John S and James L Knight Foundation
Accepts applications
John S and James L Knight Foundation is a private foundation in Miami, Florida. In tax year 2024 it gave $199 million in 513 grants; the typical grant was $85,300 and the largest $5.0 million. It accepts applications; its filing gives the instructions below.
From its IRS Form 990-PF for tax year 2024.
- Grants paid, 2024$199 million
- Number of grants513
- Typical grant$85,300
- Largest grant$5.0 million
- Assets$2.5 billion
- New grantees55%
Giving in 2024 was up from $188 million the year before.
55% of its 2024 grantees had not received a grant from it the year before, a sign it is open to new organizations.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants paid | Number of grants | Assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $188 million | 416 | $2.5 billion |
| 2024 | $199 million | 513 | $2.5 billion |
How to apply
| Contact | Website Wwwkforg 2850 Tigertail Avenue Ste 600, Miami, FL 33131 |
|---|---|
| Phone or email | (305) 908-2600 |
| What to submit | Throughout the year, knight foundation issues open challenges or calls for proposals focused on specific funding priorities. You can receive updates and notifications about upcoming opportunities by going to our website, www.kf.org, and subscribing to our newsletter. |
| Deadlines | Each funding opportunity will have its own application criteria and deadlines. |
| Restrictions | Any restrictions or limitations on awards, such as by geographical areas, charitable fields, kind of institutions or other factors: -medical research, organizations or projects whose mission is to prevent, eradicate and/or alleviate the effects of a specific disease -political campaigns and legislative lobbying efforts -projects that exclusively serve religious purposes -direct support for individuals |
Foundation website IRS filings on ProPublica
What John S and James L Knight Foundation funds
Where it gives
Its US grants went to recipients in 34 states, the most to Florida. It also paid $1.3 million in 3 grants to recipients outside the US.
| State | Grants | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | 184 | $40.2 million |
| New York | 48 | $16.4 million |
| District of Columbia | 31 | $14.2 million |
| California | 40 | $12.2 million |
| Michigan | 22 | $11.9 million |
| Pennsylvania | 24 | $11.3 million |
| Ohio | 22 | $8.2 million |
| Massachusetts | 20 | $6.5 million |
| North Carolina | 34 | $4.0 million |
| Washington | 4 | $2.7 million |
Grants paid in 2024
| Recipient | Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| The Associated Press | To support the associated press to ensure state-based, public-service journalism is available in 50 states while ap devises a new local news business strategy to better position it for long-term sustainability. | $5.0 million |
| Georgetown University | To sustain the institute, which will convene, support and provide accessible, actionable, nonpartisan insights to the stakeholders and institutions that design, operate, study and govern the digital information environment. | $4.0 million |
| Groundtruth Project Inc | To recruit, hire, train and place reporters from a variety of experiences and backgrounds into local newsrooms, and build durable local revenue streams atop those positions to assure long-term support for community journalism. | $3.0 million |
| The Miami Foundation | Support the growth, adaptation and diversification of newsmatch in the press forward era, to increase the competency of non-profit publishers seeking earned reader revenue. | $2.9 million |
| The Miami Foundation | To foster healthy communities by aiding local news publishers in the production of fact-based state and local election reporting, with a focus on swing states in which this coverage will be particularly relevant and useful. | $2.8 million |
| The Miami Foundation | To help local news organizations poised for statewide growth expand into new markets. | $2.7 million |
| The Pew Charitable Trusts | To support a five-year, co-branded partnership between knight and grantees subsidiary, the pew research center to study and widely share research on how americans absorb civic information; form beliefs, identities and community; and engage in civic action. | $2.5 million |
| The Lenfest Institute for Journalism Special Assets Fund of TPF | Create an accelerator supporting technology solutions essential for publishers and journalists to achieve their educational mission and help demonstrate the viability of solutions supporting local publishers' missions by accelerating the market. | $2.2 million |
| The Miami Foundation | To supplement the elections integrity fund at the miami foundation, which fosters healthy communities by aiding local news publishers in the production of fact-based state and local election reporting, with a focus on swing states. | $2.1 million |
| American Journalism Project | To provide the lead investment in the american journalism project, (ajp) a first-of-its-kind venture philanthropy organization focused on growing and sustaining independent, nonpartisan, local civic news organizations. | $2.0 million |
| Civic News Company | To strengthen civic news company's business infrastructure, long-term organizational sustainability and the content available to local publishers. | $2.0 million |
| National Trust for Local News | To support high-quality local news in macon, advance the sustainability of the georgia trust for local news in middle georgia, and strengthen the national trust for local news. | $1.8 million |
| New World Symphony Inc | To support the use of evolving technologies to reimagine the concert experience, expand the symphony's educational network, and build larger audiences who have a greater understanding of classical music. | $1.7 million |
| Institute for Nonprofit News | To support the institute for nonprofit news and its programs to strengthen the high-quality local news ecosystem in the u.s. By focusing on the financial sustainability of nonprofit newsrooms. | $1.6 million |
| Foundation for Detroit's Future | As part of a group of funders supporting detroit's plan of adjustment to allow detroit to emerge from bankruptcy (a) a financially sustainable community that can better engage and serve its citizens and (b) securing the assets of the detroit institute of arts as a resource for the city and the region. | $1.5 million |
| International Center for Journalists | To better connect international journalists in order to develop new entrepreneurial opportunities, incorporate new technologies and protect and advocate for journalists abroad. | $1.5 million |
| The Miami Foundation | To ensure that newsrooms in nine u.s. Swing states can access election-related journalism and services from the associated press so they can better inform their readers with fact-based, nonpartisan political and election coverage. | $1.5 million |
| Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition | To redesign and rebuild lock 3 as an excellent special event space and an inviting everyday day park for employees and new residents. | $1.3 million |
| Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | To equip newsrooms with one-stop shopping at big local news for data that AIDS local news story production. | $1.3 million |
| Techcongress Foundation | To strengthen technology expertise within the u.s. Congress by supporting the congressional innovation fellowship, which places an even number of technologists in congressional offices of both major political parties and works to convert fellows into full-time employees. | $1.3 million |
| Clemson University | To support the growth of the media forensics hub at clemson university. | $1.3 million |
| Develop Detroit Inc | To construct eight single-family homes in the north end neighborhood as a proof of concept for urban modular home construction and establish a revolving fund from sale proceeds to build more homes in detroit. | $1.3 million |
| The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York | To transform reader revenue tools and methods from a pilot program into a sustainable data and ai-product suite for publishers. | $1.2 million |
| Propublica Inc | To catalyze the next phase of propublica's local reporting network via support of newsrooms in communities historically underserved by journalism. | $1.1 million |
| Muckrock Foundation Incorporated | To solidify muckrocks role as a provider of tools for journalists and steward of a developer ecosystem. | $1.1 million |
| Akron Art Museum | To support digital integration throughout the museum via implementation of the digital integration plan, the creation of the knight center for digital discovery, and related upgrades to technical infrastructure. | $1.0 million |
| Downtown Akron Partnership Inc | To support the establishment of a fund to acquire and develop downtown properties and continue downtown programming. | $1.0 million |
| Foundation for the Carolinas | To establish the knight tech infusion fund at foundation for the carolinas that will increase the capacity and sustainability of charlotte artists and arts organizations through the wise use of technology. | $1.0 million |
| Institute of Contemporary Art Miami Inc | To expand and digitally equip the facilities of the institute of contemporary art, miami by purchasing and renovating a building adjacent to its current site. | $1.0 million |
| Miami Dade College Foundation Inc | To provide a 1:1 match of miami-dade countys $5,000,000 contribution and city of miamis $2,000,000 contribution of american rescue plan act funding to miami dade college for the creation of new degree and certificate programs in applied ai and related emerging technologies, and the hiring of key faculty in these programs. | $1.0 million |
| Miami Waterkeeper | To support the growth of miami waterkeeper, a climate resilience nonprofit organization, through the hiring of executive leadership and the development and implementation of a digital communications and product strategy. | $1.0 million |
| Miami-Dade Innovation Authority Inc | To support the establishment of the miami-dade innovation authority (mdia), a nonpartisan initiative to accelerate adoption of technologies that improve community outcomes in climate resiliency, health and financial inclusion in miami-dade county, especially by local government. | $1.0 million |
| Motown Historical Museum Inc | To digitize key audio, audiovisual and physical artifacts from motown's archive and make them available to the public via a "digital jukebox." | $1.0 million |
| National Faith Homebuyers | To support the second phase of the down payment assistance program, which will support at least 300 families to purchase homes. | $1.0 million |
| News Revenue Hub Inc | Accelerate the news revenue hubs capacity by scaling its technical staff to enable product, analytics, and data benchmarking capabilities, and to provide free access to those products and capabilities to independent, local newsrooms. | $1.0 million |
| Ohio Local Information Initiative Inc | To provide the catalytic investment in signal akron, a new nonprofit digital news site managed by the ohio local news initiative. Signal akron will be an independent and nonpartisan civic news operation, and will serve a city nearly in dire need of new news organizations. | $1.0 million |
| The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center | To increase access to and engagement with artistic programming both on-site and online for the philadelphia orchestra and kimmel center, inc. (pokc). | $1.0 million |
| The Well Community Development Corporation | Provide 1:1 match of the city of akrons $4,000,000 contribution of american rescue plan act funding to support the middlebury housing initiative. | $1.0 million |
| Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania | To support the media, technology, and democracy initiative at the university of pennsylvania. | $1.0 million |
| University of Miami | To support the construction of the knight center for music innovation - a state of the art facility that will engage students and audiences through technologically enhanced concert experiences and support talent development for the next generation of musicians. | $1.0 million |
Officers and trustees
- Frank Borges
- Christopher M Austen
- Martin Baron
- Stephanie Bell-Rose
- Shona Brown
- Adriana M Cisneros
- Austin Clements
- Ana-Marie Codina
- Ramona Hood
- Susan D Kronick
- Michael Marsicano
- Christine Amer Mayer
- Anna Spangler Nelson
- Charles Frank Olson
- Matthew Stephen Stepka
Questions people ask
Does John S and James L Knight Foundation accept grant applications?
Yes. Its latest IRS filing says it accepts applications, with this on deadlines: Each funding opportunity will have its own application criteria and deadlines..
How much does John S and James L Knight Foundation give?
$199 million in tax year 2024, across 513 grants, with a typical grant of $85,300.
Who runs John S and James L Knight Foundation?
Its 2024 filing lists Frank Borges (Chairman and Trustee Through 3/2024), Christopher M Austen (Chairman and Trustee Effective 3/2024), Martin Baron (Trustee) and Stephanie Bell-Rose (Trustee) among 15 officers and trustees.
What does John S and James L Knight Foundation fund?
Based on its grants, mainly education, environment and conservation and arts and culture.