Knight Foundation: Community & National Initiatives

Overview

_NOTE: As part of our ongoing effort to improve how we support our grantee partners and communities, we are pausing our Letter of Inquiry (LOI) process. During this period, Knight Foundation will not be accepting unsolicited proposals for new funding opportunities. We anticipate unveiling a refreshed process in spring 2025._

Our Mission

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy.

Community and National Initiatives

Supporting equitable, inclusive engagement

What We Fund

We fund primarily in eight cities where the foundation has resident program officers, including Akron, where our founders started Knight Newspapers, and Miami, where their business was eventually headquartered. We invest through grantmaking directly from our endowment and from endowed donor-advised funds (DAF) at local community foundations in the Knight communities.

In the 18 cities where our foundation does not have a program director living in the community, we primarily work with community foundation leaders and local advisory committees to identify investment opportunities that support engaged, inclusive and equitable communities.

Communities Program

Our work in community focuses on attracting and nurturing talent, enhancing opportunity, and fostering civic engagement. Rather than a single approach, we seek to support efforts authentic to each community.

_Cities with Knight Foundation offices_

Learn more about our work in each of the communities where Knight has offices:

* Akron, Ohio
* Charlotte, North Carolina
* Detroit
* Macon, Georgia
* Miami
* Philadelphia
* San Jose, California
* St. Paul, Minnesota

In these cities, Knight program directors are your first point of contact.

_Community Foundations Program_

Knight works in 18 small to mid-sized communities in partnership with local community foundations. Learn more about this program.

* Aberdeen, South Dakota;
* Biloxi, Mississippi;
* Boulder, Colorado;
* Bradenton, Florida;
* Columbia, South Carolina;
* Columbus, Georgia;
* Duluth, Minnesota;
* Ft. Wayne, Indiana;
* Gary, Indiana;
* Grand Forks, North Dakota;
* Lexington, Kentucky;
* Long Beach, California;
* Milledgeville, Georgia;
* Myrtle Beach, South Carolina;
* Palm Beach County, Florida;
* State College, Pennsylvania;
* Tallahassee, Florida;
* Wichita, Kansas

If you are interested in receiving Knight funding in these 18 communities, please read more about our individual community strategies and ask your local community foundation about the local Knight donor-advised fund.

National Initiatives

Our National Initiatives program seeks to accelerate and amplify the work we do in communities by identifying opportunities in common, and ideas that can be shared across communities. Current areas of focus include:

* Smart cities: Harnessing the growth of digital technology to improve how communities respond, connect to and engage with residents;
* Public Spaces: Investing in spaces such as parks, trails, libraries to engage and connect residents to each other and to the places where they live, such as through our multi-city initiative, Reimagining the Civic Commons.

In addition, our national program responds to opportunities that emerge from the 26 cities where we work.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

* We primarily fund U.S.-based organizations.

Ineligibility

* Knight Foundation's Board of Trustees prefer not to fund:

* Requests for support of fundraising events.
* Requests to cover operating deficits.
* Charities operated by service clubs.
* Activities that are normally the responsibility of government (The foundation will, in selective cases, partner with government in supporting special projects.).
* Medical research; organizations or projects whose mission is to prevent, eradicate or alleviate the effects of a specific disease; requests from hospitals (unless they are for community-wide capital campaigns with a stated goal and beginning and ending dates, or for specific projects that meet foundation goals).
* Activities to propagate a religious faith or that are restricted to one religion or denomination; support of political candidates; memorials.
* International programs and organizations, except U.S.-based organizations supporting a free press around the world.
* A second request for a capital campaign for which the foundation previously approved a grant.
* Conferences; group travel; honoraria for distinguished guests—except in initiatives of the foundation in all three cases.
* The board and program staff remain open to ideas and opportunities and will exercise flexibility when needed.

* We do not pay indirect administrative fees to grantee organizations.
* We may make exceptions if you are providing a necessary service directly related to the grant.

* Based on the recommendation of program staff, on an case-by-case basis, we will consider indirect fee payments of up to 10 percent of a proposed grant.