John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
As media leaders, Knight Foundation's founders Jack and Jim Knight sought to bring communities together through information. In their publications, they delivered the news that helped people determine their "own true interests," as Jack used to say.
Today, Knight Foundation is also focused on that ideal. Working with community innovators, Knight Foundation fosters informed and engaged communities. The Foundation believes residents should have the information they need to make decisions about their lives and community. Knight strives for those residents to be highly engaged in the issues and opportunities that matter most to them and their neighbors.
Towards its goal of informed, engaged communities, Knight Foundation seeks out projects with the potential for transformational change.
Knight Foundation recently announced a partnership with community foundations in the cities and towns where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.
Grants from the Knight Foundation Donor Advised Fund for "Informed, Engaged Communities" will be made in response to applications from interested nonprofit organizations. Applicants should address these guidelines. To be considered for a grant from the Knight Donor Advised Fund, applications may be submitted according to the format outlined at “Apply to Receive a Grant”
Knight Foundation has made a significant investment in the Long Beach community over the years. Through their Citizenship and Civic Engagement National Initiative (sunsetted in 2009), projects like those listed below have brought transformation to the Long Beach community.
- ReThinking Greater Long Beach – a self-described, community-based, think tank that provides strategic census and social demographic information to help inform the public and promote public-action plans on public safety, education, poverty, and urban design. Soon their “community database” will be available online through a partnership with Claremont Graduate University.
- Connected Corridor which is currently focusing on the Atlantic Avenue corridor to transform, connect, and empower community with a vision to create a “Blueprint for the Future” for implementation on other Long Beach corridors. With efforts focused on stakeholders (residents, nonprofits, grassroots organizations, and business owners) their mission is transforming neighborhoods into one community by creating connectivity and empowering stakeholders from the top of the town to downtown.
- Change Agent Productions, a community media studio, is a social enterprise project of the YMCA Youth Institute, a nationally recognized job training and development program that uses the digital media arts as a basis for engaging middle and high school students to excel in school.
