Knight Foundation

Last updated
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
FoundedDecember 1950;74 years ago (1950-12)
Founder John S. Knight
James L. Knight
TypePrivate independent foundation
65-0464177
FocusJournalism, Arts, Research, and Community Development
HeadquartersMiami, FL
Location
Area served
United States
ProductPhilanthropy
Key people
 Maribel Perez Wadsworth
President & CEO
Endowment $2.5 billion (2023) [1]
Websitewww.knightfoundation.org
Formerly called
Knight Memorial Education Fund

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American philanthropic organization that provides grants for the arts, journalism, research, and community development, with a focus on impact.

Contents

The organization was founded as the Charles L. Knight Memorial Education Fund in 1940. The fund was incorporated as the Knight Foundation in December 1950 in Ohio, and reincorporated as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Florida in 1993.

The Foundation’s mission is to support a more effective democracy by funding projects that promote free expression, arts and culture, research in media and democracy, and the success of its 26 Knight communities, where the Knight brothers published newspapers.

History

20th century

Charles Landon Knight was the publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal from 1907 to 1933. C.L. Knight had a tradition of providing financial assistance to college students until his passing in Autumn 1933.

Following their father's death, with the help of Jack Barry, John S. and James L. Knight established the Knight Memorial Education Fund in 1940. It would provide scholarships to students continuing their father's mission of helping Akron college students afford college. The funds were contributed by Knight’s and their newspapers, such as the Akron Beacon Journal, which contributed to the education fund. [2] [3]

In December 1950, the Knight Foundation was incorporated in the state of Ohio. It began with an initial balance of $9,047, transferred from the education fund. Its stated goal was to continue carrying out the work of the education fund, but it was expanded to serve charitable, religious, scientific, literary, and philanthropic purposes for the benefit of the general public. The Foundation began making small grants to local education, social services, and cultural organizations. The Foundation’s first grant to a journalism organization was to the Inter American Press Association for a scholarship fund in 1954.

In its first decade, the majority of the Foundation's financial resources were provided by contributions from Knight Newspapers, such as the Akron Beacon Journal and the Miami Herald, including gifts from John and James Knight. Other Knight Newspapers also contributed, resulting in a limited number of grants being awarded to those cities. Despite several family ties, the foundation was legally independent of Knight Newspapers.

On November 12, 1965, Clara L. Knight, the mother of the Knight brothers, died, leaving her 180,000 shares of Knight Newspapers stock to the Foundation. At the time, the stock was valued at $5.2 million. As a result, in 1966, the Knight Newspapers' contributions to the Foundation stopped.

In 1972, the Board of Trustees authorized the sale of Clara Knight’s stock, raising $21 million for the Foundation, leading it to expand its grant programs and scale.

John S. Knight (also known as Jack) did not intend to leave his wealth to the Foundation. However, several factors led him to change his will in 1974. Jack’s health was deteriorating, there was an incoming merger with Ridder Newspapers, and changes to estate tax laws through the 1976 Tax Reform Act could have potentially led to a liquidation of Knight Newspapers' stock, which would have disrupted the merger. Knight Newspapers' C.E.O., Lee Hills, came to Jack and offered the idea of leaving his estate to the Foundation to secure the future of the company and the Foundation. Jack acquiesced, leaving his heirs' trust funds and the rest to the Foundation. After Jack’s passing and when his estate was settled, this would leave his 6,356,504 shares of Knight-Ridder Newspapers totaling $400,000,000 in total assets to the Foundation. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

The foundation's headquarters moved from Akron, Ohio to Miami in 1990. At that time, the foundation's portfolio was valued at $522 million and staff had grown to 14 employees.

On February 5, 1991, James Knight died, leaving a bulk of his estate, $200 million, to the foundation. Hills succeeded as chairman of the board.

With the foundation besieged by requests in the early 1990s for emergency funding to "save our symphony," Penelope McPhee, director of the Arts Program, designed the Magic of Music initiative. [8]

21st century

In 2005, to address the Internet's increasingly disruptive impact on the traditional media industry, Knight began a number of systemic changes in its approach to making grants. As one of his first actions as CEO, Alberto Ibargüen suspended the further creation of endowments of journalism programs at colleges and universities. The premise was that traditional journalism education had to change to meet the unique challenges of the digital age. Knight also began experimenting with non-traditional approaches to connecting with new grantees, such as contests that limited grantees to 150 words to describe ideas and were open to anybody.

The first of these contests, the Knight News Challenge, sought ideas that used "digital technology to inform communities." In addition to Knight's pivot toward funding digital innovations, the foundation also doubled down on its support of the First Amendment, funding regular surveys that gauged high school students' awareness of it, and helping create organizations like the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University to "preserve and expand First Amendment rights in the digital age through research and education, and by supporting litigation in favor of protecting freedom of expression and the press." Under Ibargüen, Knight also expanded its support of the arts, through "Knight Arts Challenges" in a number of Knight Communities.

Programs

Creed Black and W. Gerald Austen attending a board meeting of the Knight Foundation at the Douglass Theatre in Macon, Georgia 1998 Creed Black and Gerald Austen - Flickr - Knight Foundation.jpg
Creed Black and W. Gerald Austen attending a board meeting of the Knight Foundation at the Douglass Theatre in Macon, Georgia

The foundation's website describes grant-making programs in journalism, communities, and the arts. [9] 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" which are eligible for funding through the foundation's community and arts programs. [10]

Communities

Knight works in 26 communities in the United States. In eight communities, a local program director leads the work:

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:

Education and training

The foundation endows Knight Chairs who are journalists in tenured positions at universities across the United States. [11] [12] [13] The Medill Knight Lab at Northwestern University, a journalism technology lab, is also funded by the Knight Foundation. [14]

The Knight Foundation funds multimedia training in newsrooms such as National Public Radio and through programs like Knight-Mozilla OpenNews. [15] [16]

Leadership

Alberto Ibarguen, president and chief executive of the Knight Foundation in 2013 Alberto Ibarguen (8466601850).jpg
Alberto Ibargüen, president and chief executive of the Knight Foundation in 2013

Knight Foundation presidents have been: John S. Knight, James L. Knight, Lee Hills, Creed C. Black, Hodding Carter III (1997–2005), and Alberto Ibargüen (2005–present).

Notable people

Grants

Any individual or U.S.-based organization may apply for a grant. (Before 2010, an organization had to be a registered section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.) The process of asking for a grant begins with a letter of inquiry describing the project concept. In addition to the foundation's regular granting program, there are three contests (calls for entries): The Knight News Challenge, [18] the Knight Arts Challenge [19] and the Knight Community Information Challenge. [20] In 2011, the foundation added a fourth contest, the Black Male Engagement Challenge. [21] In 2015 a grant agreement was reached with Wikimedia Foundation to build a search engine called Knowledge Engine . [22]

Assets and grant making

YearAssets (US$)New GrantsApproved (US$)Paid (US$)
19991,888,543,16831169,541,64153,142,772
20002,198,985,12235693,365,46569,983,125
20011,900,829,94231986,433,07584,970,064
20021,718,236,23845980,949,24285,617,981
20031,845,869,048349128,719,47090,400,477
20041,939,340,90532999,905,48090,358,608
20052,071,507,29128678,224,14792,577,162
20062,261,797,09719173,799,294104,310,919
20072,618,700,006290165,310,078121,267,122
20081,974,780,135263138,670,778116,206,414
20092,189,663,052276141,813,088105,887,097
20102,305,269,82531880,045,442104,920,549
20112,192,836,75638079,284,121112,604,594
20122,179,634,48041492,352,685112,063,584
20132,395,608,86243480,483,204120,694,865
20142,443,818,246531148,564,966130,284,911
20152,301,502,477599150,688,190126,796,384
20162,256,756,85448293,859,603127,865,430
20172,473,340,12150088,528,014117,929,820
20182,271,386,220399157,028,547105,335,420
20192,424,843,251488155,146,399133,711,354
20202,674,252,73138171,731,889123,809,334
20213,089,444,60035895,853,815114,231,066
20222,529,635,008270128,159,492114,141,000
20232,603,180,460315195,216,207129,821,000

[23] [24]

Dedications

John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall in Miami in 2008 John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall Miami 2008 HPIM2830.jpg
John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall in Miami in 2008

References

  1. ↑ "Knight Foundation 2023 Form 990-PF" (PDF). 2024. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  2. ↑ "History". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  3. 1 2 Whited, Charles (1988). Knight: A Publisher in the Tumultuous Century (1st ed.). E.P. Dutton. pp. 309–311. ISBN   0-525-24723-8.
  4. ↑ "Knight Ridder | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  5. ↑ Jones, Alex S. (1985-04-21). "PRESS NOTES; KNIGHT ESTATE TO ADD STOCK IN FOUNDATION". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  6. ↑ Ap (1981-06-21). "Foundation to Get Knight Estate". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  7. ↑ Jacobsen, Darien; Raub, Brian; Johnson, Barry (2006). "The Estate Tax: Ninety Years and Counting" (PDF). IRS SOI Bulletin Articles.
  8. ↑ "Magic of Music Final Report: The Search for Shining Eyes". Archived from the original on 2015-10-13. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  9. ↑ "What We Fund". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  10. ↑ Dahlberg, Nancy (January 12, 2015). "Knight Cities Challenge announces 10 Miami finalists". The Miami Herald.
  11. ↑ "Knight Foundation". knightfoundation.org. Retrieved 2016-09-28.
  12. ↑ "Rosental Alves | School of Journalism". journalism.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-28.
  13. ↑ "Penny Abernathy | UNC School of Media and Journalism". mj.unc.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-10-02. Retrieved 2016-09-28.
  14. ↑ "History of the Lab". 2013-03-23. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2016-09-28.
  15. ↑ "Newsonomics: The new Knight-Lenfest initiative gives a kick in the pants to America's metro newspapers | NiemanLab". niemanlab.org. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
  16. ↑ "Knight-Mozilla OpenNews wants to fund code at lengths longer than a quick jog, shorter than a marathon" . Retrieved 2016-09-28.
  17. ↑ "Women At The New York Times Feel Frustrated As Paper Stands By Reporter Accused Of Sexual Misconduct". Huffington Post India. 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  18. ↑ "Knight News Challenge" . Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  19. ↑ "Knight Arts Challenge". Archived from the original on 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  20. ↑ "Knight Community Information Challenge". Archived from the original on 2011-09-02. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  21. ↑ "Black Male Engagement Challenge". Archived from the original on 2015-10-31. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  22. ↑ wmf:File:Knowledge engine grant agreement.pdf, 18 September 2015. Published 11 February 2016, retrieved 16 February 2016.
  23. ↑ "Financial Information - Assets and Grantmaking". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  24. ↑ "Financial Information". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
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