Winners

Winners - Second Challenge

The winners of the second Knight Community Information Challenge include foundations large and small, urban and rural. The projects – submitted by community and place-based foundations nationwide – represent a diverse range of ideas, including 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; and funding journalists and online news sites in Wyoming, Arkansas, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida to produce news in the public interest. 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 full list of winners is below. You can read more about the second-year KCIC winners in the related news release.

ACTion Alexandria (ACT For Alexandria, $102,000)
To encourage community problem-solving in Alexandria, Va. by creating an online site where residents can post problems, debate solutions and share successes.
Digital Media Center (Akron Community Foundation, $350,000)
To strengthen community news and information-sharing in Akron by training citizen journalists to create hyper-local content that will be broadcast digitally.
Write for Arkansas (Arkansas Community Foundation, $252,000)
To provide more in-depth coverage of economic development issues by boosting the reporting staff at community newspapers in Arkansas.
Be Counted, Represent (California Community Foundation, $72,000)
To encourage Los Angeles Latinos to participate in the U.S. census through a dual Internet-mobile phone application.
Central Pennsylvania 2-1-1 (Centre County Community Foundation, $225,000)
To help residents in 15 Pennsylvania counties get vital civic information through a 2-1-1 phone information service.
Community News Matters (The Chicago Community Trust, $202,000)
To stimulate new ways to provide the Chicago region with local news and information by providing grants to the region’s media innovators.
GreenSpace (Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, $352,000)
To foster support for creating more livable communities in southeast Michigan by developing an information hub focusing on the region's green spaces and natural resources.
River Partnership Online Network (The River Partnership of Community Foundations, $141,000)
To inform and engage residents around Mississippi River issues via a series of Web sites that localize national stories and foster discussion.
Community Information Action Agenda (Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County, $152,000)
To help meet the information needs of this rural Wisconsin community by creating an action agenda to address gaps and opportunities in the local media landscape.
Public Interest News Service (Community Foundation of New Jersey, $352,000)
To expand residents’ knowledge and understanding of New Jersey issues by creating an in-depth, public interest, online news service with discussion forums.
We the People (The Community Foundation of North Florida, $72,000)
To revitalize the dialogue among the diverse residents of Tallahassee, Fla. by creating a virtual and real world forum for exchanging perspectives on issues.
Gables Home Page (Coral Gables Community Foundation, $130,000)
To nurture civic participation in Coral Gables, Fla. by strengthening the news and information site GablesHomePage.com.
TheDuSu.com (Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, $122,000)
To attract and retain young adults in Duluth and Superior by providing the information they need to thrive in the region through a local Web portal.
Open Indicators Consortium (Greater Lowell Community Foundation, $62,000)
To help the public easily digest local information by creating a series of open-source data visualization tools.
The Florida Independent (Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, $352,000)
To strengthen investigative reporting in Florida by creating a statewide, nonprofit online news network.
ctmirror.org (Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, $302,000)
To deepen news coverage of Connecticut by creating an online news site focused on state government and public policy.
Health News Florida (Health Foundation of South Florida, $302,000)
To strengthen knowledge of health issues in Tallahassee, Bradenton and Miami by expanding Health News Florida’s coverage in those areas.
WyoFile.com (Lander Community Foundation, $122,000)
To increase the availability of information on complex state issues by supporting an online news site focused on Wyoming.
Amazing County (a.k.a. County Bounty) (Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, $94,400)
To strengthen community knowledge and pride in New York’s Chautauqua County through an online cultural treasure hunt.
Community Forums (Rhode Island Foundation, $102,000)
To promote community engagement around Rhode Island’s pressing challenges in six key areas through public forums on radio and online.
Envision Bay Area (Silicon Valley Community Foundation, $302,000)
To increase resident involvement in land use issues in Northern California by launching an information campaign that explains the impact of planning decisions on everyday life.
READY. GET SET. LEARN. (The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, $104,000)
To raise awareness about the importance of early school readiness for at-risk children through a digital information campaign.
Beyond Bullets (The New York Community Trust, $62,000)
To raise the collective consciousness about gun violence in New York by launching a media campaign using youth reporters and roving anti-gun film festivals.
KidSpeak Neighborhood News (Michigan’s Children, a partner of The Skillman Foundation, $126,000)
To boost involvement in local issues by creating a multi-media youth news service focused on Detroit neighborhoods and schools.

Winners: First Challenge

The first Challenge's winners can roughly be divided into three categories: Information Hubs - Sites that bring together a wide variety of community information in one place; On-the-Street Journalists - Projects that fund professional and/or citizen journalists to report community news; Other Information Projects - A range of ideas that involve the community in the creating and sharing of information.

Digital Public Square ($550,000)
To create a digital public square with Web 2.0 technologies. (Palm Beach County, Fla.)
IdeaMN ($500,000)
To foster a deeper understanding of community issues by engaging citizens in problem-solving efforts. (Minnesota)
The People's Post (formerly Regional Information Initiative) ($500,000)
To help expand online news coverage through professional and lay journalism and community-based digital storytelling. (San Diego, Calif.)
Valley Independent Sentinel ($500,000)
To support creating a new online news site to help provide vital community information to five close knit towns in Connecticut’s Lower Naugatuck Valley. (Naugatuck Valley, Conn.)
NOWcast SA ($488,500)
To enhance community coverage by developing neighborhood-based communications centers that produce live streaming and on-demand video broadcasts. (San Antonio, Texas)
CommonWealth Magazine ($400,000)
To help deepen the coverage of public policy by strengthening the reporting and online reach of an award-winning quarterly journal. (Boston)
BG Time (formerly Raising Digital Literacy Among Seniors) ($383,332)
To promote civic engagement and digital literacy among seniors by supporting the creation of an online site staffed by and for them. (Columbia, S.C.)
ThoughtBox (formerly Virtual Community Library) ($277,686)
To create a central site where critical dialogue about the community is compiled, archived and disseminated. (North Carolina and South Carolina)
bctv.org (formerly Community Information Hub) ($255,000)
To help Berks County citizens find out what is happening in their community through a new local news Web portal created by a public television station. (Berks County / Reading, Pa.)
Hyper-local Information ($250,000)
To support and stimulate new ways to provide the Chicago region with the local news and information residents need to improve their communities by providing grants to local media innovators. (Chicago, Ill.)
Public School Notebook ($200,000)
To help better inform Philadelphia parents and education advocates by developing the digital format for a print publication covering local schools. (Philadelphia)
growWNY (formerly The Green Table Virtual Meeting Place) ($188,000)
To promote community dialogue around reviving post-industrial Buffalo by creating a forum where groups concerned with the environment can exchange information and boost civic engagement. (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Connect Southwest Alabama ($169,005)
To connect people, information and ideas in South Alabama by creating a dynamic community information system that will store and share civic knowledge and information. (Southwest Alabama)
Gables HomePage (formerly Bridging the Digital "Gray Divide") ($155,967)
To engage the community with a new online news source using student and citizen journalists. (Coral Gables, Fla.)
The Rapidian (formerly Neighborhood News Bureaus) ($128,535)
To help better inform Grand Rapids by establishing neighborhood bureaus that will use citizen journalists to generate written, video and audio news about the community. (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
ConnectNetwork ($120,000)
To transform a proven innovation into a national model for community foundations to utilize and inspire citizens to lead change. (Richmond, Va. and Central Virginia)
A Civic Blast ($100,000)
To help inform and engage 18 to 30-year-olds who have not attended college through relevant content distributed through new media channels. (Boulder, Colo.)
C-U Citizen Access (formerly Access to Basic Information) ($100,000)
To explore ways to better inform residents living below the poverty line through Web, radio, television and through cellphone alerts. (Champaign-Urbana, Ill.)
Donor-funded News Beats ($100,000)
To support in-depth coverage of key community issues by introducing donors to funding news beats at the high-quality MinnPost.com. (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Community News 2.0 ($87,500)
To help provide this rural community with vital information by creating an online platform for community news. (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.)
Community Footprint (formerly Carbon and Water Footprint Project) ($86,740)
To help promote a dialogue on conservation in this weather-dependent community by creating a Web site where the community can measure its environmental footprint, plan activities and exchange information and ideas. (Park City, Utah)
Manatee Connects ($41,250)
To connect Manatee citizens and agencies through a virtual town square focused on nonprofit and civic news and information. (Bradenton, Fla.)