unique voices are leading change efforts.

The Downtown Challenge has advanced Macon’s core as an attractive destination and neighborhood as it brings in visitors with its frequent community programming.

Finally, Macon organizations are leveraging the community’s rich history to shape the city as a unique cultural destination, particularly through the Historic Macon Foundation’s work to revitalize the Beall’s Hill neighborhood and Mercer’s restoration of the historic Capricorn recording studios.

Still, as the report shows, there’s a big opportunity to continue advancing downtown Macon’s revitalization. The report’s recommendations can serve as a guide for all who are supporting success within the urban core.

First, we need to ensure that all of Macon’s residents have a voice in improving economic opportunity. While a large number of residents are already engaged, there’s a substantial opening to intentionally engage with residents of Macon’s “first neighborhoods” in the urban core.  

Next, we want to see downtown’s economy strengthen in its resiliency. Though it’s improved, we hope that continued growth and engagement will help the neighborhood build a sustainable infrastructure that will prosper for years to come.

To that end, we’re furthering Knight Foundation’s commitment to prioritize jobs and population growth — most specifically, the priorities for these areas which are outlined in the Macon Action Plan.

We recognize that the urban core shouldn’t be the community’s only priority; growth opportunities for Macon extend to the county line (and, frankly, beyond). The expectation is that our focus in downtown will have wider impact. We are proud to have a seat at the table with many collaborators committed to the success of Macon, including Mercer University, the Peyton Anderson Foundation, the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, Historic Macon Foundation, Macon Bibb Urban Development Authority, and NewTown Macon — in addition to many others!

Our community is already showing signs of great promise for a prosperous future, and we are excited for what is to come. If you’re interested in participating in the revitalization of Macon’s urban core, we encourage you to read HR&A’s full report and consider what you can bring to the table. 

I am so proud that Macon is becoming known as a community who works collaboratively to create and implement a plan for success. Together, we will continue to chart a course toward a better Macon for all its residents.

Lynn Murphey is Macon program director at Knight Foundation. Email her at [email protected].

To learn more about Knight’s work in Macon, click here.

Image (top): Tattnall Square Park – Macon, Georgia by Stephen Rahn, used under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication.

Learn more about the report, “The Revitalization of Macon’s Urban Core,” by reading this blog post from Lynn Murphey, Macon program director at Knight Foundation.

Download the executive summary

Download the full report

Downtown revitalization is progressing as the result of a collaboratively executed plan that values authentically Macon improvement.

Like many major cities across the United States, Downtown Macon struggled to rebound from suburbanization, urban renewal and deindustrialization. Cross-sector initiatives in the city over the past decade sought to reverse those trends through public space improvements, infrastructure upgrades and new commercial and residential development. 

Knight Foundation is one of many Macon investors, including but not limited to Mercer University, Peyton Anderson Foundation and Navicent Health, which support the community in revitalizing downtown. Since 1969, Knight Foundation (“Knight”) has directly invested over $82 million in Macon-Bibb, Georgia. In recent years, Knight’s grants have focused on supporting Macon’s efforts to bring renaissance to downtown through partnerships with residents, public leaders and private industry. 

The successes, challenges and measurable outcomes gleaned from activities supported by Knight and others to date — further informed by lessons learned from other cities — lay the foundation for continued improvement to ensure the realization of Downtown Macon as a vibrant, inclusive center for home, work, and play.

To advance economic development and city building objectives in Macon’s Urban Core, between 2013 and 2015, Knight Foundation  partnered with other funders and made over $4.7M in grants to four Macon organizations (just a portion of total Knight investments during this period). Successes and challenges, as outlined in the report and learned from these grants, should inform future activities in Macon, building on past initiatives. 

Successes:

  • Leading with a vision and collaboratively developed plan
  • Democratizing revitalization activities
  • “Bringing city life downtown” through support of housing strategies and activation grants
  • Retaining authentic character

Challenges:

  • Prioritizing inclusive prosperity
  • building a resilient downtown economy
  • Translating infrastructure plans into permanent improvements

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE

Image (top): This is a derivative of “Macon GA 1965”  (August 16, 2012) by davecito, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Colorization added by Knight Foundation.

To support the growth of nighttime economy in Macon’s Urban Core by engaging an expert resource to review, implement, and advise local constituents on nightlife best practices.

To test an intensive site activation strategy at Backesto Park with 11 night market events throughout the summer and a grand finale event that includes Porch Fest (Backesto Park neighbors host live music on their porches).

On May 1, 2019, Knight announced more than $1 million in new funding for nine projects to forge greater connections between Miami startup founders and open new pathways for talent and capital. See the press release for the announcement here. 

As someone with an almost 2-year-old, I can’t help but notice that building an entrepreneurial ecosystem and raising a child have a lot in common. There’s no instruction manual; each has its own unique needs, strengths and weaknesses; you love watching it grow, but its unpredictability can drive you crazy.

I’d argue the Miami startup community is a teenager: coming into its own, full of promise, and trying to figure out what it wants to be. At Knight, our goal has been and continues to be working collaboratively to nurture this burgeoning community into a self-sustaining, world-class innovation economy—a productive, independent adult, if you will. 

Since 2012, Knight Foundation has invested more than $30 million in advancing Miami’s startup community by connecting innovators, attracting investment and growing the city’s talent base. This support has helped drive Miami’s transformation: evolving from a city where you just want to plan a vacation (though that still holds true) to a city where many are growing world-class companies. 

Our early bets have helped connect a once fragmented ecosystem. Co-working and innovation hubs including the LAB Miami and the Idea Center, and events such as Black Tech Week and eMerge Americas, have given our community the physical space to come together. We were also able to bring new mentorship and funding opportunities to the city with the local launches of Endeavor Miami, 500 Startups, Miami Angels, and Babson College’s Women Innovating Now. 

Examples of Miami’s growth and success are easy to spot: Earlier this year, South Florida tech company Ultimate Software was acquired for $11 billion; younger companies such as Nearpod and CareCloud are thriving; and the city continues to attract the attention of new investors and innovators alike. The potential is palpable.

“Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem and raising a child have a lot in common. There’s no instruction manual; each has its own unique needs, strengths and weaknesses; you love watching it grow, but its unpredictability can drive you crazy.”

At the same time, we recognize the need to target some of our earlier efforts, translating the momentum and activity we are now seeing into intentional impact that will sustain Miami’s growth as an innovation hub into the future. With our startup community reaching adolescence, it’s time to take stock of Miami’s progress — the successes, the struggles and, most importantly, where we go from here. 

As part of this process, we spent the last several months actively listening. We picked the brains of more than 200 entrepreneurs, investors and community stakeholders on the ground in Miami’s startup scene. We also consulted research, learning from the insights and experiences of those who have gone before us in building successful startup communities. 

We learned a lot, including that a virtuous venture cycle appears to be taking hold (e.g. the former Mako Surgical team founding Magic Leap, Neocis and DermaSensor). We found amazing local teams building world-class companies and attracting high-level investors (see the recent exits of Farelogix and eBuilder). And, we saw that some of the largest, most established companies (think Visa, Lennar, Carnival and Watsco) are building impressive innovation and venture teams right here in our city.

But one finding stood out among the rest, a challenge — or, in our view, an opportunity — that will play a pivotal role in the development of our city’s startup community: We learned that the most fruitful startup communities are those where founders, investors and high-potential talent are strongly connected to each other and are also uplifted by the community at-large. In Miami, we have room to grow on both fronts, and the success of the ecosystem depends on our response.

Almost universally, the founders we met with in South Florida were eager to build peer-learning and mentorship relationships with other founders but didn’t know how to connect with them in a meaningful way. Similarly, people want more direct avenues to connect with talent and investors, and vice-versa, that cut through unnecessary noise.

This requires attention: Research* shows there is a high degree of correlation between a startup community’s success and how the people in those communities connect to and support one another. The inverse is also true.

“The most fruitful startup communities are those where founders, investors and high-potential talent are strongly connected to each other and are also uplifted by the community at-large.”

Since the start, Knight has always taken its cues from community. It’s from the community, after all, that our startup ecosystem was born. And we plan to do the same now. Keeping Knight’s core values of inclusion and participation in mind, we are exploring efforts to foster the growth of Miami’s startup community around three key areas:

  • Strengthening connections between the local network of founders, investors and high-potential talent to support learning, growth and community. 
  • Creating avenues for new talent — from longtime Miami residents to newcomers — to discover and participate in the city’s growing startup community, connecting interest with opportunity.
  • Growing Miami’s venture funding capacity by developing new investors; introducing outside capital to the region; and building funding networks that are known and accessible to local entrepreneurs. 

As goes with raising a child, priorities, needs and tactics will surely evolve as our ecosystem matures. We have been and will continue to be responsive to the demands of the moment, informed by those in the community who know it best. It truly takes a village to raise a successful startup community. I’m confident Miami can secure its spot as a world-class entrepreneurial hub if we continue to work and adapt together. 

Raul Moas is Miami program director at Knight Foundation. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @rmoas.

*In his book, Startup Communities, entrepreneur, author, and venture capitalist Brad Feld emphasizes what he believes it takes to create a thriving community of entrepreneurs: “Leaders of startup communities have to be entrepreneurs. Everyone else is a feeder into the startup community. Both leaders and feeders are important, but their roles are different.”

Similarly, in a comparison of several venture ecosystems around the world, Startup Genome found that “local relationships among founders, and the help that is offered between founders, are key determinants of success for both individual companies and the overall ecosystem.”

A recent report by Endeavor Insight sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation arrived at a similar conclusion: “Founders of the fastest-growing companies are much more likely to have received experience, support and investment from leaders of companies that reached scale.”

Image (top): Illustration by Saskia Rasink, titled “Compass real estate agents Miami illustration,” found on Behance; copyright: attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), no manipulations.

MIAMI—May 1, 2019—The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced more than $1 million in new funding for nine projects aimed at building deeper connections between local startup founders, investors and high-potential talent, while opening avenues for new talent and investors to participate in Miami’s growing innovation community.

From a series of curated, intimate social gatherings that bring together newcomers and Miami startup veterans as a way to foster stronger networks, to a fellowship program that provides top-performing local university engineering students with professional development and venture opportunities, to an angel network that aims to open new investment prospects to rising entrepreneurs, the projects focus on supporting and propelling Miami’s innovation ecosystem. They also work to create a greater sense of community amongst startup founders, as well as top talent and funders.

“Local connectedness amongst founders, investors and high-performing talent is a major driver of successful startup communities,” said Raul Moas, Knight Foundation program director for Miami. “Through these projects, we hope to forge a deliberate path to growth for Miami’s startups, the impact of which will reap wider benefits for our city as a whole.”

The projects receiving support include: 

University of Miami ($250,000): To provide Miami’s startups with greater access to capital by supporting the launch of the Cane Angel Network, which will connect alumni, faculty, staff, parent and other university-affiliated investors with promising university-affiliated companies.

Venture for America ($150,000): To help foster the growth of Venture For America’s Miami program, which places rigorously-selected recent university graduates at high-growth companies for a two-year fellowship. Funding will support the hiring of a dedicated Miami Director.

The Venture Mentoring Team ($150,000): To expand a mentorship program that educates, certifies and credentials seasoned business professionals and connects them with talented rising entrepreneurs to hone their potential.

eMerge Americas ($120,000): To advance the year-long eMerge Americas Fellowship, which invests in the professional development of top-performing local university engineering students and introduces them to opportunities at top-tier Miami-based ventures.

Just Dinner ($114,000): To support a series of curated, intimate gatherings that bring together newcomers and veterans of Miami’s startup community as a way to promote greater connection, a deeper sense of community and stronger social networks. 

Creators Council ($106,000): To launch a member-led, peer-sharing and mentorship platform that aims to create a sense of community among founders and high-impact talent by growing the depth and quality of relationships among peers.

American Jewish Committee ($92,000): To foster deeper relationships and opportunities between Miami entrepreneurs and their Israeli peers by introducing a delegation of Miami entrepreneurs to key drivers of Israeli innovation, including decision-makers, entrepreneurs and investors. Miami entrepreneurs will travel to Israel as part of the globally-recognized AJC Project Interchange.

Las Olas VC ($25,000): To help launch the LOVC CEO Summit Series allowing local startup founders and CEOs to connect with their peers and build meaningful relationships. 

Miami Angels ($20,000): To make talent and opportunity more easily discoverable by supporting the launch of Talent Scout Miami, a curated platform that helps Miami’s most promising startups find and recruit top talent.

Support for these projects is part of Knight Foundation’s effort to accelerate the development of a startup culture, open to the entire community, that helps make Miami a place where ideas are built and ventures are scaled. Over the past five years, Knight has invested more than $30 million in entrepreneurship in South Florida.

Learn more about this announcement in a blog post by Knight’s Miami Program Director Raul Moas. 

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.

Contact

Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305-908-2646, [email protected]

Image (top): Illustration by Saskia Rasink, titled “Compass real estate agents Miami illustration,” found on Behance; copyright: attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), no manipulations.

Download the Executive Summary

Download the Full Report

Leaders in every sector are struggling to plan for a future in which social, digital, political and economic forces create unpredictable change quicker than ever – and the philanthropic field is no exception. To survive and thrive in this turbulent environment, philanthropic leaders must learn to read early signs of imminent upheaval, adapt their organizations in time and take advantage of new opportunities. 

In this report, Paul J. H. Schoemaker and George S. Day, research faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Sam Gill, Vice President of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, examine the ability of foundations to detect and respond to early signals of threats and opportunities. They surveyed 93 leaders from a wide range of foundations and corporate charities to compare their findings to best practices of global corporations and credit unions, as another non-profit domain. 

KEY FINDINGS: 

  • Most foundations believe that external conditions, such as technology disruptions and changing stakeholders, will impact their work in unpredictable ways. 
  • While foundation leaders anticipate that greater turbulence is highly likely, most are quite confident in their ability to prepare and adapt in time. 
  • Foundations best equipped to cope with future uncertainty will need to develop capabilities characteristic of “vigilant” organizations in general. 
  • “Vigilant” organizations tend to share following key attributes. They: 
    • Exercise leadership with curiosity, openness and a willingness to play the long game; 
    • Adopt a flexible and inclusive process around strategic planning, frequently revising priorities and directions as situations change; 
    • Invest in systems that allow them to anticipate shifts in their business, including directed searches for opportunities to innovate, a portfolio of small experiments and teams focused on forward thinking, innovation and data; 
    • Alignment around scanning tasks, with clear processes for coordination and accountability to help spot and act on weak signals in time. 
  • To become more vigilant, foundations and their leaders should: Demonstrate senior level commitment to vigilance by encouraging diversity in new hires and promote to increase the variety of perspectives heard 
    • Create a diversified network outside their sector and allocate sufficient resources to scan that informal strategic radar system for weak signals 
    • Invest in organizational capabilities to look ahead and systematize the search for threats and opportunities that are outside as well as inside the organization; 
    • Create an organizational strategy that encourages input from voices beyond the leadership team and by using “outside-in” approaches to learn faster 
    • Engage the entire organization in preventing rigid bureaucracy, narrow mindsets and a fear of change, in order to sense and seize future opportunities.

Considering that many foundations scored themselves as well-prepared for additional turbulence, but in fact may not have of the above capabilities in place yet perhaps, senior executives and their boards may wish to conduct a reality check. 

They can start by using the survey questions at the end of this report to assess how prepared their own organization really is for the future, and then focus on areas of deficiency so their foundation will truly be able to thrive in an increasingly unpredictable landscape. 

To support the Manhattan Institute’s Future of Cities white papers and symposia in Knight communities, which will explore key issues that will impact the future of informed and engaged communities.