First Challenge Winners

The Challenge's First Round 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)
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)
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.)
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)
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)
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)
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.)
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.)
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.)
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.)