Knight Foundation employs a variety of tools to support informed and engaged communities. In addition to traditional grantmaking, Knight Foundation dedicates a portion of its endowment to mission-related investments through the Knight Enterprise Fund. This report highlights the work of the fund.

Two of the foundation’s core grant investment areas—journalism and media innovation—have undergone massive technological changes over the past 10 years. The result is a new landscape of companies, a mix of digital media startups and other enterprises, seeking to carve a niche for themselves in the evolving news and information ecosystem. In an effort to understand this new marketplace, enhance the impact of Knight’s funding and inform its broader grantmaking in these areas, the fund was launched in 2011 with an allocation of $10 million from the foundation’s endowment. Specifically, the Knight Enterprise Fund invests inearly-stage companies innovating in media and technology that improve people’s access to quality information because the foundation believes this leads to healthier, more informed, and increasingly engaged communities.