These days, as people use Facebook to support Haiti, end hunger, and stand behind other causes, social networks have become the place to make a statement.

Yet those clicks don’t necessarily turn into a movement to better communities. At least not yet.

With Knight Foundation’s focus on fostering informed and engaged communities, we started looking at ways to take that online energy a step further, and transform it into on-the-ground action.

The result is the Knight Technology for Engagement Initiative, which will initially invest $2.23 million in five projects that use the latest digital tools to help people connect for the greater good.

Take a look at what these first projects will do:

Craigslist Foundation ($750,000) will make it easy to find great ideas for community building. The foundation is creating an idea-sharing site, where institutions and individuals tell their community’s success stories and connect with people of like minds.

Jumo ($750,000), a nonprofit startup created by Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, will use a social network to connect people with the issues and organizations that interest them, with the goal of fostering lasting relationships. The site matches users with relevant organizations, then engages them through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or other applications to encourage contributions of time, skills or money. (Hughes talks about the project here.)

Code For America ($250,000) wants to transform city governments across the country by enlisting the nation’s most promising developers to apply Web 2.0 principles to civic problems. Based on the Teach for America model, members will create web applications to help make city governments more transparent, participatory and efficient. Knight Foundation’s funding will ensure the participation of Philadelphia, Pa. and Boulder, Colo., two Knight resident communities.

Community PlanIt ($250,000), a project out of Emerson College’s Engagement Game Lab, will revitalize the community planning process by developing an interactive game platform that lets stakeholders work—and play—together to solve problems. The grant will fund game development, in collaboration with four Knight communities.

And, finally, CEOS for Cities ($235,000) will test whether residents can help create solutions to local problems, filling a gap left by shrinking budgets. This project will connect developers and city officials to build a crowd-sourcing platform that invites citizens to work with government to identify problems and find answers. San Jose, Calif. and Grand Rapids, Mich., will test the idea.

Certainly, we live in an age of skepticism, with fewer folks trusting government and our society’s big institutions. At the same time, Americans – especially the young Millenials – are looking for new ways to make a difference.

Harnessing digital technology is one way to inspire neighbors to work together to solve their most entrenched problems. .

Knight Foundation is looking for more high-quality ideas that use technology to cultivate community engagement.

These first five grants that we’re announcing today are just the beginning. Learn more about the initiative, and how to submit an idea, by visiting www.technologyforegagement.org.

Paula Ellis

Vice President for Strategic Initiatives

Damian Thorman

National Program Director

Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's  recent  news update  included two items that are both near and dear to Knight Foundation - and great news for the city.

First, Coleman announced a new  fund to help small businesses survive construction of the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line, 11-miles of rail that will connect Minneapolis and St. Paul.  The  Central Corridor Funders Collaborative  was instrumental in supporting the planning for the project and then leveraged $1 million in public funds with a $500,000  grant . Knight was one of the lead foundations that helped launch this funders collaborative.  The line is scheduled to open for riders in 2014.

The second focused on the public launch of Knight's  library grant to support a  Mobile  Workplace . It will provide ten classes every week throughout the summer to teach residents the essential computer skills they need to compete in the 21st century.  By bringing these classes out into the community, we are able to reach residents who don’t have ready access to computers or the internet. Many of the people who attend these classes have never used a computer before, and digital literacy has become a prerequisite for the modern workplace.   One great part of this initiative is that we are able to offer classes to residents in English, Somali, Spanish, Hmong, Karen, Amharic, and Tigrinya.

The grant was part of Knight's Library Initiative, a 20-city effort to enhance digital access and training.

Hundreds of volunteers from around the Detroit region participated in four KaBOOM! playground builds Saturday.  Two sites, Starlight Baptist and Jude Baptist, are faith-based organizations with strong community ties.  The Jude playground is connected to a community center that includes a daycare for residents on Detroit’s east side.

Focus Hope chose Paul Robeson Academy to partner with and the place was packed with children from the school doing their part in the build.  The school band entertained the volunteers and the cheer team motivated folks to proceed even with the threat of inclement weather. Congressman John Conyers told a story about knowing Paul Robeson, the actor and political activist for whom the school was named.  Other elected officials were in attendance including Wayne County Commissioner Keith Williams.  Commissioner Williams contributed the match funds to support the project build.

At ACCESS in Dearborn, the build had a hip hop flare.  The music kept the volunteers in an upbeat mode while their spirit for supporting their community was shared by all.  Mothers brought food and a local firefighter brought the fire trucks and entertained the small children.

Some of the people who volunteered got so excited they volunteered to do more for the organizations building the playgrounds.

Knight Foundation is funding volunteers to build 13 playgrounds in five cities this year in an effort to engage residents in strengthening their community.

Damian Thorman, Knight Foundation’s national program director, is the incoming chair of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

I’m in Washington today, where the National Fund for Workforce Solutions is receiving $7.7 million from the White House's new Social Innovation Fund.

The grant will allow the workforce fund, a Knight grantee, – and its partner Jobs for the Future - to help at least 23,000 additional people in 24 communities, while addressing the needs of more than 1,000 employers.

The investment also recognizes the fund’s innovative – and effective – approach to preparing America’s workers for the jobs our economy demands.  The fund works by linking local businesses with employees and workforce experts. Together, they determine the kind of training needed to fill existing, higher-skilled, jobs.  That’s the key: allowing local wisdom to drive local solutions.

The grant is further recognition that the workforce fund is making headway when our country needs it most.

Two other Knight Foundation grantees, LISC and New Profit, Inc., also received funding.

It's an honor to receive a grant from the Social Innovation Fund, created by Congress just last year to help successful non-profits replicate their approaches to addressing critical challenges.

Knight Foundation is partnering with KaBOOM! to build 13 playgrounds in five communities this year - including four in Detroit on Saturday. Watch the above video to get a feel for the playground Build Day in Macon, and read a first hand account of how the community came together to make it happen by Macon Program Director Beverly Blake

A few Saturdays ago, in 90 plus degree heat, over 100 volunteers from Macon and Middle Georgia gathered at Woodfield Academy to construct a KaBOOM! playground. What a day it was! We had a DJ, lots of food and drink, and skilled and unskilled (me) labor who came together to enjoy one another's company and a build great project.  Most of the folks there I had not met before. Great fellowship was in the air - along with 80% humidity.

I was assigned to the "dome" team - a great big jungle gym type of structure - and took my seat on the ground under a big tree with one of the other volunteers named Oscar Hugley. Our job was to get the nuts and bolts and washers all put together. We began chatting and I learned that his mother lived in Beall's Hill (one of the projects Knight Foundation is working on as part of the College Hill initiative) and we chatted and I learned a lot about the history of the neighborhood that I would never have known.  What a small world.  Fate brought us together at a playground build so I could learn about the history and people of a neighborhood that Knight is working in.  It was obviously meant to be.

The dome was finished in 45 minutes. Our KaBOOM! project manager said it was a record. Usually it takes 1 and a half hours. She was amazed...until we all found out that our team leader is the head of engineering at Robins Air Force Base and brought some of his colleagues with him to work on the build. That explains it. And, amazingly, the team even read the instructions - or at least glanced at them.

We finished up the playground by 2 p.m.  and had the dedication.  It was a wonderful day and I have never seen folks work so hard. I thought that because it was so hot we would lose people, but not so.  Everyone was hot, tired and sunburned but happy. And the kids were thrilled with the finished playground. The only downer was that no one could play on it for 48 hours until the concrete cured.  I went back this week to take a look and was amazed. It is beautiful and will be such a big part of Woodfield - I learned that the students will benefit not only through recreation, but the playground will also be therapeutic. Large motor skills development is important for many of the students at Woodfield.

When I returned this week and talked with Becky Sessions, the head of school, she told me something about the build that most of us never consider.  We see Build Day and all the activity and the finished product, but don't think about the eight weeks prior, when all the planning and "friendraising" and organization happens. Just think about it: you have eight weeks to raise $7500, gather over 100 volunteers, get the kids involved in the design, the families involved in the organization, sign up for committees, have weekly conference calls with KaBOOM!...a million details!  Becky said the two months leading up to the build were as important to build the Woodfield Community as the Build Day itself. Parents got to know one another. Everyone who was asked for anything was thrilled to participate (I have never seen so much food in my life - thanks to Macon's groceries and restaurants).  The way the business community came forward was amazing. Woodfield did not have to spend one penny of their operating funds to make sure Build Day was a success.  There were even funds to hire a DJ - which really helped keep us motivated.

KaBOOM! focuses on building a great playground, but the group is about so about much more. It is about bringing strangers together to accomplish something important and learning that we have something in common, like Oscar and I did. It is about working together in planning for something on faith. Since no one had ever built a KaBOOM! playground before, no one knew what to expect. It was also about families sharing a common vision for the school that is not only helping their kids succeed, but providing new friends and relationships.

But mostly I believe it's about how people with a love for community and a willingness to give can remarkably come together  - in eight weeks- to envision, plan and build a fantastic playground in only one day.  Folks in Macon are still talking about it. And every time I put on my build T-shirt, I think of Oscar and Becky and the Woodfield Academy community. And I smile.

A Knight Foundation team in Charlotte sparked discussion today on what makes people loyal to and passionate about where they live – and what that means for communities.

The talk at the National School Public Relations Association conference centered on the findings of the Soul of the Community survey, conducted for Knight Foundation by Gallup. In its first two years, the survey found that an area’s aesthetics, or physical beauty, social offerings and openness to all people provide the emotional glue that keeps residents happily entrenched.

The report also explores the nuance of various factors, such as good schools, that keep people put. On Twitter, Richie Escovedo ('Vedo') cited the  survey: "Community engagement and attachment is *different* from involvement and largely untapped..."

The survey also delves deeper, to explore whether communities with more attached residents are better off. So far, two years of results have found a significant relationship between people’s passion and loyalty for their community and local economic growth.

Results from the survey’s third round will be announced in the fall.

Over 40 media outlets published original stories about the new report from the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, released Thursday at the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C. "Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College Sports" warns of accelerating spending on college sports and potential threats to college and university finances. The Commission calls for greater transparency on spending in college sports; new policies for distributing television revenue that value academic performance; and ensuring that college athletes are treated as students, not as professional athletes.

According to The New York Times, "The recommendation... provided a kind of counterpoint to the seismic tremors that have shaken the college sports landscape in recent weeks, moves prompted largely by debates over who should get what share of millions of dollars in television revenue, and why.  As Nebraska, Colorado and Utah have announced plans to switch conferences — and as others have contemplated following suit — the discussion has centered on wins and losses, television markets and brand image.

"Placing a larger emphasis on academic performance was one of several ideas proposed by the commission in a report aimed at encouraging colleges and universities to take a collective deep breath and slow the rate of spending on athletics."

From the Los Angeles Times: "There must be a bright line between college and professional sports," said Len Elmore, a commission member and former pro basketball player. "We're not saying that there cannot be an investment in sports, we're saying the investment needs to be put in perspective."

From the Louisville Courier-Journal: "It's an important message. At least someone is issuing the warning, and clearly. But when the organization overseeing the whole thing, the NCAA, is as rabid in its pursuit of revenue as any Fortune 500 company, this escalation isn't going to stop.

"I applaud the Knight Commission for trying to inject a note of sanity into this. But I'm afraid they're trying to close the barn door after Bevo is already out grazing in the field. And that green in his mouth isn't grass. And he's not alone."

This Saturday, students at Gulfstream Elementary in Cutler Bay, Fla. will receive the best Christmas-in-June present ever: a completely refurbished, kid-friendly, and wheelchair-accessible playground. About 1,200 miles north, students at Imani Education Circle Charter School in Philadelphia will also be receiving a playground – something they have never had before.

Hundreds of volunteers will build both – in just one day.

The projects are two of 13 nationwide that Knight Foundation has funded through a  $1.48 million grant to KaBOOM!, a nonprofit committed to saving play.

“The long-term intention is to get citizens to act in their own interest and get them engaged in their community through building the playground,” said Damian Thorman, national program director for the Knight Foundation.

Look for more throughout the year in Macon, Detroit and Akron.

At Gulfstream Elementary, the once-rickety, rusty playground that has been off-limits to students will be replaced with a shiny new one, equipped with monkey bars, swings, a rock wall, and chutes and ladders.

The Parent-Teacher Association at Gulfstream had raised $30,000 on its own; it would have taken the school three or more years to raise enough money for the playground, Jill Guarino, president of the school's PTA, told the Miami Herald.

Both playgrounds will also include an Imagination Playground in a Box, a breakthrough play space that encourages unstructured free-play, which is critical to social, intellectual and emotional development.

Watch Live: Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy

Knight Foundation hosted the recent Ashoka Future Forum and induction ceremony at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., marking 30 years of support for the social innovation organization. About 280 social innovators from around the country gathered to envision a future built by social entrepreneurs. They work to make collaborative, large-scale change happen.

Eight Knight fellows were among 23 inductees celebrated during the event, which also included  remarks from Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen.

The forum featured roundtable discussions on such topics as how to convert social capital to financial value for growing social enterprises. Two of the daylong tracks explored facets of Knight’s informed and engaged community work. One group took a look at entrepreneurial approaches to news and knowledge, with participants trying to imagine a future media ecosystem and its core values. Another track sought to develop strategies for entrepreneurial solutions in cities and communities.

Two Knight grants support Ashoka and helped spawn these sessions.

The first grant was to find and support 15 fellows in Knight communities who could both continue their innovative work while inspiring other social entrepreneurs. Take a look at the accompanying map that identifies the Knight fellows and where they work (including a 16th person who has not graduated to a fellow.) Seven inducted at the forum were: Christa Gannon, John Danner, Conchy Bretos, Bernard Amadei, David Castro, Connie Siskowski and Amory Lovins.

The second Knight grant was to identify and invest in 30 social entrepreneurs in journalism. So far, 23 news and knowledge fellows, 19 with stipends and four senior fellows without stipends, have been elected from around the globe. One news fellow – Nicholas Reville – was among the inductees at the Ashoka Future Forum.