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John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation logo.jpg
Founded December 1950; 66 years ago (1950-12)
Founder John S. Knight
James L. Knight
Type Private Independent Foundation
65-0464177
Location
Area served
United States
Key people
Alberto Ibargüen
President & CEO
Revenue
$140.2 million (2014)
Endowment $2.4 billion (2014)
Slogan Informed & engaged communities
Mission "...promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts..."
Website www.knightfoundation.org
Formerly called
Knight Memorial Education Fund

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting "transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts."

It began as the Knight Memorial Education Fund in 1940. For its first decade, most contributions came from the Akron Beacon Journal and Miami Herald. It was incorporated as Knight Foundation in 1950 in Ohio, and reincorporated as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Florida in 1993. Its first grant in the area of journalism was to the Inter American Press Association in Miami.

After Creed Black assumed its presidency in 1988, the foundation's national presence grew. In 1990 the board of trustees voted to relocate the foundation's headquarters from Akron, Ohio, to Miami, Florida.

Funding in 2011 was distributed according to four programs. They are the Journalism and Media Innovation Program, the Communities Program, the Arts Program and the National Program. Each of the programs uses a combination of funding priorities and geographic requirements to select grants, described on the foundation's web site.

Communities which had Knight-Ridder Newspapers in 1991, at the time of the last founder James L. Knight's death, are considered to be among the 26 "Knight Communities", a consideration for funding eligibility in the Communities and Arts Programs.

Eight communities in the U.S. have a resident program director who is primary point of contact for funding:

Another 18 communities have 'Knight Donor Advised Funds' guided by the Knight Foundation via local community foundations. In those communities, the local community foundation is the first point of contact for funding:

The foundation endows Knight Chairs who are journalists in tenured positions at universities across the United States. Journalism-technology labs in various universities are also funded by the Knight Foundation.

The Knight Foundation funds multimedia training in newsrooms such as National Public Radio and through programs like Knight-Mozilla OpenNews.


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