Informed and engaged communities.
eNewsletter Sign-Up
- Home
- Research & Publications
Research & Publications
If you're searching for a publication you can't find here, please email your requests to webmaster Robertson Adams via adams@knightfoundation.org.
Click a tab below to view associated documents
Journalism
Drinking from The Firehoses at Future of News and Civic Media Conference 3.0
Author: By Christopher Connell for Knight Foundation
Date: August 2010
A companion to the June 2010 Knight Foundation report on Knight News Challenge: Casting the Net Wide for Innovation
The clever young men and women at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are adept with their hands as well as their heads. Feats such as depositing a fire truck atop the Great Dome or running a solar-powered mockup of a Boston T car along the rim have earned them major style points in the pantheon of pranksters. One of the most heralded came in 1991 when students hooked a fire hose-cum-hydrant to a water fountain outside a big lecture hall, recalling former MIT President Jerome Wisner’s chestnut that “getting an education from MIT is like taking a drink from a fire hose.” Today a replica of their jury-rigged device is proudly displayed like a museum piece in the lobby of the Stata Center, a Frank Gehry creation that itself has been punked (to resemble Waldo).
Publication File: 
13228 KF NewsChallengeFeature Final
The State of Funding in Information and Media Among Community and Place-based Foundations
Author: FSG Social Impact Advisors
Date: July 2010
The last two decades have brought fundamental and rapid change in the way information is produced, gathered and shared. Communities have experienced a decline in traditional local news sources and reporting. At the same time, however, new technologies, information sources and tools are emerging at a staggering rate. Yet, in this new sea of information, individuals risk relying on sources that lack credibility and comprehensiveness, and participation in online media remains uneven with marginalized populations facing significant barriers in access. As these disruptions play out, national and local leaders have become increasingly concerned about the overall health of local information systems, and the impact this will have on the vitality of communities and the ability of individuals to meaningfully engage in democratic processes.
Publication File: Kcic-state-of-funding-report-final-july-2010-by-fsg-social-impact-advisers
National
Restoring The Balance
Dollars, Values and the Future of College Sports
Author: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
Date: June 2010
In this report, the Knight Commission proposes recommendations for financial reform in college sports against the backdrop of escalating athletics spending, shrinking state budgets and institutional endowments, and conference realignment.
As you know, over the past 18 months we have been examining the business of college sports. The findings from our research are startling:
- Median athletics spending at public institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) has grown nearly 38 percent from 2005 to 2008, while academic spending grew only 20 percent. The ten public institutions spending the most on college sports are on pace to spend more than $250 million annually, on average, in 2020.
- Median athletics spending per athlete ranges from 4 to nearly 11 times more than the academic spending per student in the FBS conferences.
- Restoring the Balance, the Knight Commission's blueprint for financial reform, offers three principles for strengthened accountability in intercollegiate athletics.
Publication File: 2010-KCIA-Report-Restoring-the-Balance-final
Knight News Challenge: Casting the Net Wide for Innovation
Author: Chris Connell for Knight Foundation
Date: June 2010
Although the News Challenge – $25 million over five years – represents only a fraction of Knight’s work, it has become a signature program, an unmistakable sign of its earnestness about finding new, digital ways to replace the news that citizens used to get from local newspapers, television and radio. It has spawned similar Knight grant contests, including the $24 million Community Information Challenge and a $20 million Knight Arts Challenge in South Florida, built on “what we did and learned with the News Challenge,” Kebbel said.
Publication File: 13228 KF News Challenge Feature 7-7 Lo Res
Journalism
Seeking Sustainability, A Roundtable (With Video)
Online Nonprofit Local/Regional News Venture Roundtable
Author: By Christopher Sopher
Date: June 2010
Online Nonprofit Local/Regional News Venture Roundtable
A meeting sponsored by Knight Foundation and co-hosted by Texas Tribune, Voice of San Diego and the Knight Chair in Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin
April 26, 2010
Why Nonprofits
By now it is relatively common knowledge that America’s news industry is undergoing profound and frequently tumultuous change. Every news organization is affected by the development of the Internet and the resulting changes in revenue streams, audience habits and community needs. Traditional media companies have been particularly distressed by shifts in the markets and business models that historically supported them—and the conversation about how to “save” or “reinvent” journalism has been largely focused on their concerns.
To a growing group of practitioners, funders and observers, however, the challenge is not saving traditional news organizations or traditional forms of journalism. The challenge is creating, strengthening and protecting informed communities and local information ecosystems, of which journalism is a necessary component.
Thus enters the nonprofit model, which allows organizations to pursue a journalistic mission without the competing demands of operating a for-profit business. Nonprofit news startups have been created in communities across the country, most with funding from major donors or foundations. The Knight Foundation alone has funded more than 200 experiments with what it calls a “build to learn” approach.
Publication File: Seeking-sustainability-061110 updated 08/18/2010
Journalism
Digital Transitions: Nonprofit Investigative Journalism
Center for Public Integrity Evaluation Report
Author: Julia Coffman, evaluation consultant; Judy J. Miller, investigative journalism consultant; Victor Acquah, Web Analytics Consultant
Date: June 2010
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization based in Washington D.C. with a mission of producing original investigative journalism that makes institutional power more transparent and accountable. CPI is nonpartisan, and is committed to comprehensive reporting in the United States and around the world.Publication File: Cpi-evaluation-report-061610
Community and Place-Based Foundations and the Knight Community Information Challenge
The Changing News and Information Landscape
Date: March 2010
This brief explores how, through the Knight Community Information Challenge, place-based foundations are incorporating community information needs into their work for the benefit both of their communities and their own strategies and missions. Permalink
Publication File: community-and-place-based-foundations-and-the-kcic.pdf
Journalism
Media, Information and Communication Contests: An Analysis
Presented to: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation | September 2009
Date: January 2010
Four years ago, as the media industry teetered, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation began to explore new ways to advance quality journalism in the digital age. We asked: what innovations will inform 21st century communities the way the Knight brothers’ newspapers did in the 20th?
To help find them, we created the Knight News Challenge – a five-year, $25 million contest seeking fresh ideas for using digital technology to inform geographic communities. We believed that living through a time of such enormous change, the most effective thing we can do as a foundation is to experiment and learn.
This study forwards that mission. After three rounds of the Knight News Challenge, we took a step back to examine how we could improve the contest. We consulted past challenge judges, entrepreneurs and technologists. We also explored lessons from the broader field. In general, contests are increasingly being used as a tool to solve society’s most entrenched problems. In the area of news and information alone, the number of contests has doubled since we first launched the challenge in 2006.
We hope that you will find the information contained in this report as beneficial as we have. We hope it will be a useful resource for organizations that are designing and implementing contests to spur innovation, as well as for nonprofits and individuals looking for funding opportunities in the area of media, information and communication.
-Gary Kebbel,
Journalism Program Director,
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
-Mayur Patel,
Director of Strategic Assessment & Impact
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Publication File: 2010_mediacontests.pdf
Journalism
Knight Chairs Annual Report: 2008-09 Academic Year
Author: Dr. Virginia Dodge Fielder
Date: December 2009
Knight Foundation has established two dozen endowed chairs in journalism at top universities nationwide. The chairs are leading journalists who take positions as tenured professors within academia. They practice journalism, teach innovative classes, and create experimental projects and new programs that help lead journalism excellence in the digital age.
Publication File: knight-chairs-annual-report_2008-09_Highlights.pdf
Journalism
Grantee Reports: An Example
An example of a good status report from a grantee, this one the Teaching Newspaper in partnership with the University of Alabama, can be found here.
Date: November 2009
Knight Foundation journalism grantees produce regular reports showing their accomplishments and how those align with grant benchmarks and expected outcomes. This report, from the University of Alabama, is a good example of a clear, concise version of such reporting.
Journalism
J-Lab: Meet the New Media Makers
A Toolkit for Innovators in Community Media and Grant Making
Author: Jan Schaffer
Date: October 2009
This learning module is filled with original reporting that will help you learn about the innovative community news initiatives that are cropping up around the United States - and securing grants from foundations that have not traditionally supported journalism.
In the case studies and accompanying videos, you’ll meet citizen journalists who have launched news sites in Boston; Deerfield, N.H.; New Haven, Conn.; and Chappaqua, N.Y. And you’ll learn how professional journalists have launched news initiatives that either partner with or supplement their metro news outlets.
Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age
Report of the Knight Commission
Author: Theodore B. Olson and Marissa Mayer, co-chairs
Date: September 2009
The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy is a group of 17 media, policy and community leaders. Its purpose is to assess the information needs of communities, and recommend measures to help Americans better meet those needs.
The Knight Commission sees new thinking about news and information as a necessary step to sustaining democracy in the digital age. It thus follows in the footsteps of the 1940s Hutchins Commission and the Kerner and Carnegie Commissions of the 1960s.
But in the digital age the stakes are even higher. Technological, economic and behavioral changes are dramatically altering how Americans communicate. Communications systems no longer run along the lines of local communities, and the gap in access to digital tools and skills is wide and troubling.
The Commission seeks to start a national discussion – leading to real action. Its aims are to maximize the availability and flow of credible local information; to enhance access and capacity to use the new tools of knowledge and exchange; and to encourage people to engage with information and each other within their geographic communities.
Publication File: 2009 Kc Final English Book Web
Arts
Knight Creative Communities Initiative Evaluation Final Report
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: October 2008
Executive Summary
The Knight Creative Communities Initiative (KCCI) was undertaken as part of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's recent interest in the development of social entrepreneurs to promote community transformation based on Richard Florida's creative class theory to stimulate economic development. The focus of KCCI was sponsorship of the "Creative Community Leadership Seminar" in three regions in order to "train Foundation staff and selected community leaders as creative community leaders." Florida's consulting firm, Creative Class Group (CCG), implemented the initiative in Charlotte, North Carolina; Duluth, Minnesota/Superior, Wisconsin; and Tallahassee, Florida.
The report begins with an overview of the logic of KCCI. We then examine participants' experience of the initiative, from March 2007 to March 2008, using a chronological structure: the selection of community catalysts, the initial two-day seminar, the organization of the action teams, and the history of the teams. The report concludes with a framework for evaluating the medium and long-term impacts of KCCI on the three communities.
Publication File: KCCI_interim_report.v5.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Even as Living Cities changes, America's urban neighborhoods stay in view
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Martin Merzer
Date: September 2008
(September 15, 2008) Since its creation in 1991, Living Cities has invested $570 million, priming other financial pumps that collectively poured $5.2 billion of direct investment into those 23 cities.
Narrowing the focus, Living Cities received $22.2 million from Knight Foundation, according to an analysis by the consortium for this report, and invested $79.5 million in the four Knight communities, though those grants and loans seeded matching contributions and projects of far greater value.
Most of this activity has involved housing, but revolutionary change is sweeping Living Cities and the entire field of urban renewal. Experts now recognize that affordable housing alone is not the answer. To stem and reverse the spiral of deterioration, repair some of the damage and ultimately restore a neighborhood’s sense of self, you must work more systemically.
That means pockets of new, attractive, affordable housing. Commercial corridors revitalized with freshened storefronts, new street lighting and festive pennants. A modern shopping center, a new bank, a police substation. Add programs to improve health, education, financial skills and economic stability. Only when taken together can these enhancements begin to make a difference.
Publication File: living_cities_reporter_analysis.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Dick Polman
Date: June 2008
Today, nearly three years after the storm, and with expenditures thus far totaling roughly $10 million, Knight Foundation can rightly point to a string of achievements - most notably, its crucial role in bringing world-class planners and architects to the afflicted region, and prompting citizens to chart new communities in ways they had never before imagined. Yet at the same time, political, cultural and financial obstacles have impeded recovery on virtually all fronts. In the words of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who is praised for his recovery efforts even by political foes, "It's all been way too slow to suit me."
Venture capitalist Jim Barksdale, the former CEO of Federal Express and Netscape, who worked with Knight Foundation at a critical early juncture, now says, "It's much easier to dream big dreams than to implement big dreams." And Sun Herald publisher Ricky Mathews identified the biggest negative factor: "Parochialism. We have such a damn difficult problem speaking with one voice. And there are too many local leaders here who can't see beyond their own cities."
All of which prompts this question: How exactly should a foundation assess success or failure? Are its grant monies well spent only if there are tangible, and durable, end results? Or, particularly with respect to the far-flung crisis on the Gulf Coast, should Knight simply take pride in the fact that its investments have profoundly lifted the spirits of devastated citizens, and prompted new ways of thinking about the future - and that such an achievement cannot even be measured in dollars? Indeed, Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr says yes to the latter: "It's hard to imagine anything better than what the Knight Foundation has done, and I'm not just saying that to butter their backsides."
Publication File: 2008_05_21_Biloxi_final.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Tempering the Immigration Debate: An Assessment of the American Dream Fund
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Tony Mecia
Date: March 2008
In 2003, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation joined with Ford, Carnegie and others in a national effort to encourage immigrant civic participation, and a year later, Knight adopted a variation of that strategy: funding a wide array of local, grassroots nonprofits in Knight communities. Its name: the American Dream Fund.
When the national immigration debate culminated in 2006 and 2007 with rallies and intense political debates, some of the funded organizations were on the front lines, organizing marches. Others shied from politics and focused on local services such as legal clinics and citizenship classes.
Now, as Knight Foundation assesses the effectiveness of the American Dream Fund, it is doing so with new leadership and new program staff who are more skeptical of awarding grants to organizations explicitly involved in policy advocacy. They say Knight is redirecting the fund to focus more narrowly on naturalization.
As to the old focus, one that permitted and encouraged policy advocacy, foundation staff say they’re unsure if dollars applied toward advocacy had any impact.
Publication File: 2007 03 10 Immigration Scribe Report
Communities
Starting Out Right: A Cluster Evaluation of the Early Childhood grants of the Knight Foundation
Year 3 Final Report
Author: Deanna S. Gomby, Ph.D. and Lisa G. Klein, Ph.D.
Date: February 2008
Abstract
Since 2001, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded 125 early childhood grants totaling more than $50 million. In 2007, there were 47 active grants. Gomby and Klein reviewed the grants for Knight and produced this report.
Communities
Knight has made grants in early childhood education in the Knight communities of Aberdeen, S.D.; Boulder, Colo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Long Beach, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa; St. Paul, Mn.; San Jose, Calif.; State College, Pa.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Wichita, Kan.
Publication File: KF Evaluation - Early Childhood 020607.doc
Reporter Analysis
A Big Job: Retooling Northeast Ohio's Economy
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: John Dorshner
Date: December 2007
Certainly, Northeast Ohio’s economy has been in bad shape for a long time. The most vivid examples may be in Youngstown where rusting hulks of abandoned steel mills intrude on the landscape. Census data shows the region lost about 100,000 workers between 2000 and 2005; almost half worked in higher-wage manufacturing jobs. Many who still have jobs are earning less.
Cleveland, the region’s population hub, has been especially hard hit. Census data from 2004 showed it to be the poorest big city in America, and though it has since lost that distinction, it remains among the very poorest.
For decades, civic leaders have known that something needed to be done, and there have been many efforts, with grand names like Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. The city’s downtown was boosted in the 1990s with new high-rise developments, new baseball and football stadiums, plus the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But none of these actions stemmed the economic decline.
In 2003, various foundation leaders began meeting “fairly regularly,” says Briggs, who also is vice chair of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. All agreed “nobody is taking charge” of economic development.
Knight Foundation, given its strong historic ties to Akron, has become deeply involved in the efforts to revitalize the region. So far, it has contributed $6.6 million: $1 million to the Fund in 2004 for its first phase and $2 million in 2007 for its second phase, plus direct grants made to several major Fund grantees: $1.5 million to Team NEO, $1.5 million to JumpStart and $600,000 to BioEnterprise.
Publication File: kf_northeastohio_1207b.pdf
Arts
Knight Creative Communities Initiative Evaluation
Interim Report #1 - Seminars and Initiatives
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: December 2007
This memo reports on the initial findings of the experience of KCCI participants from the selection of catalysts during the late winter of 2007 through October 2007.
Publication File: KCCI_interim_report.v5.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Knight Funding in Miami's Overtown: A Big Bet, a Bigger Challenge
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Andre Oliver
Date: October 2007
In 2000, as Knight Foundation marked its 50th anniversary, its leadership made one of the largest and most challenging investment decisions in its history. It would commit nearly $19 million for up to five years to help revitalize Overtown, a community less than a half mile from the foundation's Miami headquarters but far distant economically and socially from much of the city and Miami-Dade County.
The foundation's $19 million went to 32 national and community organizations to build affordable housing and promote community development; help train residents and find them jobs; increase personal savings; and assist with mentoring and with after-school and recreational activities.
Seven years later, nearly six out of 10 program managers told the foundation they met their goals, at least partially. Programs focused on employment and training, education and recreation especially saw high levels of participation.
But other programs failed, or have yet to deliver on their promises. Efforts to promote micro lending and encourage individual development accounts were not embraced by residents.
Ironically, where the foundation placed its largest bets — in community development — recipients faced the greatest hurdles and delivered the fewest returns. Although nearly 500 units of affordable housing were completed, rebuilt or refurbished using Knight funds, the total is well below aspirations.
The foundation's internal analysis of the grant portfolio paints a stark picture. Observers, Knight grantees and foundation staff highlight significant problems with the strategy employed by the foundation, poor implementation by some grantees and challenges inherent to Overtown.
Publication File: Overtown Web Edition
Arts
Cultivating "Natural" Cultural Districts
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: October 2007
Can the arts and culture play a central role in revitalizing American cities? Over the past decade, a number of cities have answered this question affirmatively.
Publication File: NaturalCulturalDistricts.oct07.pdf
Journalism
Creative Destruction
An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet
Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Date: August 2007
This report examines trends in Internet-based news traffic for the purpose of peering into the future of news in America. In light of the continuing migration of Americans to online news, the evolving nature of Web technology, and the limits of our survey of websites, our assessments are necessarily speculative.
Publication File: Creative Destruction Web
Journalism
Young People and News
Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Date: July 2007
Based on a national survey of 1800 randomly sampled teens, young adults, and older adults, this report examines the amount of daily news consumed by young people. The evidence shows that young Americans are estranged from the daily newspaper and rely more heavily on television than on the Internet for their news. A few decades ago, there were not large differences in the news habits and daily information levels of younger and older Americans.
Today, unlike most older Americans, many young people find a bit of news here and there and do not make it a routine part of their day.
Publication File: Young News Web
Journalism
An Imperative to Innovate
Sustainable Journalism Training in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: A Report from the Jefferson Institute funded by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Date: June 2007
Serious efforts at media development have been underway since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and in some cases even earlier. USAID, for example, opened its first radio station in Liberia in 1985. Despite these long-running efforts, today there is still a great need for media development assistance. Efforts at democratization will fail unless bolstered by strong, independent media. Although conditions are difficult, there are many opportunities for moving forward.
Publication File: Imperative To Innovate 070615
Communities
Foundations for Success
Date: May 2007
Foundations for Success (FFS) is a five-year initiative designed to put in place a county-wide system of care for early childhood mental health.
Publication File: Foundations for Success Report May 31 2007.pdf
Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive
A digital literacy guide for the information age
Author: Mark Briggs
Date: April 2007
This 128-page book is a guide to jumpstart digital media skills for newsrooms and classrooms. Learn how to use RSS feeds, transfer files with FTP, store data on spreadsheets, create and maintain a blog, report news for the Web, shoot and edit photos and video and record audio.Publication File: Journalism 20
News, Improved
How America's Newsrooms Are Learning to Change
Author: Michele McLellan and Tim Porter
Date: March 2007
“NEWS, IMPROVED” is for journalists who intend to thrive in the 21st Century.
It is an exploration of the new world right in front of us, a manual for those ready to stop pining for the past and start growing with the future. The message: Any journalist can learn to join the booming digital world of targeted, convenient, interactive media.
The digital revolution has, plain and simple, upended journalism. The speed at which information moves -- and the new ways people consume it – is transforming what journalists need to know and do.
News, Improved reports on how news organizations are learning to change by setting clear editorial goals and priorities, developing training at all levels to achieve those goals, and using professional growth as a way to strengthen readership.
Book Excerpts
Introduction- Chapter 1. Closing the Leadership Gap
- Chapter 2. Goals: Knowing Just Where You’re Going
- Chapter 3. Newsroom culture: No more whining
- Chapter 4. The Well-Balanced Learning Diet
- Chapter 5. Frontline editors: Guardians of the culture
- Chapter 6. Learning to Change: The Business Imperative
- Chapter 7. The Future
Note: Link below is press release on the book. Printed book is for sale on the www.newsimproved.org web site.
Publication File: Pr NewsImproved Survey
Journalism
The Knight Open Government Survey
File Not Found: 10 Years After E-FOIA, Most Federal Agencies Are Delinquent
Author: Kristin Adair, Catherine Nielsen and Meredith Fuchs
Date: March 2007
Ten years after Congress enacted the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA), only one in five federal agencies actually complies with the law, according to a new survey released today during Sunshine Week by the National Security Archive.
Publication File: E-foia Audit Brief
Communities
Results of Sustained Participation in Akron's Perkins Activities Central
Author: Debbie Shama-Davis, Ph.D
Date: March 2007
In almost every area, students who attended PAC programs frequently over a two-year period had higher reading and math achievement scores.
Publication File: Perkins Activities Central.pdf
Communities
Investing in Early Childhood
Knight Foundation Makes a Difference, One Community at a Time
Author: Lisa Klein
Date: February 2007
Lisa Klein of Hestia Advising and Deanna Gomby of Gomby consulting conducted a cluster evaluation of the early childhood grants to estimate community impact, promote cross-community learning and highlight successes and challenges to implementing early childhood programs in 12 Knight Foundation communities. Since 2001, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded 125 early childhood grants totaling more than $50 million.
Publication File: KF Evaluation - Early Childhood 020607.pdf
Journalism
All Eyes Forward: How to help your newsroom get where it wants to go faster
Author: Vickey Williams
Date: January 2007
Cultural change initiatives conducted by several major newspapers are chronicled in All Eyes Forward: How to Help your Newsroom get where it wants to go Faster, a publication from The Learning Newsroom at the American Press Institute. The book describes how to develop a “learning newsroom” that has a constructive culture, and includes a discussion of the results of the studies by Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D.
Publication File: 2007-alleyesforward
Journalism
Mandatory Testing and News in the Schools
Implications for Civics Education
Author: A Report from the Carnegie-Knight Task Force
Date: January 2007
The intensive time required to “teach to the test” -- to prepare students for mandatory testing in the nation’s public schools -- is stealing time away from students to discuss and study the news, and ultimately become educated about and engaged in their country and their world, according to a report by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force based at Harvard University.
Publication File: Mandatory Testing
Arts
Culture and Urban Revitalization: A Harvest Document
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: January 2007
Advocates have long argued that the economic benefits of the arts and culture provide a firm rationale for public support. Recent scholarship on the “creative class” and “creative economy” is simply the latest effort to link cultural expression to community prosperity.
Publication File: HarvestFinal.TRFv2.wholedoc.small.pdf
Journalism
The Internet and the Threat it Poses to Local Media
Lessons from News in the Schools
Author: A Report from the Carnegie-Knight Task Force
Date: January 2007
This survey by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force at Harvard University shows a strong movement in America’s classrooms toward the use of Internet-based news and away from the use of newspapers and television news, a trend that is virtually certain to continue.
Publication File: Internet In Schools Web
Communities
Organizations Focused On Immigrant Civic Participation Encourage Immigrants To be Part of the Broader Community
Author: Craig McGarvey and David Scheie
Date: December 2006
The first year evaluation report on the Immigrant Participation & Immigration Reform (IPIR) initiative tells a story of human and social development newcomers joining and strengthening the democracy-among immigrants whose institutions engage them in organizational self-governance, leadership opportunities, and democratic civic activity.
Publication File: Immigrant Participation & Integration.pdf
Youth Cluster Assessment
Positive Youth Development
Author: Wellsys Corporation
Date: December 2006
Knight Foundation funded 39 grants in eight communities that focused on positive outcomes for youth.
Publication File: Youth Cluster Assessment.pdf
Journalism
Impunity Project Works To Solve Crimes Against Journalists
Author: Inter American Press Association
Date: November 2006
The Impunity Project was created to end impunity for attacks against journalists in the Americas.
Publication File: Inter American Press Association.pdf
Communities
Urban Fellows Gain Experience And Knowledge on Best Practices In Urban Redevelopment Through the CUREx Program
Author: Patrizi Associates
Date: November 2006
This is the final report of an evaluation conducted by Patrizi Associates of the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania (CUREx) program.
Publication File: CUREx.pdf
Communities
The Earned Income Tax Credit
Prosperity Campaigns Help To Lift Working Families Out of Poverty
Author: Kimary Lee and Nik Theodore
Date: November 2006
Prosperity campaigns have played a critical role in improving the economic well-being of low-income, working families, boosting income levels and lifting many families out of poverty.
Publication File: EITC.pdf
Communities
Moving Forward
Recommendations for Rebuilding East Biloxi
Author: Living Cities and Goody Clancy
Date: July 2006
This report documents Biloxi’s potential to become a major American destination for people seeking a mix of tourist and entertainment activities.
Publication File: Moving_Forward_Biloxi_Final_Report.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Final Report: The Search for Shining Eyes
Audiences, Leadership and Change in the Symphony Orchestra Field
Author: Dr. Thomas Wolf
Date: June 2006
From 1994 to 2004 – a seminal decade for the arts in America – the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation invested $13 million in its Magic of Music Symphony
Orchestra Initiative.
Publication File: 2006_Magic_of_Music_Final_Report.pdf
Journalism
Journalism's Crisis of Confidence
A Challenge for the Next Generation
Author: Vartan Gregorian
Date: May 2006
Journalism's Crisis of Confidence is based on a recent day-long dialogue involving the five founding deans of the initiative, along with several new journalism schools that have been invited to join in the curriculum enrichment aspect of the project.
This is the second report in the Carnegie-Knight series.
Publication File: Journ Crisis Full
Communities
One Economy Digital Communities
Transforming Lives for Low-Income Americans in San Jose and Miami
Author: Vera Michalchik, Sara Carriere,, Deborah Kim Emery, Larry Galagher, Ann House, Andres Molina, Lynne Peck Theis, William R. Penuel
Date: February 2006
The overall objective of this evaluation of One Economy’s Digital Communities program is to examine the impact that having a computer with Internet access at home has on peoples’ lives.
One Economy in Miami and San Jose.pdf
SRI Digital Communities Miami and SanJose.doc (MS Word)
Publication File: One Economy in Miami and San Jose.pdf
News in a New America
Author: Sally Lehrman, January 2006
Date: January 2006
Good journalists should be able to tackle any assignment, whether it is covering their own community or covering a community with which they have had little or no personal contact. In short, they should be able to give us news that is as American as America. That’s the ideal. The truth is, we all have blind spots.Publication File: KF News-in-a-New-America Web
Journalism
The Future of the First Amendment Survey: 2006 Update
What America's High School Students Think About Their Freedoms
Author: David Yalof and Kenneth Dautrich
Date: January 2006
This publication reports on a two-year, $1 million survey of high school students and their knowledge of the First Amendment. See the project web site: www.firstamendmentfuture.org
Publication File: 2006 Future Of First Amendment 1
Communities
Fund for our Economic Future
Author: Mt. Auburn Associates, Inc.
Date: January 2006
Prosperity campaigns have played a critical role in improving the economic well-being of low-income, working families, boosting income levels and lifting many families out of poverty.
Publication File: Fund for our Economic Future.pdf
Journalism
The Business of News
A Challenge for Journalism's Next Generation
Author: Carnegie-Knight Journalism Initiative, May 2006 (info)
Date: January 2006
American journalists have a major responsibility: working on democracy’s free press to inform citizens and officials about local, national and world events as well as to provide a measure of public accountability for all institutions and their members.
Publication File: 2006_carnegie_businessofnews2.pdf
Diversity in U.S. Newsrooms
Does your newspaper's staff reflect the community?
Author: Bill Dedman and Stephen K. Doig
Date: June 2005
Newsroom diversity is below its peak levels at most daily newspapers in the US, including three-fourths of the largest papers, according to a study for the Knight Foundation of newspaper employment from 1990 to 2005.
Publication File: Diversity Report
Journalism
Future of the First Amendment Study (2004-2007)
What America's High School Students Think About Their Freedoms
Date: May 2005
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s High School Initiative seeks to encourage students to use the news media, including student journalism, and to better understand and appreciate the First Amendment.
As part of the initiative, the foundation funded this “Future of the First Amendment” research project, focusing on the knowledge and attitudes of high school students, teachers and administrators. Specifically, the study seeks to determine whether relationships exist — and, if so, the nature of those relationships – between what teachers and administrators think, and what students do in their classrooms and with news media, and what they know about the First Amendment.
Ultimately, the project surveyed more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators and principals at 544 high schools across the United States.
Keeping Secrets
Public Information in the Era of Homeland Security
Author: Pete Weitzel
Date: April 2005
When Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a longtime friend of open government, took the stage at the ASNE convention two months ago, his message was anything but encouraging.Publication File: 2005_Keeping_Secrets_asne.pdf
Communities
The Haitian Community in Miami-Dade: A Growing the Middle Class Supplement
Date: January 2005
Although Haitians have been coming to Miami-Dade in large numbers for only a little over two decades, they have quickly become an integral part of the region. But there are important differences between the Haitian experience and other immigrant experiences in South Florida. Haitians are more likely to work low-wage jobs, earn less money, and pay larger shares of their incomes on basic necessities.
This report is a supplement to a June 2004 publication entitled, Growing the Middle Class: Connecting All Miami-Dade Residents to Economic Opportunity. The intent of this report is to provide specific information about the Haitian community in Miami-Dade County in order to better describe the challenges they face. After describing Haitian income trends, the report explores some of the reasons behind the low incomes and higher poverty rates of Miami’s Haitian population.
Publication File: 2005 Brookings Haitians In Miami
Journalism
Broadcast in a Box
Plugged In: Using the Internet for High School (and Professional) Journalism
Author: Lisa Habib
Date: January 2005
In 2005, RTNDF’s High School Project put together a teacher’s toolbox called “Broadcast in a Box.” It consisted of three books, three discs and the RTNDA Code of Ethics.
Response to the printed Broadcast in a Box was overwhelming, and we ran out of copies. Now we have most of Broadcast in a Box on the web. The best practices, updated Plugged-In, First Amendment lessons, Generation Next and student videos are here. Not here are the ethics video case studies, which were not available for online distribution.
Thanks to our partners including the Illinois Press Association Foundation and Copley First Amendment Center, The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program, Al Tomkins of the Poynter Institute and the many teachers, classes and journalists who provided material.
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #5: Smart Concerts: Orchestras in the Age of Edutainment
Orchestras in the Age of Edutainment
Author: Alan Brown
Date: December 2004
This is the fifth in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music* initiative.
Publication File: 2004_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_5.pdf
National
Challenging the Myth
A Review of the Links Among College Athletic Success, Student Quality, and Donations
Author: Robert H. Frank
Date: September 2004
Frank examines the assumption, offered by some college officials, that winning teams will attract more applicants and, in turn, better students for two reasons: (1) many students are sports fans, and (2) “a big-time athletic program serves much like a national advertising campaign,” because the names of institutions with successful big-time athletic programs appear frequently in the news media. College officials often cite the 12-percent increase in applications that Boston College experienced after Doug Flutie’s miracle pass to win the 1984 Orange Bowl as proof of this phenomenon.
Read more of the Frank Report online.
Publication File: 2004_KCIA_Frank_report.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #4: Initiators and Responders: A New Way to View Orchestra Audiences
A New Way to View Orchestra Audiences
Author: Alan Brown
Date: July 2004
Understanding why people attend orchestra concerts is an important first step in regenerating the audience base. The social context surrounding concert attendance – independent of the program itself – is a key to unlocking more demand. While some classical music lovers act on their interest and organize concert outings, three times as many do not. This essay considers how orchestras and other arts groups might capitalize on “Initiators” – people who enjoy creating cultural experiences for their friends and family.
Publication File: 2004_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_4.pdf
Communities
Growing the Miami's Middle Class: Connecting All Miami-Dade Residents to Economic Opportunity
Date: May 2004
Greater Miami—with its famed beaches, weather, and culture—attracts over 10 million overnight visitors annually. The setting for numerous movies and TV shows, the region is a magnet for the rich and famous, and conventioneers and vacationers follow.
AND IT’S NOT JUST TOURISM THAT PUTS MIAMI ON THE MAP. Miami is the financial gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean and home to numerous headquarters for operations there.
But Miami has another identity. Beyond the spotlights, the fun in the sun, and the world of international business lie some sobering statistics about what the plurality of people in Miami-Dade County and Miami City experience. When the Miami New Times ran the headline, “We’re Number One,” they were caustically referring to the city of Miami’s ranking as the poorest among the country’s 100 largest cities.
Publication File: 2004 Brookings Growing Miamis Middle Class
Journalism
The Media Missionaries
American Support for Journalism Excellence and Press Freedom Around the Globe
Author: Ellen Hume
Date: April 2004
This scoping paper maps the myriad American efforts to develop and support journalism capacity around the globe, with fellowships, exchanges, training, grants, loans, equipment, infrastructure, staff, conferences and other means. This study, commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, tries to identify where much of the money has been going and what some of the "lessons learned" are after a decade of such work.
Publication File: 2005_Media_Missionaries.pdf
Communities
Knight Listening & Learning Series (1999, 2002)
Community Indicator Profiles of Knight Foundation Communities and The Nation
Date: February 2004
Community Indicator Profiles of Knight Foundation Communities and The Nation
Knight Foundation's Community Indicators Project is a research-based initiative that supports our ongoing effort to learn more about the Knight communities we serve.
To document changes in the quality of life in our communities, we track a few key indicators over time. The project focuses on aspects of community life related to the six grant-making areas our Community Partners Program targets: vitality of cultural life; education; economic development; housing and community development; civic engagement and positive human relations; and the well-being of children and families.
Princeton Survey Research Associates and American Institutes for Research assisted the foundation in the indicators work.
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #3: Bridging the Gap: Innovations to Save Our Orchestras
Author: Leslie Whitaker, Ph.D. and Susan Philliber, Ph.D.
Date: October 2003
Education may not be the answer. While orchestras everywhere are expanding their educational programs in an effort to encourage concert going and attract new audiences, research indicates that in the long run education in itself does neither. Other strategies -- such as nontraditional concert formats and performances that link classical music to other art forms -- are more effective ways to expand and diversify audiences, energize the concert experience and increase ticket revenues over time.Publication File: 2004_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_3.pdf
Ready, Set, Go!
To Improve School Readiness in Wichita Community Needs Assessment
Author: The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita
Date: August 2003
Education may be the single most important factor influencing the future of our communities.
Publication File: 102703_SchoolReadiness.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #2: Bridging the Gap: Orchestras & Classical Music Listeners
Author: Alan S. Brown, president, LLC and Dr. John Bare
Date: June 2003
This is the second in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music initiative.
Publication File: 2003_Magic_of_Music_Issues_brief_2.pdf
Journalism
The American Journalist in the 21st Century Key Findings
Author: David Weaver
Date: April 2003
The reporters, editors and producers who put out the news every day on TV, radio and print are a more professional group than a decade ago, according to the initial findings of The American Journalist in the 21st Century. Traditional, general news journalists make higher salaries. More have college degrees. They are older, but there are still more men than women. And more who stay in journalism are happy with that choice.
Publication File: 2003_American_Journalist_Key_findings.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #1: Orchestra & Community: Bridging the Gap
Orchestra & Community: Bridging the Gap
Author: Penelope McPhee
Date: February 2003
This is the first in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in Knight Foundation's Magic of Music initiative.
We encourage you to send reader's comments about these topics.
Future issues will explore lessons learned and applied by the orchestras as they worked in partnership with each other, and will delve into new learning gleaned from surveys into classical music and audiences' connection to it conducted by Audience Insight LLP in behalf of Knight Foundation and our 15 participating orchestra partners.
Publication File: 2003_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_1.pdf
Journalism
Reaching Generation Next
A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships
Author: Lisa Frazier Page
Date: January 2003
In 1997, high school journalism in the Washington, D.C., was dead. Not single public high school in the city published a newspaper that year. When The Washington Post discovered this crisis, they embarked on a program to reintroduce journalism and newspapers to the city's high schools. What came to be called the Young Journalists Development Program was born.
By 2003, the program operated 21 high school journalism programs and reached beyond the city into its diverse suburbs.
Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the leader of the project, wanted to extend this sucess to other cities, so she pursued and put together "Reaching Generation Next: A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships" with the help of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Written by Lisa Frazier Page, the book is a how-to for editors, newspaper advisers and principals to come together to create good scholastic journalists.
To browse this publication at its online home visit http://www.highschooljournalism.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=74
Publication File: Generationnextbook
Journalism
Diversity Best Practices
A Handbook for Journalism and Mass Communications Educators
Author: Beverly Kees
Date: January 2003
Diversity: Best Practices is divided into four main sections, covering best practices in curriculum development, faculty recruitment and retention, student recruitment and retention, and campus environment. It also covers the history of ACEJMC's standard on diversity. A "Sources and Resources" section contains syllabus excerpts and lists of texts, videotapes and websites that contributors recommended.
Publication File: 2003_Diversity_Best_Practices_Handbook.pdf
Newsroom Training: Where's the Investment?
A Study For the Council of Presidents of National Journalism Organizations
Author: Beverly Kees
Date: October 2002
One working journalists in three is dissatisfied with the opportunities for training and professional development now available at work.Publication File: 2002_Newsroom_Training_Wheres_the_Investment.pdf
Arts
Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study
Author: Alan S. Brown, president
Date: October 2002
We are pleased to share Audience Insight's final report on the Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study, an analysis of how Americans relate to classical music and their local orchestras. We commissioned the work in partnership with 15 American orchestras as part of the second phase of Magic of Music, a decade-long, $10 million initiative to spark innovative ways of strengthening the relationship between orchestras and their audiences. A summary at the beginning synthesizes a great deal of information. The body of the report describes each of the various data collection efforts. In total, the study included interviews with more than 25,000 adults.
Many of the ideas developed in the study are relevant to arts organizations generally, not just orchestras and other classical music ensembles.
Publication File: 2002_Classical_Music_Consumer_Report.pdf
Communities
Knight Community Indicators Reports
Date: March 2002
Primary research surveys conducted in 1999-2000 and updated and expanded in 2002 by Princeton Survey Research Associates explore what's on the minds of the populations in the Knight Communities.
ASNE High School Journalism Online Hosting
Promoting Excellence in High School Journalism
Author: American Society of Newspaper Editors
Date: November 2001
Web pages for publishing your high school newspaper are available from ASNE with support from Knight Foundation. About 150 newspapers are taking advantage of this set of tools.
Students also find tips and resources from media professionals for reporting, graphics and more.
Visit www.highschooljournalism.org to order the CD-ROM kit.
National
A Call to Action: Reconnecting College Sports and Higher Education
Author: William C. Friday and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh
Date: June 2001
In 1989, as a decade of highly visible scandals in college sports drew to a close, the trustees of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation were concerned that athletics abuses threatened the very integrity of higher education. In October of that year, they created a Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and directed it to propose a reform agenda for college sports.
In announcing this action, James L. Knight, then chairman of the Foundation, emphasized that it did not reflect any hostility toward college athletics. "We have a lot of sports fans on our board, and we recognize that intercollegiate athletics have a legitimate and proper role to play in college and university life," he said. "Our interest is not to abolish that role but to preserve it by putting it back in perspective. We hope this Commission can strengthen the hands of those who want to curb the abuses which are shaking public confidence in the integrity of not just big-time collegiate athletics but the whole institution of higher education."
Publication File: 2001 KCIA A Call To Action
Journalism
Minority Students in Journalism
Recruiting, Retraining and Graduating - Lessons from Six Experimental Programs
Author: Ralph L. Lowenstein, Ph.D.
Date: January 1997
This report describes the implementation and results of six university programs, funded by the Knight Foundation, to recruit and retain students from underrepresented minority groups in the field of journalism. It reviews the objectives, background, implementation, and results of continuing programs at Florida A&M University, the University of Florida, the University of Missouri, the University o...
Publication File: 1997_Minority_journalism.pdf
National
Keeping the Faith with the Student Athlete
A New Model for Intercollegiate Athletics
Author: William Friday and Theodore Hesburgh
Date: October 1991
In light of recent events in intercollegiate athletics, it seems particularly timely to offer this Internet version of the combined reports of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Together with an Introduction, the combined reports detail the work and recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel convened in 1989 to recommend reforms in the governance of intercollegiate athletics.
Three reports, published in 1991, 1992 and 1993, were bound in a print volume summarizing the recommendations as of September 1993. The reports were titled Keeping Faith with the Student-Athlete, A Solid Start and A New Beginning for a New Century.
Knight Foundation dissolved the Commission in 1996, but not before the National Collegiate Athletic Association drastically overhauled its governance based on a structure “lifted chapter and verse,” according to a New York Times editorial, from the Commission's recommendations. [The Knight Commission was later re-launched and has convened since 2001.
Publication File: 1991-93 KCIA Keeping Faith with the Student Athlete
National
Restoring The Balance
Dollars, Values and the Future of College Sports
Author: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
Date: June 2010
In this report, the Knight Commission proposes recommendations for financial reform in college sports against the backdrop of escalating athletics spending, shrinking state budgets and institutional endowments, and conference realignment.
As you know, over the past 18 months we have been examining the business of college sports. The findings from our research are startling:
- Median athletics spending at public institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) has grown nearly 38 percent from 2005 to 2008, while academic spending grew only 20 percent. The ten public institutions spending the most on college sports are on pace to spend more than $250 million annually, on average, in 2020.
- Median athletics spending per athlete ranges from 4 to nearly 11 times more than the academic spending per student in the FBS conferences.
- Restoring the Balance, the Knight Commission's blueprint for financial reform, offers three principles for strengthened accountability in intercollegiate athletics.
Publication File: 2010-KCIA-Report-Restoring-the-Balance-final
National
Challenging the Myth
A Review of the Links Among College Athletic Success, Student Quality, and Donations
Author: Robert H. Frank
Date: September 2004
Frank examines the assumption, offered by some college officials, that winning teams will attract more applicants and, in turn, better students for two reasons: (1) many students are sports fans, and (2) “a big-time athletic program serves much like a national advertising campaign,” because the names of institutions with successful big-time athletic programs appear frequently in the news media. College officials often cite the 12-percent increase in applications that Boston College experienced after Doug Flutie’s miracle pass to win the 1984 Orange Bowl as proof of this phenomenon.
Read more of the Frank Report online.
Publication File: 2004_KCIA_Frank_report.pdf
National
A Call to Action: Reconnecting College Sports and Higher Education
Author: William C. Friday and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh
Date: June 2001
In 1989, as a decade of highly visible scandals in college sports drew to a close, the trustees of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation were concerned that athletics abuses threatened the very integrity of higher education. In October of that year, they created a Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and directed it to propose a reform agenda for college sports.
In announcing this action, James L. Knight, then chairman of the Foundation, emphasized that it did not reflect any hostility toward college athletics. "We have a lot of sports fans on our board, and we recognize that intercollegiate athletics have a legitimate and proper role to play in college and university life," he said. "Our interest is not to abolish that role but to preserve it by putting it back in perspective. We hope this Commission can strengthen the hands of those who want to curb the abuses which are shaking public confidence in the integrity of not just big-time collegiate athletics but the whole institution of higher education."
Publication File: 2001 KCIA A Call To Action
National
Keeping the Faith with the Student Athlete
A New Model for Intercollegiate Athletics
Author: William Friday and Theodore Hesburgh
Date: October 1991
In light of recent events in intercollegiate athletics, it seems particularly timely to offer this Internet version of the combined reports of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Together with an Introduction, the combined reports detail the work and recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel convened in 1989 to recommend reforms in the governance of intercollegiate athletics.
Three reports, published in 1991, 1992 and 1993, were bound in a print volume summarizing the recommendations as of September 1993. The reports were titled Keeping Faith with the Student-Athlete, A Solid Start and A New Beginning for a New Century.
Knight Foundation dissolved the Commission in 1996, but not before the National Collegiate Athletic Association drastically overhauled its governance based on a structure “lifted chapter and verse,” according to a New York Times editorial, from the Commission's recommendations. [The Knight Commission was later re-launched and has convened since 2001.
Publication File: 1991-93 KCIA Keeping Faith with the Student Athlete
Journalism
Drinking from The Firehoses at Future of News and Civic Media Conference 3.0
Author: By Christopher Connell for Knight Foundation
Date: August 2010
A companion to the June 2010 Knight Foundation report on Knight News Challenge: Casting the Net Wide for Innovation
The clever young men and women at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are adept with their hands as well as their heads. Feats such as depositing a fire truck atop the Great Dome or running a solar-powered mockup of a Boston T car along the rim have earned them major style points in the pantheon of pranksters. One of the most heralded came in 1991 when students hooked a fire hose-cum-hydrant to a water fountain outside a big lecture hall, recalling former MIT President Jerome Wisner’s chestnut that “getting an education from MIT is like taking a drink from a fire hose.” Today a replica of their jury-rigged device is proudly displayed like a museum piece in the lobby of the Stata Center, a Frank Gehry creation that itself has been punked (to resemble Waldo).
Publication File: 13228 KF NewsChallengeFeature Final
Journalism
Seeking Sustainability, A Roundtable (With Video)
Online Nonprofit Local/Regional News Venture Roundtable
Author: By Christopher Sopher
Date: June 2010
Online Nonprofit Local/Regional News Venture Roundtable
A meeting sponsored by Knight Foundation and co-hosted by Texas Tribune, Voice of San Diego and the Knight Chair in Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin
April 26, 2010
Why Nonprofits
By now it is relatively common knowledge that America’s news industry is undergoing profound and frequently tumultuous change. Every news organization is affected by the development of the Internet and the resulting changes in revenue streams, audience habits and community needs. Traditional media companies have been particularly distressed by shifts in the markets and business models that historically supported them—and the conversation about how to “save” or “reinvent” journalism has been largely focused on their concerns.
To a growing group of practitioners, funders and observers, however, the challenge is not saving traditional news organizations or traditional forms of journalism. The challenge is creating, strengthening and protecting informed communities and local information ecosystems, of which journalism is a necessary component.
Thus enters the nonprofit model, which allows organizations to pursue a journalistic mission without the competing demands of operating a for-profit business. Nonprofit news startups have been created in communities across the country, most with funding from major donors or foundations. The Knight Foundation alone has funded more than 200 experiments with what it calls a “build to learn” approach.
Publication File: Seeking-sustainability-061110 updated 08/18/2010
Journalism
Digital Transitions: Nonprofit Investigative Journalism
Center for Public Integrity Evaluation Report
Author: Julia Coffman, evaluation consultant; Judy J. Miller, investigative journalism consultant; Victor Acquah, Web Analytics Consultant
Date: June 2010
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization based in Washington D.C. with a mission of producing original investigative journalism that makes institutional power more transparent and accountable. CPI is nonpartisan, and is committed to comprehensive reporting in the United States and around the world.Publication File: Cpi-evaluation-report-061610
Journalism
Media, Information and Communication Contests: An Analysis
Presented to: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation | September 2009
Date: January 2010
Four years ago, as the media industry teetered, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation began to explore new ways to advance quality journalism in the digital age. We asked: what innovations will inform 21st century communities the way the Knight brothers’ newspapers did in the 20th?
To help find them, we created the Knight News Challenge – a five-year, $25 million contest seeking fresh ideas for using digital technology to inform geographic communities. We believed that living through a time of such enormous change, the most effective thing we can do as a foundation is to experiment and learn.
This study forwards that mission. After three rounds of the Knight News Challenge, we took a step back to examine how we could improve the contest. We consulted past challenge judges, entrepreneurs and technologists. We also explored lessons from the broader field. In general, contests are increasingly being used as a tool to solve society’s most entrenched problems. In the area of news and information alone, the number of contests has doubled since we first launched the challenge in 2006.
We hope that you will find the information contained in this report as beneficial as we have. We hope it will be a useful resource for organizations that are designing and implementing contests to spur innovation, as well as for nonprofits and individuals looking for funding opportunities in the area of media, information and communication.
-Gary Kebbel,
Journalism Program Director,
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
-Mayur Patel,
Director of Strategic Assessment & Impact
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Publication File: 2010_mediacontests.pdf
Journalism
Knight Chairs Annual Report: 2008-09 Academic Year
Author: Dr. Virginia Dodge Fielder
Date: December 2009
Knight Foundation has established two dozen endowed chairs in journalism at top universities nationwide. The chairs are leading journalists who take positions as tenured professors within academia. They practice journalism, teach innovative classes, and create experimental projects and new programs that help lead journalism excellence in the digital age.
Publication File: knight-chairs-annual-report_2008-09_Highlights.pdf
Journalism
Grantee Reports: An Example
An example of a good status report from a grantee, this one the Teaching Newspaper in partnership with the University of Alabama, can be found here.
Date: November 2009
Knight Foundation journalism grantees produce regular reports showing their accomplishments and how those align with grant benchmarks and expected outcomes. This report, from the University of Alabama, is a good example of a clear, concise version of such reporting.
Journalism
J-Lab: Meet the New Media Makers
A Toolkit for Innovators in Community Media and Grant Making
Author: Jan Schaffer
Date: October 2009
This learning module is filled with original reporting that will help you learn about the innovative community news initiatives that are cropping up around the United States - and securing grants from foundations that have not traditionally supported journalism.
In the case studies and accompanying videos, you’ll meet citizen journalists who have launched news sites in Boston; Deerfield, N.H.; New Haven, Conn.; and Chappaqua, N.Y. And you’ll learn how professional journalists have launched news initiatives that either partner with or supplement their metro news outlets.
Journalism
Creative Destruction
An Exploratory Look at News on the Internet
Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Date: August 2007
This report examines trends in Internet-based news traffic for the purpose of peering into the future of news in America. In light of the continuing migration of Americans to online news, the evolving nature of Web technology, and the limits of our survey of websites, our assessments are necessarily speculative.
Publication File: Creative Destruction Web
Journalism
Young People and News
Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Date: July 2007
Based on a national survey of 1800 randomly sampled teens, young adults, and older adults, this report examines the amount of daily news consumed by young people. The evidence shows that young Americans are estranged from the daily newspaper and rely more heavily on television than on the Internet for their news. A few decades ago, there were not large differences in the news habits and daily information levels of younger and older Americans.
Today, unlike most older Americans, many young people find a bit of news here and there and do not make it a routine part of their day.
Publication File: Young News Web
Journalism
An Imperative to Innovate
Sustainable Journalism Training in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: A Report from the Jefferson Institute funded by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Date: June 2007
Serious efforts at media development have been underway since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and in some cases even earlier. USAID, for example, opened its first radio station in Liberia in 1985. Despite these long-running efforts, today there is still a great need for media development assistance. Efforts at democratization will fail unless bolstered by strong, independent media. Although conditions are difficult, there are many opportunities for moving forward.
Publication File: Imperative To Innovate 070615
Journalism
The Knight Open Government Survey
File Not Found: 10 Years After E-FOIA, Most Federal Agencies Are Delinquent
Author: Kristin Adair, Catherine Nielsen and Meredith Fuchs
Date: March 2007
Ten years after Congress enacted the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA), only one in five federal agencies actually complies with the law, according to a new survey released today during Sunshine Week by the National Security Archive.
Publication File: E-foia Audit Brief
Journalism
All Eyes Forward: How to help your newsroom get where it wants to go faster
Author: Vickey Williams
Date: January 2007
Cultural change initiatives conducted by several major newspapers are chronicled in All Eyes Forward: How to Help your Newsroom get where it wants to go Faster, a publication from The Learning Newsroom at the American Press Institute. The book describes how to develop a “learning newsroom” that has a constructive culture, and includes a discussion of the results of the studies by Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D.
Publication File: 2007-alleyesforward
Journalism
Mandatory Testing and News in the Schools
Implications for Civics Education
Author: A Report from the Carnegie-Knight Task Force
Date: January 2007
The intensive time required to “teach to the test” -- to prepare students for mandatory testing in the nation’s public schools -- is stealing time away from students to discuss and study the news, and ultimately become educated about and engaged in their country and their world, according to a report by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force based at Harvard University.
Publication File: Mandatory Testing
Journalism
The Internet and the Threat it Poses to Local Media
Lessons from News in the Schools
Author: A Report from the Carnegie-Knight Task Force
Date: January 2007
This survey by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force at Harvard University shows a strong movement in America’s classrooms toward the use of Internet-based news and away from the use of newspapers and television news, a trend that is virtually certain to continue.
Publication File: Internet In Schools Web
Journalism
Impunity Project Works To Solve Crimes Against Journalists
Author: Inter American Press Association
Date: November 2006
The Impunity Project was created to end impunity for attacks against journalists in the Americas.
Publication File: Inter American Press Association.pdf
Journalism
Journalism's Crisis of Confidence
A Challenge for the Next Generation
Author: Vartan Gregorian
Date: May 2006
Journalism's Crisis of Confidence is based on a recent day-long dialogue involving the five founding deans of the initiative, along with several new journalism schools that have been invited to join in the curriculum enrichment aspect of the project.
This is the second report in the Carnegie-Knight series.
Publication File: Journ Crisis Full
Journalism
The Future of the First Amendment Survey: 2006 Update
What America's High School Students Think About Their Freedoms
Author: David Yalof and Kenneth Dautrich
Date: January 2006
This publication reports on a two-year, $1 million survey of high school students and their knowledge of the First Amendment. See the project web site: www.firstamendmentfuture.org
Publication File: 2006 Future Of First Amendment 1
Journalism
The Business of News
A Challenge for Journalism's Next Generation
Author: Carnegie-Knight Journalism Initiative, May 2006 (info)
Date: January 2006
American journalists have a major responsibility: working on democracy’s free press to inform citizens and officials about local, national and world events as well as to provide a measure of public accountability for all institutions and their members.
Publication File: 2006_carnegie_businessofnews2.pdf
Journalism
Future of the First Amendment Study (2004-2007)
What America's High School Students Think About Their Freedoms
Date: May 2005
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s High School Initiative seeks to encourage students to use the news media, including student journalism, and to better understand and appreciate the First Amendment.
As part of the initiative, the foundation funded this “Future of the First Amendment” research project, focusing on the knowledge and attitudes of high school students, teachers and administrators. Specifically, the study seeks to determine whether relationships exist — and, if so, the nature of those relationships – between what teachers and administrators think, and what students do in their classrooms and with news media, and what they know about the First Amendment.
Ultimately, the project surveyed more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators and principals at 544 high schools across the United States.
Journalism
Broadcast in a Box
Plugged In: Using the Internet for High School (and Professional) Journalism
Author: Lisa Habib
Date: January 2005
In 2005, RTNDF’s High School Project put together a teacher’s toolbox called “Broadcast in a Box.” It consisted of three books, three discs and the RTNDA Code of Ethics.
Response to the printed Broadcast in a Box was overwhelming, and we ran out of copies. Now we have most of Broadcast in a Box on the web. The best practices, updated Plugged-In, First Amendment lessons, Generation Next and student videos are here. Not here are the ethics video case studies, which were not available for online distribution.
Thanks to our partners including the Illinois Press Association Foundation and Copley First Amendment Center, The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program, Al Tomkins of the Poynter Institute and the many teachers, classes and journalists who provided material.
Journalism
The Media Missionaries
American Support for Journalism Excellence and Press Freedom Around the Globe
Author: Ellen Hume
Date: April 2004
This scoping paper maps the myriad American efforts to develop and support journalism capacity around the globe, with fellowships, exchanges, training, grants, loans, equipment, infrastructure, staff, conferences and other means. This study, commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, tries to identify where much of the money has been going and what some of the "lessons learned" are after a decade of such work.
Publication File: 2005_Media_Missionaries.pdf
Journalism
The American Journalist in the 21st Century Key Findings
Author: David Weaver
Date: April 2003
The reporters, editors and producers who put out the news every day on TV, radio and print are a more professional group than a decade ago, according to the initial findings of The American Journalist in the 21st Century. Traditional, general news journalists make higher salaries. More have college degrees. They are older, but there are still more men than women. And more who stay in journalism are happy with that choice.
Publication File: 2003_American_Journalist_Key_findings.pdf
Journalism
Reaching Generation Next
A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships
Author: Lisa Frazier Page
Date: January 2003
In 1997, high school journalism in the Washington, D.C., was dead. Not single public high school in the city published a newspaper that year. When The Washington Post discovered this crisis, they embarked on a program to reintroduce journalism and newspapers to the city's high schools. What came to be called the Young Journalists Development Program was born.
By 2003, the program operated 21 high school journalism programs and reached beyond the city into its diverse suburbs.
Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the leader of the project, wanted to extend this sucess to other cities, so she pursued and put together "Reaching Generation Next: A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships" with the help of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Written by Lisa Frazier Page, the book is a how-to for editors, newspaper advisers and principals to come together to create good scholastic journalists.
To browse this publication at its online home visit http://www.highschooljournalism.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=74
Publication File: Generationnextbook
Journalism
Diversity Best Practices
A Handbook for Journalism and Mass Communications Educators
Author: Beverly Kees
Date: January 2003
Diversity: Best Practices is divided into four main sections, covering best practices in curriculum development, faculty recruitment and retention, student recruitment and retention, and campus environment. It also covers the history of ACEJMC's standard on diversity. A "Sources and Resources" section contains syllabus excerpts and lists of texts, videotapes and websites that contributors recommended.
Publication File: 2003_Diversity_Best_Practices_Handbook.pdf
Journalism
Minority Students in Journalism
Recruiting, Retraining and Graduating - Lessons from Six Experimental Programs
Author: Ralph L. Lowenstein, Ph.D.
Date: January 1997
This report describes the implementation and results of six university programs, funded by the Knight Foundation, to recruit and retain students from underrepresented minority groups in the field of journalism. It reviews the objectives, background, implementation, and results of continuing programs at Florida A&M University, the University of Florida, the University of Missouri, the University o...
Publication File: 1997_Minority_journalism.pdf
Arts
Knight Creative Communities Initiative Evaluation Final Report
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: October 2008
Executive Summary
The Knight Creative Communities Initiative (KCCI) was undertaken as part of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's recent interest in the development of social entrepreneurs to promote community transformation based on Richard Florida's creative class theory to stimulate economic development. The focus of KCCI was sponsorship of the "Creative Community Leadership Seminar" in three regions in order to "train Foundation staff and selected community leaders as creative community leaders." Florida's consulting firm, Creative Class Group (CCG), implemented the initiative in Charlotte, North Carolina; Duluth, Minnesota/Superior, Wisconsin; and Tallahassee, Florida.
The report begins with an overview of the logic of KCCI. We then examine participants' experience of the initiative, from March 2007 to March 2008, using a chronological structure: the selection of community catalysts, the initial two-day seminar, the organization of the action teams, and the history of the teams. The report concludes with a framework for evaluating the medium and long-term impacts of KCCI on the three communities.
Publication File: KCCI_interim_report.v5.pdf
Arts
Knight Creative Communities Initiative Evaluation
Interim Report #1 - Seminars and Initiatives
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: December 2007
This memo reports on the initial findings of the experience of KCCI participants from the selection of catalysts during the late winter of 2007 through October 2007.
Publication File: KCCI_interim_report.v5.pdf
Arts
Cultivating "Natural" Cultural Districts
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: October 2007
Can the arts and culture play a central role in revitalizing American cities? Over the past decade, a number of cities have answered this question affirmatively.
Publication File: NaturalCulturalDistricts.oct07.pdf
Arts
Culture and Urban Revitalization: A Harvest Document
Author: Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert
Date: January 2007
Advocates have long argued that the economic benefits of the arts and culture provide a firm rationale for public support. Recent scholarship on the “creative class” and “creative economy” is simply the latest effort to link cultural expression to community prosperity.
Publication File: HarvestFinal.TRFv2.wholedoc.small.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Final Report: The Search for Shining Eyes
Audiences, Leadership and Change in the Symphony Orchestra Field
Author: Dr. Thomas Wolf
Date: June 2006
From 1994 to 2004 – a seminal decade for the arts in America – the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation invested $13 million in its Magic of Music Symphony
Orchestra Initiative.
Publication File: 2006_Magic_of_Music_Final_Report.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #5: Smart Concerts: Orchestras in the Age of Edutainment
Orchestras in the Age of Edutainment
Author: Alan Brown
Date: December 2004
This is the fifth in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music* initiative.
Publication File: 2004_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_5.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #4: Initiators and Responders: A New Way to View Orchestra Audiences
A New Way to View Orchestra Audiences
Author: Alan Brown
Date: July 2004
Understanding why people attend orchestra concerts is an important first step in regenerating the audience base. The social context surrounding concert attendance – independent of the program itself – is a key to unlocking more demand. While some classical music lovers act on their interest and organize concert outings, three times as many do not. This essay considers how orchestras and other arts groups might capitalize on “Initiators” – people who enjoy creating cultural experiences for their friends and family.
Publication File: 2004_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_4.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #3: Bridging the Gap: Innovations to Save Our Orchestras
Author: Leslie Whitaker, Ph.D. and Susan Philliber, Ph.D.
Date: October 2003
Education may not be the answer. While orchestras everywhere are expanding their educational programs in an effort to encourage concert going and attract new audiences, research indicates that in the long run education in itself does neither. Other strategies -- such as nontraditional concert formats and performances that link classical music to other art forms -- are more effective ways to expand and diversify audiences, energize the concert experience and increase ticket revenues over time.Publication File: 2004_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_3.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #2: Bridging the Gap: Orchestras & Classical Music Listeners
Author: Alan S. Brown, president, LLC and Dr. John Bare
Date: June 2003
This is the second in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music initiative.
Publication File: 2003_Magic_of_Music_Issues_brief_2.pdf
Arts
Magic of Music Issues Brief #1: Orchestra & Community: Bridging the Gap
Orchestra & Community: Bridging the Gap
Author: Penelope McPhee
Date: February 2003
This is the first in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in Knight Foundation's Magic of Music initiative.
We encourage you to send reader's comments about these topics.
Future issues will explore lessons learned and applied by the orchestras as they worked in partnership with each other, and will delve into new learning gleaned from surveys into classical music and audiences' connection to it conducted by Audience Insight LLP in behalf of Knight Foundation and our 15 participating orchestra partners.
Publication File: 2003_Magic_of_Music_Issues_Brief_1.pdf
Arts
Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study
Author: Alan S. Brown, president
Date: October 2002
We are pleased to share Audience Insight's final report on the Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study, an analysis of how Americans relate to classical music and their local orchestras. We commissioned the work in partnership with 15 American orchestras as part of the second phase of Magic of Music, a decade-long, $10 million initiative to spark innovative ways of strengthening the relationship between orchestras and their audiences. A summary at the beginning synthesizes a great deal of information. The body of the report describes each of the various data collection efforts. In total, the study included interviews with more than 25,000 adults.
Many of the ideas developed in the study are relevant to arts organizations generally, not just orchestras and other classical music ensembles.
Publication File: 2002_Classical_Music_Consumer_Report.pdf
Communities
Starting Out Right: A Cluster Evaluation of the Early Childhood grants of the Knight Foundation
Year 3 Final Report
Author: Deanna S. Gomby, Ph.D. and Lisa G. Klein, Ph.D.
Date: February 2008
Abstract
Since 2001, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded 125 early childhood grants totaling more than $50 million. In 2007, there were 47 active grants. Gomby and Klein reviewed the grants for Knight and produced this report.
Communities
Knight has made grants in early childhood education in the Knight communities of Aberdeen, S.D.; Boulder, Colo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Long Beach, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa; St. Paul, Mn.; San Jose, Calif.; State College, Pa.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Wichita, Kan.
Publication File: KF Evaluation - Early Childhood 020607.doc
Communities
Foundations for Success
Date: May 2007
Foundations for Success (FFS) is a five-year initiative designed to put in place a county-wide system of care for early childhood mental health.
Publication File: Foundations for Success Report May 31 2007.pdf
Communities
Results of Sustained Participation in Akron's Perkins Activities Central
Author: Debbie Shama-Davis, Ph.D
Date: March 2007
In almost every area, students who attended PAC programs frequently over a two-year period had higher reading and math achievement scores.
Publication File: Perkins Activities Central.pdf
Communities
Investing in Early Childhood
Knight Foundation Makes a Difference, One Community at a Time
Author: Lisa Klein
Date: February 2007
Lisa Klein of Hestia Advising and Deanna Gomby of Gomby consulting conducted a cluster evaluation of the early childhood grants to estimate community impact, promote cross-community learning and highlight successes and challenges to implementing early childhood programs in 12 Knight Foundation communities. Since 2001, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded 125 early childhood grants totaling more than $50 million.
Publication File: KF Evaluation - Early Childhood 020607.pdf
Communities
Organizations Focused On Immigrant Civic Participation Encourage Immigrants To be Part of the Broader Community
Author: Craig McGarvey and David Scheie
Date: December 2006
The first year evaluation report on the Immigrant Participation & Immigration Reform (IPIR) initiative tells a story of human and social development newcomers joining and strengthening the democracy-among immigrants whose institutions engage them in organizational self-governance, leadership opportunities, and democratic civic activity.
Publication File: Immigrant Participation & Integration.pdf
Communities
Urban Fellows Gain Experience And Knowledge on Best Practices In Urban Redevelopment Through the CUREx Program
Author: Patrizi Associates
Date: November 2006
This is the final report of an evaluation conducted by Patrizi Associates of the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania (CUREx) program.
Publication File: CUREx.pdf
Communities
The Earned Income Tax Credit
Prosperity Campaigns Help To Lift Working Families Out of Poverty
Author: Kimary Lee and Nik Theodore
Date: November 2006
Prosperity campaigns have played a critical role in improving the economic well-being of low-income, working families, boosting income levels and lifting many families out of poverty.
Publication File: EITC.pdf
Communities
Moving Forward
Recommendations for Rebuilding East Biloxi
Author: Living Cities and Goody Clancy
Date: July 2006
This report documents Biloxi’s potential to become a major American destination for people seeking a mix of tourist and entertainment activities.
Publication File: Moving_Forward_Biloxi_Final_Report.pdf
Communities
One Economy Digital Communities
Transforming Lives for Low-Income Americans in San Jose and Miami
Author: Vera Michalchik, Sara Carriere,, Deborah Kim Emery, Larry Galagher, Ann House, Andres Molina, Lynne Peck Theis, William R. Penuel
Date: February 2006
The overall objective of this evaluation of One Economy’s Digital Communities program is to examine the impact that having a computer with Internet access at home has on peoples’ lives.
One Economy in Miami and San Jose.pdf
SRI Digital Communities Miami and SanJose.doc (MS Word)
Publication File: One Economy in Miami and San Jose.pdf
Communities
Fund for our Economic Future
Author: Mt. Auburn Associates, Inc.
Date: January 2006
Prosperity campaigns have played a critical role in improving the economic well-being of low-income, working families, boosting income levels and lifting many families out of poverty.
Publication File: Fund for our Economic Future.pdf
Communities
The Haitian Community in Miami-Dade: A Growing the Middle Class Supplement
Date: January 2005
Although Haitians have been coming to Miami-Dade in large numbers for only a little over two decades, they have quickly become an integral part of the region. But there are important differences between the Haitian experience and other immigrant experiences in South Florida. Haitians are more likely to work low-wage jobs, earn less money, and pay larger shares of their incomes on basic necessities.
This report is a supplement to a June 2004 publication entitled, Growing the Middle Class: Connecting All Miami-Dade Residents to Economic Opportunity. The intent of this report is to provide specific information about the Haitian community in Miami-Dade County in order to better describe the challenges they face. After describing Haitian income trends, the report explores some of the reasons behind the low incomes and higher poverty rates of Miami’s Haitian population.
Publication File: 2005 Brookings Haitians In Miami
Communities
Growing the Miami's Middle Class: Connecting All Miami-Dade Residents to Economic Opportunity
Date: May 2004
Greater Miami—with its famed beaches, weather, and culture—attracts over 10 million overnight visitors annually. The setting for numerous movies and TV shows, the region is a magnet for the rich and famous, and conventioneers and vacationers follow.
AND IT’S NOT JUST TOURISM THAT PUTS MIAMI ON THE MAP. Miami is the financial gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean and home to numerous headquarters for operations there.
But Miami has another identity. Beyond the spotlights, the fun in the sun, and the world of international business lie some sobering statistics about what the plurality of people in Miami-Dade County and Miami City experience. When the Miami New Times ran the headline, “We’re Number One,” they were caustically referring to the city of Miami’s ranking as the poorest among the country’s 100 largest cities.
Publication File: 2004 Brookings Growing Miamis Middle Class
Communities
Knight Listening & Learning Series (1999, 2002)
Community Indicator Profiles of Knight Foundation Communities and The Nation
Date: February 2004
Community Indicator Profiles of Knight Foundation Communities and The Nation
Knight Foundation's Community Indicators Project is a research-based initiative that supports our ongoing effort to learn more about the Knight communities we serve.
To document changes in the quality of life in our communities, we track a few key indicators over time. The project focuses on aspects of community life related to the six grant-making areas our Community Partners Program targets: vitality of cultural life; education; economic development; housing and community development; civic engagement and positive human relations; and the well-being of children and families.
Princeton Survey Research Associates and American Institutes for Research assisted the foundation in the indicators work.
Communities
Knight Community Indicators Reports
Date: March 2002
Primary research surveys conducted in 1999-2000 and updated and expanded in 2002 by Princeton Survey Research Associates explore what's on the minds of the populations in the Knight Communities.
Reporter Analysis
Even as Living Cities changes, America's urban neighborhoods stay in view
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Martin Merzer
Date: September 2008
(September 15, 2008) Since its creation in 1991, Living Cities has invested $570 million, priming other financial pumps that collectively poured $5.2 billion of direct investment into those 23 cities.
Narrowing the focus, Living Cities received $22.2 million from Knight Foundation, according to an analysis by the consortium for this report, and invested $79.5 million in the four Knight communities, though those grants and loans seeded matching contributions and projects of far greater value.
Most of this activity has involved housing, but revolutionary change is sweeping Living Cities and the entire field of urban renewal. Experts now recognize that affordable housing alone is not the answer. To stem and reverse the spiral of deterioration, repair some of the damage and ultimately restore a neighborhood’s sense of self, you must work more systemically.
That means pockets of new, attractive, affordable housing. Commercial corridors revitalized with freshened storefronts, new street lighting and festive pennants. A modern shopping center, a new bank, a police substation. Add programs to improve health, education, financial skills and economic stability. Only when taken together can these enhancements begin to make a difference.
Publication File: living_cities_reporter_analysis.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Dick Polman
Date: June 2008
Today, nearly three years after the storm, and with expenditures thus far totaling roughly $10 million, Knight Foundation can rightly point to a string of achievements - most notably, its crucial role in bringing world-class planners and architects to the afflicted region, and prompting citizens to chart new communities in ways they had never before imagined. Yet at the same time, political, cultural and financial obstacles have impeded recovery on virtually all fronts. In the words of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who is praised for his recovery efforts even by political foes, "It's all been way too slow to suit me."
Venture capitalist Jim Barksdale, the former CEO of Federal Express and Netscape, who worked with Knight Foundation at a critical early juncture, now says, "It's much easier to dream big dreams than to implement big dreams." And Sun Herald publisher Ricky Mathews identified the biggest negative factor: "Parochialism. We have such a damn difficult problem speaking with one voice. And there are too many local leaders here who can't see beyond their own cities."
All of which prompts this question: How exactly should a foundation assess success or failure? Are its grant monies well spent only if there are tangible, and durable, end results? Or, particularly with respect to the far-flung crisis on the Gulf Coast, should Knight simply take pride in the fact that its investments have profoundly lifted the spirits of devastated citizens, and prompted new ways of thinking about the future - and that such an achievement cannot even be measured in dollars? Indeed, Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr says yes to the latter: "It's hard to imagine anything better than what the Knight Foundation has done, and I'm not just saying that to butter their backsides."
Publication File: 2008_05_21_Biloxi_final.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Tempering the Immigration Debate: An Assessment of the American Dream Fund
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Tony Mecia
Date: March 2008
In 2003, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation joined with Ford, Carnegie and others in a national effort to encourage immigrant civic participation, and a year later, Knight adopted a variation of that strategy: funding a wide array of local, grassroots nonprofits in Knight communities. Its name: the American Dream Fund.
When the national immigration debate culminated in 2006 and 2007 with rallies and intense political debates, some of the funded organizations were on the front lines, organizing marches. Others shied from politics and focused on local services such as legal clinics and citizenship classes.
Now, as Knight Foundation assesses the effectiveness of the American Dream Fund, it is doing so with new leadership and new program staff who are more skeptical of awarding grants to organizations explicitly involved in policy advocacy. They say Knight is redirecting the fund to focus more narrowly on naturalization.
As to the old focus, one that permitted and encouraged policy advocacy, foundation staff say they’re unsure if dollars applied toward advocacy had any impact.
Publication File: 2007 03 10 Immigration Scribe Report
Reporter Analysis
A Big Job: Retooling Northeast Ohio's Economy
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: John Dorshner
Date: December 2007
Certainly, Northeast Ohio’s economy has been in bad shape for a long time. The most vivid examples may be in Youngstown where rusting hulks of abandoned steel mills intrude on the landscape. Census data shows the region lost about 100,000 workers between 2000 and 2005; almost half worked in higher-wage manufacturing jobs. Many who still have jobs are earning less.
Cleveland, the region’s population hub, has been especially hard hit. Census data from 2004 showed it to be the poorest big city in America, and though it has since lost that distinction, it remains among the very poorest.
For decades, civic leaders have known that something needed to be done, and there have been many efforts, with grand names like Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. The city’s downtown was boosted in the 1990s with new high-rise developments, new baseball and football stadiums, plus the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But none of these actions stemmed the economic decline.
In 2003, various foundation leaders began meeting “fairly regularly,” says Briggs, who also is vice chair of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. All agreed “nobody is taking charge” of economic development.
Knight Foundation, given its strong historic ties to Akron, has become deeply involved in the efforts to revitalize the region. So far, it has contributed $6.6 million: $1 million to the Fund in 2004 for its first phase and $2 million in 2007 for its second phase, plus direct grants made to several major Fund grantees: $1.5 million to Team NEO, $1.5 million to JumpStart and $600,000 to BioEnterprise.
Publication File: kf_northeastohio_1207b.pdf
Reporter Analysis
Knight Funding in Miami's Overtown: A Big Bet, a Bigger Challenge
A "Reporter Analysis" Evaluation Feature
Author: Andre Oliver
Date: October 2007
In 2000, as Knight Foundation marked its 50th anniversary, its leadership made one of the largest and most challenging investment decisions in its history. It would commit nearly $19 million for up to five years to help revitalize Overtown, a community less than a half mile from the foundation's Miami headquarters but far distant economically and socially from much of the city and Miami-Dade County.
The foundation's $19 million went to 32 national and community organizations to build affordable housing and promote community development; help train residents and find them jobs; increase personal savings; and assist with mentoring and with after-school and recreational activities.
Seven years later, nearly six out of 10 program managers told the foundation they met their goals, at least partially. Programs focused on employment and training, education and recreation especially saw high levels of participation.
But other programs failed, or have yet to deliver on their promises. Efforts to promote micro lending and encourage individual development accounts were not embraced by residents.
Ironically, where the foundation placed its largest bets — in community development — recipients faced the greatest hurdles and delivered the fewest returns. Although nearly 500 units of affordable housing were completed, rebuilt or refurbished using Knight funds, the total is well below aspirations.
The foundation's internal analysis of the grant portfolio paints a stark picture. Observers, Knight grantees and foundation staff highlight significant problems with the strategy employed by the foundation, poor implementation by some grantees and challenges inherent to Overtown.
Publication File: Overtown Web Edition
- About Knight
- Grant Seekers Grantees
- Media Policies
- Quick Facts
- Knight Sites
Copyright © 2006- John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Other copyrights apply where noted.