Knight Foundation Facts
Jack and Jim Knight were passionate about journalism and communities. Their national foundation with local roots seeks opportunities and big ideas that will help create transformational change. Knight Foundation’s signature work is its Journalism Program. Since its creation in 1950, the foundation has invested nearly $300 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression.
The Journalism Program has a global reach and clear goals: To protect and expand press freedom and to encourage journalism excellence at home and abroad. They are based on the premise that new media as well as traditional have the obligation to meet the highest standards of journalistic excellence. We define journalism excellence as the accurate, fair, contextual pursuit of truth.
Since 1986, the foundation has made a series of major grants to support midcareer education, primarily journalism fellowship programs at prominent universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Maryland, MIT, Michigan, the University of Southern California, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford. All have been independently evaluated and have received high marks for effectiveness. Some have been endowed; others have received
operating grants. Through its training and education priority, the Journalism Program continues to emphasize education for current and future journalists; aims to increase the impact and number of journalists reached by existing programs; and encourages the news industry to increase its investment in training.
The Journalism Program also has established 22 Knight Chairs in Journalism at the nation’s top journalism schools.