OVERVIEW: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is a major grantmaker that funds journalism, arts & culture, civics & democracy, equitable communities, and research pertaining to technology’s impact on media and how information is shared. The foundation’s grantmaking prioritizes 26 cities throughout the U.S. where the Knight brothers owned newspapers, though some of its grantmaking and research is national in scope.
IP TAKE: With assets exceeding $2 billion, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an important U.S. grantmaker across several issue areas, and arguably the most important U.S. foundation in the areas of media and journalism, particularly local news and digital journalism. In recent years, the foundation has built upon its historical support of journalism to include substantial funding for civics and democracy, along with a growing interest in how technology, including artificial intelligence, interacts with civic participation, democracy and the media. IP founder David Callahan has called the foundation’s grantmaking “creative and experimental.” In 2023, Knight’s longtime and influential president, Alberto Ibargüen, stepped down. Reflecting on his eighteen-year tenure at Knight, Ibargüen told Inside Philanthropy reporter Mike Scutari, “I want those of us in philanthropy to be investors. I want us to be actively engaged in making those grants successful, while realizing that’s not always going to be possible.”
This is a transparent, accessible funder with an easily navigable website that includes detailed financial information, a grants database, and information about each program. Knight accepts grant proposals on a limited basis. Its website states, “throughout the year, Knight Foundation issues open challenges or calls for proposals focused on specific funding priorities.” Grantseekers are advised to subscribe to the newsletter or to follow Knight on social media for alerts about current opportunities. Knight lists current open calls on its “funding opportunities” page. Grantseekers should note that the foundation often prioritizes initiatives that center around the implementation of digital technology, the revitalization of local newsrooms, or research and art projects related to media and society. For those that meet the funder’s criteria, Knight can be a source of substantial funding.
PROFILE: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation was established in 1950 by newspaper magnates John S. Knight and James L. Knight. Its giving is based on a strong faith in the importance of “informed and engaged” people and communities. Originally formed to continue the educational grantmaking of the Knight Memorial Education Fund, the foundation began making small contributions to local cultural and human services organizations. The first steps toward its current grantmaking strategy were taken in 1965, after a substantial contribution from the estate of Clara Knight, when the foundation transitioned from providing direct financial assistance to students to making supporting grants to educational institutions. Over the decades, the foundation has grown significantly through multi-million-dollar bequests left by the estates of Knight family members and expanded its work in various focus areas to serve the 26 cities where Knight-owned publications have had a presence.
Its current mission is to support “transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts.” Its four main funding areas are Journalism, Community Impact, Arts, and Information and Society. The Knight Foundation has a clearly defined statement of grantmaking strategy that grant seekers should study closely.
Grants for Journalism
Called a “bellwether journalism funder” by IP, the Knight Foundation’s Journalism program seeks to advance journalistic excellence in the digital age. As one might expect from the foundation’s roots, journalism is a core focus for the foundation. In September 2023, Knight announced it had increased its funding commitment to local journalism by $150 million over five years as part of a collaborative funding effort called Press Forward.
The main objective of Knight’s journalism focus centers on fostering “the expansion of news organizations for sustained growth” through such methods as “revenue diversification, market expansion, strategic partnerships and innovative product development.” Journalism grantmaking prioritizes:
Sustainability and Revenue Development
Strengthening Talent and Leadership
Technology and Product Innovation
First Amendment and Journalist Safety
Previous journalism grantees include the American Journalism Project, Asian American Journalists, Capital B News of Brooklyn, and the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network. It awarded $20 million to Report for America in 2024, to support rural journalists and those in underserved communities. In 2023, it gave $5 million to establish Signal Akron, a new nonprofit newsroom in northeast Ohio. It has also given $1.7 million to Stony Brook University’s media literacy program. The foundation also funds endowed chairs of journalism at top universities across the country.
Knight has been an important supporter of local news over the years and was an early proponent of building a digital news ecosystem, including via the Knight News Challenge.
This funder also offers the JSK fellowships at Stanfrod, which support “diverse journalists from around the world who are creating solutions to journalism’s most urgent problems.” These fellowships support journalists with at least seven years professional experience.
Grants for Community Development and Economic Opportunity
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation conducts grantmaking related to community development and economic opportunity across a variety of programs and initiatives, which include Communities, Smart Cities, and Public Spaces:
Knight’s Community Impact program supports “the development of engaged, inclusive and equitable communities.”
Smart Cities grants work to “harness the growth of digital technology to improve how communities respond, connect to and engage with residents.”
Public Spaces grants invest in “spaces such as parks, trails, libraries to engage and connect residents to each other and to the places where they live.”
This program area includes the Knight Public Spaces Fellowship, which supports “exemplary leaders who transform the way we think about and use public spaces in the communities where we live.”
This program also provides support for Reimagining the Civic Commons.
Knight maintains signature community programs in the eight cities where the Knight family’s newspapers were located—Akron, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit, Charlotte, Macon, St. Paul, and San Jose—as well as a Community Foundations Program that works in partnership with local community foundations in 18 other U.S. cities.
Grants stemming from the foundation’s communities program have recently gone to organizations including New York City’s Friends of the High Line, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami, Philadelphia’s Avenue North Renaissance, and the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Knight Foundation’s Arts program primarily funds work involving “the application of technology to the creation, dissemination and experience of art” in order to “strengthen ties with communities while fostering meaningful connections between people and place.” Knight’s two-pronged strategy in this field involves supporting discovery and exploration aimed at developing:
“emerging practices and understanding the sector through fellowships, forums, research and critique.”
“Digital infrastructure” that helps improve “the overall capacity of arts organizations through support for planning, staffing and investments in technical infrastructure.”
Recent recipients include Philadelphia’s Blackstar Film Festival, Florida’s Coral Gables Museum, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana de San Jose, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.
Grants for Civic and Democracy
The Knight Foundation conducts grantmaking for civics & democracy through its Information and Society program, which supports “research that contributes to the broader understanding of informed and engaged communities,” including how digital technologies impact how we “seek and share information, form beliefs, and connect with one another.”
While partially concerned with assessing and analyzing the effectiveness of the foundation’s own grants and investments, it also funds research into media, democracy, and polling.
This program funds “independent scholarship and policy insight to ensure the technologies used to produce, disseminate, and consume information advance democratic values and serve the common good.”
Grantees include Association of Research Libraries, Meedan Inc., Journal of Free Speech Law, and the Aspen Institute.
Grants for Education
The Knight Foundation may be considered a legacy education funder, as the foundation was originally established to provide financial aid to students in the newspaper’s home communities. Today, while education is not a stated priority, the foundation supports K-12 education through all three of its funding initiatives.
Through its Journalism program, the foundation defends “freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the face of both long-standing threats and unprecedented challenges emerging as technology changes the way we communicate.”
Knight’s Communities program seeks to develop talent, promote opportunity and increase civic engagement.
The foundation’s Arts program works with both established cultural institutions and smaller arts initiatives toward “new approaches to connect with the public.”
Past grantees in the area of K-12 education include the News Literacy Project, which provides professional development and curricula for teaching media literacy, and Read Charlotte, a literacy program for students and families.
The foundation also supports higher education mainly through its Journalism and Arts initiatives:
Its journalism program names talent and learning as a sub-initiative and invests in digital literacy programs, journalism education and named chairs at major U.S. universities.
Knight’s arts program prioritizes the areas where Knight once published newspapers and invests in arts projects that “build stronger, better informed and more engaged communities.”
Recent grants have focused on the use of technology in building arts audiences; the foundation awarded grants to Kent State University and MIT for the development of poetry and classical music apps.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $10,000 to $500,000 and have supported organizations of all sizes. To get a clearer sense of Knight’s funding tendencies, review the foundation’s searchable database.
- The Knight Foundation primarily makes grants in cities where the Knight family has founded or owned newspapers. It maintains offices with full-time program officers in Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; Macon, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Jose, California; and St. Paul, Minnesota.
- The Knight Foundation does not fund fundraising events, faith-based initiatives, international programs, or individuals.
- General inquiries may be submitted via the foundation’s Contact page.
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