John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Built on twin missions to improve journalism worldwide and invest in community well-being, the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation seeks opportunities to transform the 26 U.S. communities it serves. Nothing new happens, Knight Foundation believes, without a big idea, and a big idea can lead to transformational change.
Knight’s latest big idea? To use the professional expertise and leadership of the Community Foundation to administer Knight’s local grant-making in Long Beach.
As the “eyes and ears” of the city, the Community Foundation provides an efficient way for philanthropic partners to identify needs within the Long Beach community and, in turn, act swiftly to initiate positive changes.
According to Knight, the five basics for transformational projects are:
- the discovery of facts
- the vision to see what’s possible
- the courage to push for change
- the know-how to get it done
- the tenacity that gets results.
Some of the first projects implemented by LBCF on behalf of the Knight Foundation’s Citizenship and Civic Engagement National Initiative are:
- 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 California State University, Long Beach.
- 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. This project is being managed by Leadership Long Beach.
- 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.
Grants made by LBCF for the Citizenship and Civic Engagement Initiative are strategic in nature. The Knight Foundation also provides through LBCF a Community Benefit Fund which funds grants of $5,000 - $20,000 to valid nonprofit organizations for programs benefiting the Long Beach community and addressing these guidelines. To be considered for a grant from the Community Benefit Fund, letters of inquiry may be submitted according to the format outlined at “Apply to Receive a Grant”
