Knight Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Knight Foundation broadly funds community development initiatives across the United States. As part of its journalism program, the Knight Foundation awards grants for First Amendment rights in the digital age and the use of technology to advance journalistic excellence. This funder invests in journalism, arts, and community development programs that aim to engage broad audiences.

IP TAKE: While the Knight Foundation is one of the oldest and most well established grantmaking organizations in the country, its geographical and topical scope is somewhat limited. It exclusively conducts its grantmaking in 26 American cities selected because they were home to newspapers that the Knight family either founded or owned. Grantseekers should note that the foundation strongly prioritizes initiatives that center around the implementation of digital technology in all of its program areas. However, for those that meet the funder’s criteria, Knight can be a source of substantial funding.

This is a transparent funder that is also approachable, accepting letters of inquiry for all of its programs year-round. According to its website, a relationship that starts with a letter of inquiry may have a variety of outcomes, as the foundation is open to exploring not only grants, but also loans, contracts, program-related investments, or other kinds of partnership.

PROFILE: The Knight Foundation was established in 1950 by newspaper magnates John S. Knight and James L. Knight. Its giving is based on a strong faith in the importance of “informed and engaged” people and communities. Originally formed to continue the educational grantmaking of the Knight Memorial Education Fund, the foundation began making small contributions to local cultural and human services organizations. The first steps toward its current grantmaking strategy were taken in 1965, after a substantial contribution from the estate of Clara Knight, when the foundation transitioned from providing direct financial assistance to students to making supporting grants to educational institutions. Over the decades, the foundation has grown significantly through multi-million-dollar bequests left by the estates of Knight family members and expanded its work in various focus areas to serve the 26 cities where Knight-owned publications have had a presence.

Its current mission is to support “transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts.” Its four main funding areas are Journalism, Communities, Arts, and Learning & Impact. The Knight Foundation has a clearly defined statement of grantmaking strategy that grant seekers should study closely.

Grants for Journalism

The Knight Foundation’s Journalism program seeks to advance journalistic excellence in the digital age. As one might expect from the foundation’s roots, journalism is a core focus of its roots. In September 2023, Knight announced it had increased its funding commitment to local journalism by $150 million over five years as part of a collaborative funding effort called Press Forward.

  • The main objective of Knight’s journalism focus centers on fostering “the expansion of news organizations for sustained growth” through such methods as “revenue diversification, market expansion, strategic partnerships and innovative product development.” Journalism grantmaking prioritizes:

  • Sustainability and Revenue Development.

  • Strengthening Talent and Leadership.

  • Technology and Product Innovation.

  • First Amendment and Journalist Safety.

  • Previous journalism grantees include the American Journalism Project, Asian American Journalists, Capital B News of Brooklyn, and the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network. In 2023, it gave $5 million to establish Signal Akron, a new nonprofit newsroom in northeast Ohio. The foundation also funds endowed chairs of journalism at top universities across the country.

Grants for Housing and Community Development 

The Knight Foundation conducts grantmaking related to housing and community development across a variety of programs and initiatives, which include Communities, Smart Cities, and Public Spaces:

  • Knight’s Communities program supports “the development of engaged, inclusive and equitable communities."

  • Smart Cities grants work to “harness the growth of digital technology to improve how communities respond, connect to and engage with residents.”

  • Public Spaces grants invest in “spaces such as parks, trails, libraries to engage and connect residents to each other and to the places where they live.”

    Knight maintains signature community programs in the eight cities where the Knight family’s newspapers were located—Akron, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit, Charlotte, Macon, St. Paul, and San Jose—as well as a Community Foundations Program that works in partnership with local community foundations in 18 other U.S. cities.

    Grants stemming from the foundation’s communities program have recently gone to organizations including New York City’s Friends of the High Line, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami, Philadelphia’s Avenue North Renaissance, and the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance.

Grants for Arts and Culture

The Knight Foundation’s Arts program primarily funds work involving “the application of technology to the creation, dissemination and experience of art” in order to “strengthen ties with communities while fostering meaningful connections between people and place.” Knight’s two-pronged strategy in this field involves supporting discovery and exploration aimed at developing:

  • “emerging practices and understanding the sector through fellowships, forums, research and critique.”

  • “digital infrastructure” that helps improve “the overall capacity of arts organizations through support for planning, staffing and investments in technical infrastructure.”

  • While the foundation conducts grantmaking nationally, it prioritizes giving to organizations that are part of its Knight Communities, located across 26 cities where the Knight brothers once owned newspapers.

  • Recent recipients include Philadelphia’s Blackstar Film Festival, Florida’s Coral Gables Museum, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana de San Jose, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.

Grants for Civic and Democracy

The Knight Foundation conducts grantmaking for civic & democracy through its Learning & Impact program, which supports “research that contributes to the broader understanding of informed and engaged communities.”

  • While partially concerned with assessing and analyzing the effectiveness of the foundation’s own grants and investments, it also funds research into media, democracy, and polling.

  • This program funds “independent scholarship and policy insight to ensure the technologies used to produce, disseminate, and consume information advance democratic values and serve the common good.”

  • Grantees include Association of Research Libraries, Meedan Inc., Journal of Free Speech Law, and the Aspen Institute.

Grants for Education

The Knight Foundation may be considered a legacy education funder, as the foundation was originally established to provide financial aid to students in the newspaper’s home communities. Today, while education is not a stated priority, the foundation supports K-12 education through all three of its funding initiatives.

  • Through its Journalism program, the foundation defends “freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the face of both long-standing threats and unprecedented challenges emerging as technology changes the way we communicate.”

  • Knight’s Communities program seeks to develop talent, promote opportunity and increase civic engagement.

  • The foundation’s Arts program works with both established cultural institutions and smaller arts initiatives toward “new approaches to connect with the public.”

  • Past grantees in the area of K-12 education include the News Literacy Project, which provides professional development and curricula for teaching media literacy, and Read Charlotte, a literacy program for students and families.

The foundation also supports higher education mainly through its Journalism and Arts initiatives.

  • Its journalism program names talent and learning as a sub-initiative and invests in digital literacy programs, journalism education and named chairs at major U.S. universities.

  • Knight’s arts program prioritizes the areas where Knight once published newspapers and invests in arts projects that “build stronger, better informed and more engaged communities.”

Recent grants have focused on the use of technology in building arts audiences; the foundation awarded grants to Kent State University and MIT for the development of poetry and classical music apps.

Important Grant Details:

Grants generally range from $10,000 to $500,000 and have supported organizations of all sizes. To get a clearer sense of Knight’s funding tendencies, review the foundation’s searchable database.

  • The Knight Foundation only makes grants in cities where the Knight family has founded or owned newspapers. It maintains offices with full-time program officers in Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; Macon, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Jose, California; and St. Paul, Minnesota. It also works with partner organizations in eighteen other small towns. 

  • Letters of inquiry are accepted year-round. After submitting an LOI, applicants may be invited to submit a full proposal. On rare occasions, the foundation may release an open call for proposals. The time frame for decision-making depends on the scope of the submitted proposal.

  • The Knight Foundation does not fund fundraising events, faith-based initiatives, international programs, or individuals.

General inquiries may be submitted via the foundation’s Contact page.

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