New site furthers organizations’ mission to provide communities with wider access to credible news and information

BOSTON (February 1, 2010) -- MassINC today launched a new online version of CommonWealth magazine, the most visible manifestation yet of an $800,000 investment by the Boston and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundations in expanding news coverage in Massachusetts. CommonWealthmagazine.org and MassINC.org will now offer a wealth of journalism and research to engage citizens and policymakers in the issues of the day.

The Boston Foundation gave MassINC $400,000 over two years to fund the new web platform as well as the build-out of CommonWealth’s investigative reporting unit. Knight Foundation matched that grant as part of its Knight Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations like The Boston Foundation are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project helps ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

“Access to information and the ability to keep government accountable remain critical to a healthy and thriving civic life,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “The expansion of CommonWealth magazine into a significant, 21st century source of news and information, is a great example of the kind of the creative thinking needed to address this need and represents a significant investment by the Boston Foundation and the Knight Foundation in a critical resource for this community.”  

CommonWealth Magazine has traditionally been a quarterly print magazine published by MassINC, the nonpartisan public affairs think tank founded in 1996 to provide unbiased information about significant challenges facing the state of Massachusetts. The goal of the grant project was to expand CommonWealth from a print-based magazine to a print and online magazine with an emphasis on investigative and public affairs reporting. Features of the web magazine include:

• Full Disclosure:  A web page within the site that links users to hard-to-access and often expensive public records  
• The What Works desk: specific reporting on programs and policies proven successful elsewhere in the country that could be replicated here.
• The Civic Journalism Site: Dubbed “the page for Bay-state news junkies,” this micro-site invites journalists and media experts to comment on the impact of changes in the news industry and look ahead to what the future holds.  

"This prestigious partnership  – on both the local and national level – is particularly gratifying for MassINC in that it advances our agenda to provide a non-ideological platform for public affairs reporting and analysis," said Greg Torres, President of MassINC and publisher of CommonWealth magazine.  "The impact of these grants is very real in terms of keeping our lawmakers accountable and our citizens informed."

About the Boston Foundation

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of $695 million.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the Foundation and its donors made $86 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of over $72 million. The Foundation is made up of some 900 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.  The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.  For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About MassINC

The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC) is a nonpartisan, evidence based organization. Its mission is to develop a public agenda for Massachusetts that promotes the growth and vitality of the middle class. Its governing philosophy is rooted in the ideals embodied in the American Dream: equality of opportunity, personal responsibility, and a strong commonwealth. MassINC publishes the quarterly journal, CommonWealth.

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Contact:  Marjorie Malpiede, 617-224-1625;  mmalpiede@massinc.org

MIAMI (Feb. 1, 2010) — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications from community and place-based foundations seeking to fund news and information projects. The deadline for the Knight Community Information Challenge, a matching grant program, is March 8. Applications can be submitted at www.informationneeds.org.

Knight Foundation created the five-year contest to help local foundations find creative ways to fund media projects that inform and engage residents about pressing issues. So far, the Challenge has awarded $7.3 million for 45 ideas in communities large and small. The projects include funding public interest online news sites, creating online hubs to engage communities around specific issues and filling gaps in the types of news and information available locally.
“Local foundations are increasingly taking the initiative to meet their community’s information needs, a goal as important as ensuring an area has good schools, jobs and clean air,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the Challenge.

J-lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, has found that since 2005, foundations have awarded nearly $136 million in grants to 128 news and information projects nationwide.

Representatives from community or place-based foundations with questions about the Challenge can participate in one of two live chats to have queries answered online by Knight Foundation program officers. The live chats will take place at noon EDT Feb. 16 and 22 at www.informationneeds.org. Visit the site to learn more and sign up for a reminder.

Knight Foundation provides free consultants to help local foundations identify opportunities and the technology that could benefit their communities. In addition, Knight will host the third Media Learning Seminar March 1-2 in Miami. The seminar aims to educate leaders of community and place-based foundations about media trends and the information needs of communities in a democracy. Registration for the seminar is open through Feb. 15. To apply, learn more about the challenge or register for the Media Learning Seminar, visit www.informationneeds.org.

The Challenge is part of Knight's Media Innovation Initiative, whose seven projects include an effort to explore national media reform, increase broadband access and transform journalism education, among others.

The Challenge complements the sweeping recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, a project of the Aspen Institute.  In a report issued last fall, the commission asserts that democracy in America is threatened by the lack of equal access to quality information. The report is available at www.knightcomm.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed, engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org

The grant was awarded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as a part of the Knight Community Information Challenge. The challenge is a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.  The Community Foundation of North Florida is one of 24 community and place-based foundations recently selected to receive a grant in this highly competitive national grant contest.

“Access to information is essential for the quality of life in our community and for providing resources to help increase access for all citizens,” said Joy Watkins, President of the Community Foundation of North Florida.  “Through this grant contest, Knight is challenging communities across the country to respond to the changing media landscape and ensure that residents have access to information. We are pleased to be able to support Knight’s work in our area, strengthen The Village Square’s endeavors, and increase access to information for citizens in our community.”

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

“The Village Square appreciates this opportunity to partner with the Community Foundation and Knight Foundation,” said Liz Joyner, Executive Director of The Village Square.  “The Village Square’s mission is to encourage civil dialogue about local concerns and to ensure the people of our community receive factual information about those issues. Our work is right in line with what Knight Foundation is trying to accomplish.  This grant will enhance our work by allowing us to get more information to a broader audience.”

Allan Katz co-founded The Village Square in 2006 with Tallahassee Community College President Dr. Bill Law. “Rapid changes in the way we communicate with each other and the hyper-partisan environment nationally have left communities less able to deal with local and state issues constructively,” said Katz, a former Tallahassee city commissioner who has been nominated by President Obama to become U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.  “The best ideas in a democracy come from engaged and informed citizenship,” said Law.  “This project will bring more light and less heat to problems ahead of us.”

“The social glue of communities has changed substantially over the last 40 years,” said Joyner. “Civic clubs and service organizations used to knit us together to form a geographical community whose bond was greater than political difference.  But ideology-based groups are on the rise and, as a result, our unique made-in-America social fabric is fraying.”

“We the People” will expand The Village Square programming on local and state issues through varying formats like “Dinner at the Square,” “Take-out Tuesday,” “Politics, Partisans & A Pint” and “Sunday Night Supper Club,” intentionally reviving community between people with diverse perspectives.

To compliment these face-to-face forums, the project will have an online component: A Wiki-based online problem-solving tool, where neighbors can collaborate to assemble relevant facts and resources for addressing local, state and national issues.  “We hope to create an online community that defies the trend toward angry likeminded groups; where people will treat each other with the same respect as they do when they see neighbors at the grocery store or at their mailbox,” said Joyner.

“This grant presents a great opportunity for our organization and our community,” said Joyner.  We have a lot of work ahead of us to raise the $50,000 match required by Knight and to implement the details of the project. Our hope is that the community will rally with us to raise the matching funds and help us improve the vitality of our community by increasing access to civil and factual information in our community.”

To learn more about the project or to get involved with The Village Square, please go to www.tothevillagesquare.org or contact Liz Joyner at liz@tothevillagesquare.org or (850) 264-8785.

About the Community Foundation of North Florida
The Community Foundation of North Florida is a nonprofit public charity serving the 10-County Big Bend area by facilitating and promoting charitable giving and strengthening nonprofit organizations. The Foundation helps people give in perpetuity to their favorite charities and helps nonprofit organizations with grants, education and endowment building expertise.  For more information, contact Joy Watkins, President, at jwatkins@cfnf.org or 850-222-2899 ext. 104.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Contact:

Joy Watkins, President
Community Foundation of North Florida
(850) 222-2899 ext. 104
jwatkins@cfnf.org
www.cfnf.org

Marc Fest, Vice President for Communications
Knight Foundation
305-908-2677
fest@knightfoundation.org

Liz Joyner, Executive Director
The Village Square
(850) 264-8785
liz@tothevillagesquare.org

“Although times have been tough for the newspaper industry, we believe local newspapers are still vital to Arkansas’s communities,” said ARCF President and CEO Heather Larkin. “Through this grant, we hope to increase the capacity of local newspapers to provide the in-depth coverage of local issues that citizens need to make informed decisions and that towns need to maintain a sense of community.”

ARCF’s Write for Arkansas initiative is one of 24 projects funded through Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

In addition to providing funding for five reporting positions, the grant will also enable the creation of a Write for Arkansas website where the reporters’ stories will be collected in a searchable archive and where the reporters will blog about their communities and experiences.

The Arkansas Press Association will partner with ARCF to recruit participating newspapers. The newspapers themselves will then select reporters to fill the new positions created through the program.

“Delivering a high volume of quality local news has long been the challenge of community newspapers in Arkansas and across the nation,” said Tom Larimer, executive director, Arkansas Press Association. “The Knight Foundation grant will go a long way toward filling a gap in local news coverage created by difficult economic conditions that have befallen newspapers along with other businesses in communities across Arkansas and the nation. This grant to assist community newspapers in keeping readers informed about important events in their respective communities is certainly a creative approach and one I think will be well received by newspaper publishers and editors.”

About Arkansas Community Foundation
Arkansas Community Foundation has the capacity to engage communities in a thoughtful exploration of critical issues and can help assemble the resources to implement solutions.  Arkansas’s statewide community foundation has more than $120 million in assets and has provided more than $70 million in grants since it began operation in 1976.  Contributions to ARCF, its funds and any of its 27 local affiliate offices are fully tax deductible. For more, visit www.arcf.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

For more information, contact:

Heather Larkin
ARCF President and CEO
501-372-1116

Marc Fest
Knight Foundation Vice President for Communications
305-908-2677

The “Community Information Action Agenda” will be funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community foundations find creative ways to use media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.  Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County is one of 24 winners nationwide

Kelly Lucas, CEO of the Community Foundation, explained, “Knowledge and information are the new currency of social change. Our Knight Foundation project aligns with the Community Foundation’s work to create healthy information systems and positive community transformation.”

The Community Foundation will also match Knight Foundation’s $152,500 grant.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools.  As leaders, local community foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the Challenge.  “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

In addition to increasing public awareness of the vital role of community information and the changing landscape of how citizens acquire and use information, this project will specifically address information needs by creating a Community Information Action Agenda. Action teams will foster grassroots engagement to increase awareness, interaction and social capital – ultimately increasing the overall information health within the community by addressing priority gaps and opportunities. Outreach will consist of community forums, focus groups, research and targeted outreach to specific populations including youth, seniors and low-income families/individuals.

As part of this work, the Community Foundation will sponsor a public forum: “Information Revolution: Defining and Redefining How We Get Community Information,” on Wednesday, February 24, at Hotel Mead in Wisconsin Rapids. The public is invited and welcome to be part of this community discussion of how best to address information gaps and opportunities.

“Over the next two years of this project, input from community members will be critical,” emphasized Helen Jungwirth, Community Foundation board chair and retired publisher of the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune and Stevens Point Journal. “Ultimately, we want all residents to be empowered to help shape and create an effective information system for community information.”

Media Contacts:

Kelly Lucas, CEO, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County
Phone: 715.423.3863

Mary Olson, VP – Communications, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County
Phone: 715.423.3863

Helen Jungwirth, Board member, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County
Phone: 715.421.1597

About Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County:
Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County, established in 1994, promotes strategic philanthropy, builds social capital and connects community resources for the common good. The foundation works to create a resilient, thriving community that embraces and supports all people. To learn more, call 715.423.3863, or visit www.cfswc.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.  For information about the Knight Community Information Challenge, visit www.informationneeds.org.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is providing $300,000 through its Knight Community Information Challenge, a $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven are providing matching funds.

The Web site, www.ctmirror.org, which is due to start publishing the week of Jan. 25, will provide professional reporting on Connecticut’s legislature, executive branch and courts, as well as insight and analysis, disclosing the whys and consequences of public policy decisions.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

“Connecticut residents increasingly find themselves in an informational void on matters as personal as planning their children’s educations and as global as choosing leaders who will sustain the state’s quality of life,” said Linda J. Kelly, president, Hartford Foundation for Public

Giving. “The goal of this project to assure that state residents are better informed about their government so they can be more fully engaged in holding state policymakers accountable for addressing the state’s needs.”

The site will also provide access to public, but not easily accessible, state government documents from voting records to school test scores, and serve as a portal to information available elsewhere online. Through a feature called CT Commons, citizens will have opportunities to discuss and express opinions about legislative and government issues, through reader feedback, online public hearings with policymakers, issues forums and conversations.

“We believe strongly that civic life at the community level requires high-quality accessible community information; ctmirror.org will play a vital role enabling Connecticut citizens to use new media to engage in our civic life,” said William W. Ginsberg, president and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Support for the project is being provided through one of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s anonymous donor advised funds.

In addition, the Connecticut News Project will offer increased opportunities for aspiring journalists to receive training and mentoring on informing the public using these new media tools.

“We are delighted by the generous support of these three foundations. Their funding supports and validates our goal which is to reach the three and a half million Connecticut residents who live in the urban, suburban and rural communities across the state. We can’t do this by ourselves. We’ll seek the help of distribution partners, other media, community groups, foundations, businesses, cultural organizations and individuals,” said James A. Cutie, chief operating officer, Connecticut News Project.

Michael Regan will serve as editor for the Connecticut News Project. He is a former editor for The Hartford Courant, supervising coverage of topics including politics, education, health care, the courts and the City of Hartford for more than 20 years. James A. Cutie is the chief operating officer, with primary responsibility for assuring the long-term sustainability of the project. Jim has 35 years of management, marketing, communications and fundraising experience in traditional and online media, founding the original new media division of The New York Times.  Mark Pazniokas will serve as Capitol bureau chief. Mark is the former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and a former contributing writer for The New York Times. Robert Frahm, who covered education for newspapers in Wisconsin and Connecticut for 36 years before retiring from The Hartford Courant as its chief education writer, will be the project’s education reporter. Jacqueline Rabe, who has been a reporter, online editor and web site developer for the Washington Post Co’s Southern Maryland Newspaper chain, is the Capitol reporter.

The Knight Foundation grant for the Connecticut News Project is one of 24 other grants announced today for a wide variety of news and information projects across the country.

About the Connecticut News Project
The Connecticut News Project, Inc. is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit news organization created to reinvigorate coverage of Connecticut’s state government, public policy and politics. Its primary goal is to ensure that the people of the state are better informed about their government, so they can more effectively participate in the development of public policy and hold officials accountable for understanding and addressing the state’s needs. The Connecticut News Project will achieve this goal through original and reliable reporting presented on its website, www.ctmirror.org, and distributed through various other platforms and technologies.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for the 29-town Greater Hartford region, dedicated to improving the quality of life for area residents for the past 85 years.  The Foundation receives gifts from thousands of generous individuals and families, and last year, awarded grants of nearly $26 million to a broad range of area nonprofit organizations. For more information about the Hartford Foundation, visit www.hfpg.org or call 860-548-1888.

About The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Since 1928, donors to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven have built the community's endowment consisting of over 700 funds and distributing approximately $14 million in grants annually. The Foundation has been helping donors achieve their charitable goals and improving the quality of life for Greater New Haven residents for more than 80 years. For more information about The Community Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org.

Contacts:
Marc Fest, Knight Foundation; 305-908-2677; fest@knightfoundation.org
Donna Jolly, Hartford Foundation; 860-548-1888; djolly@hfpg.org
James A. Cutie, Connecticut News Project; 860-218-6380; jcutie@ctmirror.org

LOS ANGELES ― Latino youth in “hard-to-count” communities in Los Angeles County will learn about the importance of participating in the 2010 Census via cell phones and other technologies, thanks to a $72,000 grant to the California Community Foundation (CCF) from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Los Angeles County has more than 4.4 million residents living in areas that are considered hard to count – more than 2.5 times the number of any other county in the nation. The most undercounted populations are Los Angeles’ ethnically diverse, low-income and homeless residents. Government agencies use census counts to allocate federal and state funds for critical service areas such as health, education, job training, welfare and transportation. For each resident missed in the 2010 Census, California is expected to lose $11,400 in government funding over the next decade, according to a Brookings Institution report.

“Technology is an integral part of how young people communicate, and this grant will help us interactively show them how important it is to stand up and be counted in the census,” said CCF President and CEO Antonia Hernández. “This innovative outreach will lead to a higher count and, most importantly, more resources for the people in our community who need them most.”

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

The project is a winner of Knight Foundation’s Knight Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

CCF will match every dollar of the grant and partner with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Voto Latino to improve Latino youth’s awareness and access to accurate, bilingual information about participating in the census. Technologies used for outreach include a cell phone game, the “Census Challenge,” which will target Latino youth to take an online pledge to be counted and give them an opportunity to become virtual census recruiters by tapping others in their social networks to do the same. They can track their progress via an interactive virtual tool and participants can win prizes from Voto Latino’s census partners, including Apple and MTV.

“The current economic and political climate presents added challenges to reaching hard-to-count populations in this census compared to 2000,” said MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz.  “But the single most significant improvement from 10 years ago is the broader availability and use, particularly among Latino youth, of 21st-century communications technologies. The foresight of Knight Foundation and the California Community Foundation in providing this support allows MALDEF to continue its partnership with Voto Latino to ensure full information for and increased participation of Latino families in the census.”

“The 2010 Census poses some of the greatest challenges we have ever faced in obtaining Latino participation, which affects federal funding and political representation at the local level,” said Voto Latino Executive Director Maria Teresa Kumar. “Voto Latino recognizes that Latino youth are the primary ‘influencers’ in their families and engages them with celebrity voices and the latest technology. Given the high use of cell phones among Latinos, the L.A. County mobile phone census app will provide Latinos with accurate, instant bilingual information about the importance of participating in the census. We are grateful to Knight Foundation and the California Community Foundation for their support of this important and groundbreaking mobile/new media initiative.”

About CCF
As L.A.’s foundation, the California Community Foundation has been around since 1915 and has about $1 billion in assets. We have more than 1,600 funds whose donors chose us because of our personal service and expertise. To learn more, visit myccf.org.

About MALDEF
Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation’s leading Latino civil rights organization. Often described as the “law firm of the Latino community,” MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights and political access. To learn more, visit maldef.org.

About Voto Latino
Voto Latino is the leading nonpartisan Latino youth civic engagement organization and works to promote an enfranchised America by leveraging celebrity voices, the latest technology and youth themselves to promote positive change. The organization was founded in 2004 by the actress Rosario Dawson and Maria Teresa Kumar (who has become the “go-to” commentator on the Latino vote & civic engagement on networks like MSNBC & CNN). Each of Voto Latino's initiatives are meant to create a rapid-response, organized online American Latino community with a goal toward increased integration and civic engagement. Voto Latino recognizes that civic engagement goes beyond the voting booth and involves mobilization around several issues, including the census and immigration reform because of what is at stake for the Latino community. To learn more, visit votolatino.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marc Fest, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677; fest@knightfoundation.org

MIAMI (Jan. 12, 2010) -- Twenty-four innovative ideas that will help meet America’s information needs have received $4.3 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The projects – submitted by community and place-based foundations nationwide in a Knight Foundation contest – include:

• Examining the Chicago area’s changing media landscape – and funding journalism innovators to fill the information voids;
• Creating information campaigns to spread the word about pressing issues, including how to end gun violence in New York City, and improve early childhood education in Boulder, Colorado, and
• Funding journalists and online news sites in Wyoming, Arkansas, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida to produce news in the public interest.

The projects represent the second-year winners of the Knight Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million contest that helps community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “These projects help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

Among the winners – a full list is below – are foundations rural and urban, large and small. For the first time, several foundations joined together this year to create regional projects for greater impact.

All are part of a growing movement to help fund local news and information projects and ensure that residents are informed and engaged. In fact, J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, recently found that more than 207 foundations have funded $135.86 million in grants to 128 projects since 2005.

The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s oldest community foundations, is now a two-time winner.  With its grant, the trust will expand its Community News Matters program, which fosters new ways of informing the Chicago region through grants to local media innovators. In addition, the trust will conduct a study examining strengths and weaknesses of the area’s information infrastructure and convene a conference on the topic.

“The Trust, like other community foundations, is acutely aware of the changing media landscape in our communities. We recognize that access to information is essential for the quality of life and democracy of those we serve,” said Terry Mazany, the Trust’s president and CEO. “We applaud Knight Foundation for motivating community foundations across the nation to become real laboratories invested in the development of the future of community news and information.”

The challenge complements the sweeping recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, a joint project of the Aspen Institute and Knight Foundation.  In its report issued in October, the Commission asserts that democracy in America is threatened by the lack of equal access to quality information. In addition to 15 urgent recommendations, the report provides a checklist that communities can use to determine which information needs are being met, and which need attention. The report is available at www.knightcomm.org.

Both the Knight Commission and the Knight Community Information Challenge are part of Knight Foundation’s Media Innovation Initiative, a $100 million plus effort to meet America’s information needs. More at www.knightfoundation.org/mii

Knight Foundation will again accept applications for the Knight Community Information Challenge beginning in early February. For more information on the challenge, visit www.informationneeds.org

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Round Two Knight Community Information Challenge Winners (Jan. 2010)

Recipient:  ACT For Alexandria

Project: ACTion Alexandria

Award: $102,000

To encourage community problem-solving in Alexandria, Va., this effort will create an online site where residents can post problems, debate solutions and decide on a course of action. While email lists have greatly improved the way neighbors disseminate local information, this project aims to provide the next generation platform for communities to freely share their thoughts and beliefs and act on them to improve their city.

Recipient: Akron Community Foundation

Project: Digital Media Center

Award: $350,000

In order to strengthen community news and information-sharing, this grant will create a new digital media academy that trains residents to share news and information about their neighborhoods using cutting-edge technology. Citizen journalists of all ages will be given the training and tools to express their individual voices through the creation of news stories, music, documentaries, videos and other projects. Uploaded content will be broadcast on an open-application portal provided by the Akron Beacon Journal, which citizens can then tap into using their mobile phones, computers and other emerging technologies.

Recipient: Arkansas Community Foundation

Project: Write for Arkansas

Award: $252,000

In order to provide more in-depth coverage of local issues, this project will add five reporters to cover community and economic development issues for community newspapers in Arkansas. The reporters will write articles for print and blog about their communities and experiences on a new Write for Arkansas Web site. The additional reporting staff will help Arkansas residents and leaders have a greater understanding of the state’s challenges and needs. Meanwhile, the project’s online component will chronicle local issues from across the state and open a new channel of communication allowing residents to participate in the news.

Recipient: California Community Foundation

Project: Be Counted, Represent

Award: $72,000

To encourage Los Angeles-area Latinos to participate in the U.S. census, this grant will help launch a dual Internet-mobile phone application. Voto Latino – A Census Challenge Game will target Latino youth to take an online pledge to be counted and give them an opportunity to become virtual 2010 Census recruiters by tapping others in their social networks to do the same. The site will also stream viral videos with celebrity-driven public service announcements that highlight the importance of participating in the census. The project, in partnership with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Voto Latino, will provide accurate, instant bilingual information about the importance of participating in the census as it impacts federal funding and political representation.

Recipient: Centre County Community Foundation

Project: Central Pennsylvania 2-1-1

Award: $225,000

In order to provide residents with vital civic information, this grant will help launch a 2-1-1 phone information service in 15 Pennsylvania counties. Residents will have access to round-the-clock answers to questions about local services for basic needs and emergencies, as well as general community information. While there will also be an online component, much of this area is without broadband Internet access, and phone service is likely to be the primary link.

Recipient:  The Chicago Community Trust

Project: Community News Matters

Award: $202,000

To stimulate new ways to provide the Chicago region with critical local news and information, the Chicago Community Trust has launched “Community News Matters,” a grant program to support the city’s media innovators. The Knight Foundation support will help fund projects designed to increase the flow of high-quality information to the public and to develop new distribution and business models. In addition, the Trust will conduct a study examining the region’s information infrastructure – its strengths and weakensses – and convene a conference on the topic.

Recipient: Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Project: GreenSpace

Award: $352,000

To encourage support for creating more livable communities, this grant will develop an information hub for the seven-county region of southeast Michigan that will inform residents about how to be good stewards of the area’s natural resources. The “GreenSpace” project will bring together all the available information on the topic – benefitting anyone from a family searching for a place to hike or bike, to a resident advocating for more parks and recreation and a government official developing land use policy. The hub will encourage users to contribute content and share links to information, helping to nurture leadership and action on important issues.

Recipient:  The River Partnership of Community Foundations

Project: River Partnership Online Network

Award: $141,000

In an effort to inform and engage residents around Mississippi River issues, a coalition of community foundations within the River Partnership of Community Foundations will launch a series of local Web sites that translate national and regional stories into the local context. Also, on the Web, residents will be able to make their voices heard on issues of water quality and the importance of sustainable development on the rivers’ shores while picking up tips to help river life.

Recipient: Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County

Project: Community Information Action Agenda

Award: $152,000

In order to help meet the Wisconsin Rapids area’s information needs, the community foundation will evaluate the region’s changing media landscape, pinpoint strengths and weaknesses and create a community information action agenda. The plan formed will raise awareness about the availability of quality local news and information and broadband access while fostering support and partnerships for funding solutions.

Recipient: Community Foundation of New Jersey

Project: Public Interest News Service

Award: $352,000

Expanding coverage of New Jersey state issues, this grant will help create a public interest news service that provides continuously updated online news, a weekly newsletter and online discussion forums. Analytical articles will provide useful tools so that residents, civic organizations and industry can relate the stories and data to their own communities. Also, the site will provide a place for residents to connect with each other and lawmakers on pressing issues. The site strives to increase local knowledge and understanding of statewide policy.

Recipient:  The Community Foundation of North Florida

Project: We the People

Award: $72,000

In an effort to revitalize the dialogue among the city’s diverse residents, this grant will help launch “The Village Square: We the People,” a 21st century virtual and real world public square.  The project will offer unique town hall forums in addition to constructive online engagement and a community problem-solving Wiki. Organizers aim to renew Tallahassee's marketplace of ideas where good solutions rise from an informed citizenship, and where abundant information can be channeled into constructive results.

Recipient: Coral Gables Community Foundation

Project: Gables Home Page

Award: $130,000

To help strengthen community dialogue, this grant will support GablesHomePage.com, a real-time source for news including information by and about the area's mature residents. This year, the site will add two partnerships: one with the University of Miami's student newspaper for timely sports and campus coverage, and another with The Miami Herald, which will use Gables Home Page as a source for news and information.  In addition Gables Home Page will provide a free venue for residents to post news, photos, commentary (blogs) and classifieds.

Recipient:  Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation

Project: TheDuSu.com

Award: $122,000

To attract and retain young adults in Duluth and Superior, the community foundation created TheDuSu.com, an online portal designed to help young adults share information and ideas. Currently, the portal provides information on working, living, playing and connecting in the Twin Ports. This grant will help increase site interactivity, enhance content, conduct research and increase guerrilla marketing tactics so TheDuSu can better provide the information young people need to thrive in the area.

Recipient:  Greater Lowell Community Foundation

Project: Open Indicators Consortium

Award: $62,000

Despite the increasing availability of data, and the technology to analyze it deeply, the average person's informed voice is missing in much of the public discourse in vital areas like health care, education and job growth. Debate is often defined by experts, lobbyists and pundits. As a counterweight to that trend, four community foundations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut will engage a range of local stakeholders to help develop easy-to-use and highly consumable analytical and visualization tools. They will include charts, maps, scorecards, dashboards, narrations and animations that reflect local stakeholders’ needs and preferences. These tools will ultimately help transform the quality and breadth of public discourse in communities, and eventually in the nation. In addition to the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, the project partners include The Boston Foundation, The Rhode Island Foundation and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

Recipient: Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice

Project: The Florida Independent

Award: $352,000

In order to strengthen investigative reporting in Florida, Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, the Community Foundation of Central Florida and the Center for Independent Media will create a nonprofit, statewide online news network. The Florida Independent will provide original investigative reports on subjects currently under-covered at the state level and link communities’ issues with reporting in the state capital. Experienced Florida journalists will lead coverage of topics such as aging, health care, housing and social services and use online tools to engage with and connect interested residents. An advisory board will ensure fairness. The site will strive to safeguard the public’s interest by providing critical information on issues that affect Floridians.

Recipient:  Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Project: ctmirror.org

Award: $302,000

To increase access to unbiased Connecticut news and information, this grant will help launch an online site offering news, information and discussion about the state’s government and public policy. Providing insight and analysis, the site will disclose the “whys” and consequences of public policy decisions. It will use the vast capacity of the Internet to provide data from voting records and school test scores to original source documents in ways that are accessible and searchable. The project will also provide channels for information to flow from the people to public officials, through online public hearings, issue forums and conversations. Additionally, it will offer a diversity of opinions through op-ed articles and moderated reader feedback.

Recipient:  Health Foundation of South Florida

Project: Health News Florida

Award: $302,000

To strengthen knowledge of local health issues, the foundation will expand Health News Florida’s coverage in three cities: Tallahassee, Bradenton and Miami.  Reporters will be assigned to these areas, significantly increasing the amount of original reporting produced. Stories will be available to the public at no charge on the Web site and through e-alerts in addition to being reprinted by newspapers statewide directly and through the Associated Press. The information will help Florida residents make more informed choices about health policy and their personal care. The grant will also help Health News Florida develop a sustainable business model.

Recipient: Lander Community Foundation

Project: WyoFile.com

Award:  $122,000

To increase the availability of information on complex state issues, this grant will support WyoFile.com, which examines Wyoming public policy and politics. Historically, Wyoming’s economy and culture have been rooted in natural resource industries including agriculture, timber, mining and oil and gas development. Like many energy colonies with small populations and vast landscapes, industrial proponents have heavily influenced Wyoming policies. WyoFile.com will increase its staff and reporting budget to further engage Wyoming’s residents, lawmakers, educators and business people through an independent, alternative source of content and analysis.

Recipient: Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation

Project: County Bounty

Award: $94,400

To raise awareness of local history, needs and resources, this grant will help create an online treasure hunt in Chautauqua County, New York. A sprawling rural area with 44 municipalities, communities tend to be insular, which impedes regional progress.  Many residents are unaware of the area's rich history and cultural assets. Brain drain is a concern, with many younger residents moving away. County Bounty, an online treasure hunt, will showcase the county and increase community pride while aiming to engage and retain residents under 40.

Recipient: Rhode Island Foundation

Project: Community Forums

Award: $102,000

As a way to promote community engagement around pressing concerns in a state where residents are known for their fierce independence, this grant will create a series of forums to be broadcast on public radio station WRNI. The conversations will also continue online through various social media. The project strives to unite Rhode Islanders around major issues in health, education, arts, the environment, economic development and human services. Presenting in-depth information and a balance of perspectives will encourage innovative solutions to the problems contributing to Rhode Island’s economic challenges.

Recipient: Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Project: Envision Bay Area

Award: $302,000

As a way to increase resident involvement in Northern California’s pressing land use issues, this grant will help launch an Internet, public radio, television and community information campaign called “Envision Bay Area.” Land use planning is a mystery to many people, yet it has a great impact on their lives and the community. Using a series of “what if” scenarios enhanced by visualization tools, this project will provide residents with the information they need to develop a deeper understanding of policy decisions and their impact.

Recipient: The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County

Project: READY. GET SET. LEARN

Award: $104,000

To raise awareness about the importance of school readiness for at-risk children, this grant will help launch a digital information campaign in Boulder, Colorado. The Community Foundation has collected ten years of research showing that the achievement gap is a major problem facing Boulder County. The gap will continue to widen until the community invests further in early childhood education. But the broader community hasn’t fully grasped the issue’s importance. The READY. GET SET. LEARN campaign will help parents, business leaders and the general public understand that there is a direct connection between a community’s investment in early childhood education and the achievement gap that weighs down otherwise high-performing school systems. The campaign aims to create a groundswell of voices calling for someone to improve access to quality early care and education for Boulder County's at-risk preschool students.

Recipient:  The New York Community Trust

Project:  Beyond Bullets

Award: $62,000

As a way to raise the collective consciousness about the impact of gun violence, this grant will help launch a media campaign using youth reporters and roving anti-gun film festivals. Television, movies and music videos normalize carrying weapons and glamorize them as a source of personal power, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. Meanwhile, news media focus on sensational stories about gun-related homicides, but rarely work to illuminate the causes or portray effective community solutions. The Beyond Bullets media campaign will challenge the mainstream entertainment and news media’s narrative. The effort will offer in-depth youth reporting on the causes and costs of gun violence, and the unheralded – yet strong – efforts to combat it.

Recipient: Michigan’s Children, a partner of The Skillman Foundation

Project: KidSpeak Neighborhood News

Award: $126,000

As a way to boost involvement in Detroit issues, this grant will help create a multi-media youth news service, where student reports will focus on neighborhoods and schools. Close to 40 percent of Detroit’s population is functionally illiterate, and many Detroit parents lack a high school diploma – creating obstacles to their children’s success. Also, many low-income families don’t have the Internet access that could bring them vital information about their communities. Engaging families by providing opportunities for their children to create high quality content will help fill the communications gap, bring young voices into public debate and empower residents and communities to create positive changes.

Support for the “GreenSpace” project comes from a recent grant of $352,000 awarded to the Community Foundation from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Community Information Challenge.

The GreenSpace project will bring together available information and data of a seven-county region with an interactive map - benefitting anyone from a family searching for a place to hike or bike, to a resident advocating for more parks and recreation, to a government official developing new land use policies.

GreenSpace will also encourage users to produce and share new information, stories and links in order to expand the range and quality of information available, helping to nurture leadership and action on these issues that are so important to southeast Michigan.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

The Community Foundation has 25 years of grantmaking experience and almost a decade of regional leadership in promoting green communities. The Community Foundation’s GreenWays Initiative, launched in 2001, is just one example of the Foundation’s long-term regional vision to improve and enhance the quality of life in southeast Michigan.  By leveraging grant dollars and bringing together individual cities, counties and funders, the GreenWays Initiative has resulted in an investment of more than $100 million for the planning and construction of a greenways network that links together communities in southeast Michigan.  When all of the projects funded through the GreenWays Initiative are completed, there will be more than 100 miles of new trails and pathways connecting more than 80 municipalities across southeast Michigan.

The Knight Community Information Challenge is a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged. Knight Foundation launched the Community Information Challenge to spur forward thinking community and place-based foundations to meet an important and growing need in our democracy - the need for quality, reliable local news and information.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations committed to the future of southeast Michigan.  The Foundation works to improve the region’s quality of life by connecting those who care with causes that matter.  The Foundation supports a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development and civic affairs.  Since its inception, the Foundation has distributed more than $390 million through more than 34,000 grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair and Livingston counties.  For more information, please visit www.cfsem.org.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Theresa Fraley
Communications Director
Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
(313) 961-6675
tfraley@cfsem.org

Marc Fest
Vice President for Communications
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
(305) 908-2677
@knightfoundation.org