knight foundation: case studies

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Case Studies: How FourCommunity Information ProjectsWent from Idea to Impact

February 2013

Prepared by FSG and Network Impactor the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation


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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.To view a copy o this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/ or send a letter toCreative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, Cali ornia, 94041, USA.


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3Case Studies: How Four Community Information Projects Went from Idea to Impact

Table o Contents

Summary: Lessons rom the Field 5

NJ Spotlight: Building Transparency and ImprovingState Policy Debates 9

HIKI NO: Youth Journalism to Foster Digital Literacyand Build Diverse Community Stories 17

Revitalization in Central Wisconsin: How theIncourage Community Foundation Used In ormationto Build Hope and Speed Community Change 23

Dubuque2.0: How the Community Foundation oGreater Dubuque Used Environmental In ormationto Spark Citizen Action 33


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4 informationneeds.org | #infoneeds


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Making positive change happen in communities requires the ree ow o quality in ormation.

We need it to achieve the results we want in education, public sa ety, environmental protection,youth development and just about any other issue that we care about. I the news and in ormation

environment is in trouble, so is civic li e.

Community and place-based oundations across the country are recognizing that, in an increasingly

digital world, credible news and in ormation are among the most power ul tools they have to spark

community change. Over the ve years o the Knight Community In ormation Challenge (KCIC),

more than 80 oundations have invested in various media projects strengthening local and state

reporting, encouraging citizen dialogue and supporting digital literacy skills to advance their goals

or a better community.

As the KCIC has progressed, it has become clear that many community and place-based oundations

are well positioned to engage success ully in local news and in ormation e orts because o their:

Broad commitment to civic leadership;

Strong partnerships with local nonpro ts and community organizations; Existing relationships with city and state government;

Perceived role as a trusted intermediary in acilitating community discussions.

This report o ers our case studies on how di erent oundations used in ormation to improve

the healthy unctioning o their communities. The cases highlight the ollowing: Why did each

oundation support local media? How did it connect to their strategic priorities? What steps did they

take to make their project success ul? And what impact has it had on the issues they care about?

Sharing these cases we hope provides valuable lessons or other oundations considering supporting

local news and in ormation e orts and broadening their commitment to using media and technology

to engage residents.

Summary: Lessons rom the Field


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The case studies pro le projects supportedby the Community Foundation o New Jersey ,the Hawaii Community Foundation , IncourageCommunity Foundation and the CommunityFoundation o Greater Dubuque .

1) Supporting quality journalism to in ormcommunity dialogue about state policy.

We pro le the Community Foundation o New Jerseyssupport to NJ Spotlight, an online news sourcethat provides in-depth reporting on education, theenvironment, energy, healthcare and public nanceissues to increase government accountability andin orm dialogue about policy decisions.

Other challenge projects with similar goals include:The Lens School Board Coverage (Greater New Orleans Community Foundation) and OklahomaWatch (Tulsa Community Foundation).

2) Building youth communication anddigital literacy skills.

We look at HIKI NO, the nations rst statewide studentnews network, supported by the Hawaii CommunityFoundation. Developed in partnership with PBSand over 50 local schools in Hawaii, the project isdesigned to help youth share their stories and developcommunication skills, and to build a cadre o teacherswith digital media training.

Other challenge projects with similar goals include:Youth-on-Air (Community Foundation o Utah) andPublic Access TV (Long Beach Community Foundation).

Community Case Studies

3) Strengthening a communitys civic healththrough local in ormation exchange.

We examine Incourage Community Foundations

e orts to increase the availability o local news,build peoples capacity to access in ormation andsupport civic engagement in south Wood County,Wisconsin. The oundation has worked on a rangeo projects, such as expanding a local dispatch alertsystem, improving Internet access in schools andlibraries, integrating digital skills training intowork orce development programs and supportingcommunity dialogue.

Other challenge projects with similar goals include:GrowNY (Community Foundation o Greater Bu alo) and Community News Matters (ChicagoCommunity Trust) .

4) Promoting engagement with environmentalin ormation to spark citizen action.

We pro le the Community Foundation o GreaterDubuques activities to promote environmentally-riendly practices through the launch o Dubuque2.0.The initiative includes an interactive online in ormationhub eaturing games and contests to help residentsmonitor and reduce their energy and water ootprints,as well as community outreach at places like armersmarkets and cultural events. Other challenge projects with similar goals include:the Food In ormation Center (Blue Grass Community Foundation) and YouChoose Bay Area Initiative(Silicon Valley Community Foundation).


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The cases o er important lessons that communityand place-based oundations might want to considerin designing and managing their local news andin ormation projects.

Lessons on Design and Planning

1) Assess your communitys needs andin ormation behaviors rst.

Understanding how residents obtain in ormation and thekinds o content they need or want helped communityoundations re ne their project goals and activities. Aspart o the Dubuque2.0, project sta ers used a serieso community ca orums to sur ace communitypriorities and identi y strategies most likely to motivateresidents to engage in eco- riendly practices. In southWood County, Incourage set aside its initial plans tocreate an online news site a ter surveys and ocusgroups revealed that more than a third o low-incomeamilies in the area did not use the Internet. In response,the oundation shi ted its e orts to include acilitatingcivic dialogue and building digital literacy skills.

2) Focus on a speci c audience.

Identi ying a well-de ned audience helped localnews projects clari y their goals and continually re netheir e orts with their communitys needs in mind.For example, a ter conducting a care ul market gapanalysis prior to its launch, NJ Spotlight decided totarget policymakers and others who shape state policy

decisions, rather than a general news audience. Thisvision has helped the site attract a niche communitythat relies heavily on its coverage o education, energyand environmental issues.

3) Identi y opportunities to build strongerin ormation channels within existingcommunity programs.

By ocusing on the in ormation needs o local residents,community oundations o ten identi ed ways to improveexisting programs that lacked strong communication

channels. For example, the Community Foundationo Greater Dubuque recognized that the city-backedSustainable Dubuque Initiative had support rompolicymakers, businesses and civic leaders, butwas struggling to connect deeply with residents.To ll this missing link, it launched Dubuque2.0 toengage citizens in adopting eco- riendly habits.

New Jersey

Fill an in ormation

gap (policy coverage)

Policy makers andcivic actors in NewJersey (pop. 8.8M)

Small, densely-populated state

Primary

objective

Targetpopulation

Geographicocus

Hawaii

Build communication

and digital literacyskills among citizens

PBS viewers inHawaii (pop. 1.4M);youth in grades 6-12( 115K students)

Small island state(geographicallydisconnected)

Wood County

Generate demand

or in ormation andcommunity dialogue

Residents o southWood County(pop. 46K)

Rural county

Dubuque

Motivate individual

behavior change

Dubuque residents(pop. 58K)

City

Lessons from the Field


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Lessons on Community Engagement

1) Make community data personal.

Audiences are much more likely to act on data thatis uniquely tailored to them, and that helps them

understand their personal behaviors and how theycompare with others. For example, Dubuque2.0s smartmeter eature, created in partnership with IBMs SmarterCities program, allowed residents to view data abouttheir water and energy consumption, and compare itto others in their neighborhood. This eature provedaddictive among users, inspiring changes in peoplesenvironmental practices, rather than just awareness.

2) Promote shared deliberation andengagement with local in ormation.

Providing ways or individuals to engage with local dataand openly deliberate its implications helped projectsachieve their broader community goals. For example,NJ Spotlight coupled its reporting on the controversialtopic o teacher tenure re orm with moderatedroundtables that gave legislators, schools, teacherunions and parents the chance to discuss what goodteacher evaluations looked like.

3) Use digital training and mobile phones toreach people with limited internet access.

Community oundations engaged people withlimited internet access and digital literacy skills (e.g.,seniors, English as a Second Language populationsand low-income amilies), by including projectactivities that went beyond the web. Dubuque2.0, orexample, provided seniors with basic Internet trainingto access online material on reducing energy andwater use. It also set up booths with in ormation onenvironmentally- riendly practices at armers marketsand local estivals. Likewise, Incourage experimentedwith SMS text alerts and telephone hotlines to

distribute news about job training and communityservices to under- and unemployed workers withlimited computer skills.

Lessons on Project Development

1) Draw on available media andtechnology expertise.

The advice o partners and external experts was pivotal

in helping community oundations develop theirprojects. Incourages relationship with the MIT Centeror Civic Media and IT specialists at local schools anduniversities brought needed expertise in supportingits media and technology unding. Similarly,NJ Spotlight built its e ort on the knowledge andexperience o two veteran reporters that haddeveloped strong ollowers, reputations and contactsin the education and environment elds.

2) Create well-branded partnerships toaccelerate participation.

Strong partnerships with top-tier media organizationshelped local in ormation projects build credibilityand broader community involvement. HIKI NOsa liation with PBS Hawaii provided statewide reachand signi cant prestige that helped motivate studentsto sign up and remain involved. Similarly, Dubuque2.0bene ted rom partnerships the communityoundation orged with nearly two dozen localorganizations, universities and corporations.

3) Look beyond philanthropy to helpsustain your e ort.

Foundation grants will undoubtedly continue to be animportant source o unding or many local news andin ormation projects. Some o the projects pro ledwere able to complement their philanthropic supportthrough other creative ways. For example, one-thirdo the NJ Spotlights income now comes rom contentsharing agreements, events and advertising. And in thecase o Dubuque2.0, the initiative has ound a long-term home by merging with the citys SustainableDubuque initiative, where it will receive a ull-time stamember or at least two years unded by the city.

We hope you will dig deeper into these case studiesto nd more lessons that can help shape the way youapproach meeting local in ormation needs.


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Since 2009, the Community Foundation o

New Jersey (CFNJ) has helped support the

online news site NJ Spotlight. Like many states,

New Jersey aced declines in the coverage o

state policy issues, leaving lawmakers and voterswith limited in ormation to in orm debates

or develop quality legislation. By unding NJ

Spotlight, CFNJ hoped to preserve the medias

watchdog role in the state, oster accountable

government and ensure in ormed decisions

on issues the oundation cared about, such as

education, the environment and health care.

In two years, NJ Spotlight has established

itsel as a critical in ormation source or policy

makers and an important community voice in

discussions about teacher tenure re orm, wind

arm development and other hot-button issues.

NJ Spotlight is one venture in a broader, national

trend o nonpro t media outlets providing

quality news and reporting on local issues.

New JerseyCommunity Foundation

Established: 1979Location: Morristown, NJAsset size: $217 millionSta : 9Mission: Connect donors to organizations,issues and communities important tothem over time, and provide ongoingleadership on issues critical to the healtho New Jersey.

NJ Spotlight: Building Transparencyand Improving State Policy Debates


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The Community Foundation o New Jersey clearlysaw the problems o government accountabilityand community discussion that the states shrinkingreporting would lead to. As then- oundation boardmember Ingrid Reed explained,

Communities did not have access toin ormation that would help themunderstand the problems they were acingand the solutions they might cra t. [We]needed some way or people to understandwhat was happening in Trenton [the statecapital] and connect that to issues thatafected their lives.

An Information Strategy Emerges

The oundation was particularly concerned thatdeclines in media coverage were happening at a timeo intense public debate; recently elected Gov. Christiewas proposing aggressive scal, educational and socialre orms amid heavy controversy. 3 A credible in ormationsource to promote transparency and support act-baseddiscussions was needed more than ever.

In January o 2009, the oundation began conversationswith two veteran Star Ledger reporters, John Mooneyand Dusty McNichol, who had accepted buyout dealsduring the papers restructuring. Both men had spentmore than two decades in New Jersey journalism andhad sizeable ollowings. The two proposed to start a

1 Waldman, Steven. The in ormation needs o communities, FCC, July 20112 NJN was a member o PBS or television and NPR or radio, broadcasting NPR programming as well as producing its own programming, mostly

ocused on New Jersey i ssues. NJNs TV network, which had studios in Trenton and Newark, covered all o New Jersey, plus parts o Pennsylvania,New York, Connecticut and Delaware.

3 In 2011, a New Jersey Superior Court j udge ruled that Gov. Chris Christies nearly $1 billion in education cuts le t the state unable to meet itsobligations to more than one million children, violating the states school unding ormula.

Much o the country has seen a decline in investigativereporting and local news coverage. As a recent FCCreport highlights, rom 2003 to 2010, the membershipo Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) shrunk

more than 25 percent rom 5,391 to 4,000. 1 NewJersey has su ered similar changes in reporting. TheStar Ledger, the primary statewide newspaper, o eredbuyouts to 151 reporters (40 percent o the newsroom)in 2008 and reduced its coverage o state Legislatureevents and in-depth eatures on policy issues, such aseducation and the environment. In 2011, Gov. ChrisChristie cut government unding or public televisionand radio. As a result, the New Jersey Network (NJN)TV station (a PBS member) dissolved in June 2011 andwas replaced with a scaled back version, NJTV. NJNsnine public radio stations were also sold to New YorkPublic Radio (WNYC) and Philadelphia (WHYY).2

These changes meant many New Jersey residentsturned to The New York Times and The PhiladelphiaInquirer or regional and national news, but had noclear options or in-depth coverage o New Jersey-speci c state policy issues. New Jersey became a statewithout a means o public discussion, explained ormer

Decline in State-Level Media

state Assembly and Senate member Gordon MacInnes.There used to be county papers everywhere, most withbureaus at the state house. Interested citizens couldturn to their local paper to know what was happening inthe Legislature, but thats no longer the case.

Population: 8.8 millionMedian household income: $70,000


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NJ Spotlight launched in May 2010, with an initialocus on education, energy and environmental issues.The site grew to include daily and weekly emaildigests, voter guides, school report cards, policyexplainer pieces and opinion articles rom guestcontributors. To engage policy makers and advocateso ine, NJ Spotlight launched a series o in-person

roundtables, hosted on issues such as solar energyand charter schools. The roundtables enlisted well-known panelists to represent di erent sides o theissues, and were moderated by neutral reporters.

As the site grew, the Knight Foundations CommunityIn ormation Challenge, the William Penn Foundation,the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and J-Lab providedadditional unding. Publisher Kevin Harold alsostarted developing the sites earned revenue streams,contacting corporate sponsors and advertisers.

NJ Spotlight has steadily built an audience or itscontent. In 2012, NJ Spotlight consistently averagedmore than 50,000 monthly visits. It also has 4,000subscribers to its daily and weekly digests.

new online news service, NJ Spotlight, to providein-depth reporting and to host in-person discussionsand panels ocused on state-level policy.

CFNJ ultimately established a partnership withNJ Spotlight, becoming the sites most signi cant

under and serving as a partner in its start-up anddevelopment. The oundations active engagementwith NJ Spotlight marked a shi t in its work, movingbeyond managing donor-advised unds directedtoward education, health and social issues to in ormingcommunity conversations about key issues. As CFNJPresident Hans Dekker observed, We didnt makean arms-length grant. We had a real shared sense oownership over the project. CFNJ and Dekker inparticular pushed the NJ Spotlight team to comeup with a business plan, and provided unding or aplanning process be ore underwriting the site launch.

Building an Audience

NJ Spotlight aligned with the oundations goals andhad elements that positioned it well to in orm smartdiscussion about community issues:

A ocus on state-level policy coverage, rather thangeneral news (e.g. sports, crime, politics).

A clearly de ned target audience policy makers,government o cials, community leaders, advocacygroups and interested citizens.

A plan or organizational sustainability , whichincluded generating revenue through in-personevents, corporate sponsorships, and advertising.

Well-respected pro essional reporters with expertiseand strong reputations.

Distributors oNJ Spotlight Content

TV WNYC ($6,000/month) WHYY ($1,600/month) NJ Television (no ormal or

paid agreement) Caucus NJ & Capitol Report

( ormal agreement, not paid)

Radio WNYC (no ormal agreement) NY & NJ Public Radio ($6,000/month) WHYY Public Radio ($1,200/month) WBGO Radio (no ormal or

paid agreement)

Print/Online News Newsworks (part o WHYY agreement) Philly.com ( ormal agreement, not paid) Patch.com (no ormal or paid agreement) Politicker NJ (no ormal or paid agreement)


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Philly.com, Patch.com and others. The ormalsharing agreements involve providing content or therespective websites, commentary on programming(including a weekly podcast with WHYY) andcooperation on individual reporting projects. TheWHYY contract stipulates exclusive access to certain

South Jersey stories, which means that NJ Spotlightcant o er these stories to other media outletsor at least two days. NJ Spotlight recently signedon as a partner in a new statewide, collaborativemedia e ort through Montclair State University, alsosupported through the Knight Community In ormationChallenge. The New Jersey News Commons will helplocal news outlets collaborate in their coverage oissues such as health care, natural disasters and crime,which have both local and statewide e ects. 7

Reader Pro essions and Fields o Interests

Organized Labor 4 (1%)

Lobbying 3 (1%)

Consulting 14 (5%)

Energy 24 (8%)

Education 70 (24%)

Healthcare 25 (9%)Finance 2 (1%)

Legal 15 (5%)

(7%) 19 Advocacy Group

(1%) 4 Trade Association

(2%) 6 Public Utilities

(17%) 49 Other

(4%) 13 Government-Municipal

(1%) 4 Government-County(11%) 32 Government-State

(2%) 5 Regulatory

4 The Star Ledgers weekday readership is around 278,000.5 At least 94 percent o readers surveyed had received a bachelors degree or higher, and 93 percent o those who stated their income earned above

$50,000 annually. (June 2012, n=289)6 Reader survey conducted in June 2012; n=289 responses.7 A New Approach to News. http://www.montclair.edu/news/article.php?ArticleID=10236&ChannelID=28. Accessed Nov. 4, 2012.

While NJ Spotlights reach is much less than the generalreadership o the Star Ledger, the site has succeededin attracting its more ocused target audience:government o cials, policymakers and aides, schoolsuperintendents, advocates and academics. 4

Twenty- our percent o NJ Spotlight readers surveyedwork in education, 16 percent in government (state,county and municipal), 9 percent in health care and8 percent in energy. 5 Eighty-nine percent o surveyedNJ Spotlight readers reported orwarding at least onestory to another person. 6

NJ Spotlight stories also reach additional readersthrough ormal content-sharing agreements withWNYC and WHYY and in ormal agreements with


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With high readership among policy makers and areputation or air and credible reporting, NJ Spotlighthas played a strong role in in orming state educationpolicy discussions.

Shaping Public Education Debates

As Shelley Skinner, deputy director o the advocacygroup Better Education or Kids notes, NJ Spotlightprovides the best topical, in-depth coveragein Trenton. For our organization, and or allorganizations ocused on policy issues in New Jersey,NJ Spotlight is the touchstone.

Total Monthly Visits to NJ Spotlight Website

July 2010 January 2011 July 2011 January 2012 July 2012

50,000

100,000

50% 48% 51% 45%

Total visits New visits


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Lesson 1: Be clear about your ocus and your audience.NJ Spotlight conducted a care ul market gap analysis and developed a robust business plan prior tolaunch. Through the process, NJ Spotlight narrowed its initial issue ocus (education, energy, health care andenvironment) and de ned a clear audience (policy decision makers and civic actors in the state). This visionallowed NJ Spotlight to attract an audience that relies heavily on its content.

Lesson 2: Focus on building a quality brand.NJ Spotlight through its reporting and acilitation has come to be viewed as a trusted, neutral arbiter in thecommunity. NJ Spotlights pro essional reporters with expertise, contacts and large ollowings helped developthe sites reputation and build its brand in the state. While not possible in every setting, recruiting writers with journalism training and specialized knowledge is likely to yield high reputational returns.

Lesson 3: Create a blended revenue model.One-third o NJ Spotlights revenue comes rom earned income, split evenly between content sharing ees,

advertising and sponsorships. While philanthropy will likely always play a core role in the operating model,NJ Spotlight has demonstrated that meaning ul earned income is possible and can support long-termnancial sustainability. NJ Spotlights progress in this area is due, in part, to recruiting corporate sponsors andadvertisers. Other online news sites, such as The Texas Tribune have also been able to generated earned-income sources o revenue. 13

Lessons Learned

The Texas Tribune

Like the New Jersey Spotlight, The Texas Tribune is a 501(c)3 supported by individual contributions,

major gi ts, corporate sponsorships, and oundation grants. The Tribune also generates earnedrevenue rom events and specialty publications. In 2012, the Texas Tribune raised more than$4.5 million, compared to approximately $4.2 million in expenses. A third o the organizationsrevenue came rom corporate underwriting, through site and event sponsorships

13 http://www.texastribune.org/about/. Accessed Nov. 4, 2012


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The Hawaii Community Foundation supported the establishment o PBS Hawaiis HIKI NO program,

the nations rst statewide student news network. HIKI NO (meaning can do in Hawaiian) builds

digital media skills that allow young people to use technology and share their stories. Over three

seasons, it has become a popular PBS Hawaii program and has invested heavily in teacher training

and established relationships with over 80 schools across the state. The project has advanced thecommunity oundations work in youth development and helped celebrate Hawaiis dispersed island

cultures. As Hawaii Community Foundation President Kelvin Taketa observes, [HIKI NO] serves

the state by bringing stories to light that would otherwise not be seen. Because o HIKI NO, we are

learning more about the diverse communities that make up Hawaii.

Hawaii aces challenges common to geographicallydispersed communities. Roughly 70 percent o thestates residents and most news outlets are basedin Oahu, o ten leading to Oahu-centric coverage.Youll only see stories [about the other islands] isomething huge happens, which doesnt allow peopleto get a sense o those communities, said Robert

An Island Community: Shifting Education and Information Needs

Pennybacker, a PBS Hawaii vice president. 1 In talkingabout Hawaiis multiethnic population, Donna Tanoue,HIKI NO under and president o the Bank o HawaiiFoundation, notes that there are stories unique toevery community on every island. Yet a representativemosaic o news coverage across islands and cultureshas been di cult to achieve.

1 Kline elter, M., Tying the State Together, American Journalism Review, September 2010.http://www.pbshawaii.org/Press%20Release%20PDF%20%20/AJR_Hiki%20No.pd

HIKI NO: Youth Journalism to Foster DigitalLiteracy and Build Diverse Community Stories


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In HIKI NOs rst year, PBS Hawaii recruited manypublic, private, and charter school partners. PBS thenconducted teacher training workshops throughoutthe state to build teachers digital literacy. A TeacherSteering Committee was established with teachersacross our islands, and several anchor schools withestablished digital media programs were recruited toprovide in ormal mentorship to others. Teachers were provided with curriculum or digitalmedia courses in their schools, which includedlesson plans on journalistic ethics, guidelines onproduction processes, student story pitch sheets,tips or quality audio and video shots, and editing. PBSHawaii made available basic media equipment on ourislands or schools with limited or no in-house mediatechnology. PBS established a virtual newsroom orstudents across islands to pitch ideas, submit dra tscripts, upload broadcast quality video and developnewscasts. 2 One school would serve as a home baseor each episode, and dra t stories would be sent toPBS Hawaiis Honolulu headquarters or eedback toensure productions met PBSs quality standards.

A ter a year o preparation, HIKI NOs rst seasonpremiered on Feb. 28, 2011. Fi ty- our public, privateand charter schools rom diverse communities on our

islands created 12 original, 30-minute news programs,premiering on Mondays and repeating various timesduring the week. The rst episode explored Facebookrules, laptops in schools, night ootball, a basketballcoach, robots, arming and riendship. 3 Popular topicsin the rst season included environmental issues,

traditional Hawaiian oods, sports, youth acing adversity,nding identity and other topics important to youth.

HIKI NO Partnerships

Partner Type

Clarence T.C. Ching FoundationFoundation

Atherton Family Foundation Foundation

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Foundation

Cooke Foundation, Ltd. Foundation

Hawaii Community FoundationFoundation

Wallace Alexander Gerbode FoundationFoundation

Corporation or Public Nonpro tBroadcasting

tw telecom Corporate

Commercial Data Systems Corporate(in-kind)

KTA Super Stores Corporate

Makaha Studios Corporate

George Mason Fund Individual

Stupski Family Fund Individual

Hawaii CommunityFoundation

Established: 1916Location: Honolulu, HawaiiAsset size: $521 millionSta : 59Mission: The Hawaii CommunityFoundation helps people make a di erenceby inspiring the spirit o giving and byinvesting in people and solutions to bene tevery island community.

2 Ibid3 Temple, J., Looking or Inspiration? Check Out HIKI NO, Honolulu Civil Beat, February 24 2011.

http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2011/02/23/9241-looking- or-inspiration-check-out-hiki-no/


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4 HIKI NO report to the Knight Foundation, September 2012.5 Kline elter, Tying the State

Now entering its ourth season, HIKI NO has expandedto include more than 500 students rom 80 partnerschools across all o Hawaiis seven main islands.A quarter o the states public schools now participate

in the program, along with various private schools.In recognition o the interest generated, PBS movedthe program to a prominent time slot on Thursdaysat 7:30 p.m.

Nielson ratings show that 3,700 households (including6,100 adults aged 18 and over) in the Honolulu mediamarket regularly watch HIKI NO. This approaches1 percent o designated market households, in linewith other popular prime-time PBS programmingsuch as the NewsHour. 4 HIKI NO website tra c hasbeen modest, constituting 10 percent o PBS Hawaiionline page views.

Supporting teacher digital literacy: HIKI NO stareport that the single most important outcome othe work has been to build the capacity o Hawaiismedia teachers and students to tell compelling andauthentic digital stories about their communities. Atthe start o the program, 80 percent o the teachersrecruited did not have expertise in digital media orbroadcasting. PBS invested heavily in teacher trainingto instill technology and communication skills. The

train-the-teacher model has been central to the work,as PBS Hawaii President Leslie Wilcox explains: Kidsgraduate and teachers will be the ones to keep thisgoing. So were putting a large percent o our budgetinto training and to acquiring digital assets so we canequip more teachers with the right skills.

Building youth skills and ostering sel -con dence: All HIKI NO teachers report that their students haveimproved communication and collaboration skills asa result o the program. Eighty- our percent o the54 teachers surveyed by PBS in May 2011 agreed that

their students have learned to tell a compelling storyabout an issue important to them. 4 Susan Yim, HIKINO managing editor noted, In the process o doingbroadcast journalism, students learn to be in ormedcitizens. Theyre encouraged to be curious, askquestions, think critically and be creative. 5

For some students, the lessons o HIKI NO applybeyond broadcast journalism. As student Nikki Davis

observed, I learned how to talk to people in thebusiness world, how to sound business-like. I alsolearned how to get turned down wed have toregroup and collaborate to pitch a new idea. Its verydi erent rom high school where they still kind obaby you. The eedback and high quality expected byPBS Hawaiis team (sometimes through several roundso edits) has stretched students skills. HIKI NO hasgiven our students more con dence in what theyrecapable o doing, said middle school teacher KevinMatsunaga. I tell my students that their goal should beto have stories on HIKI NO. The students that are able

to do this are so proud, and push themselves to doeven more. Their con dence is really boosted.

Stories produced or HIKI NO by the Niihau Schoolo Kekaha have become a particular source o pride.Students at this K-12 charter school on the remote

Project Progress

HIKI NO Participating Schools

10

0

2030

40

50

607080

90

Season 1 Season 4

Private Schools Charter Schools

Public High Schools

Public Middle Schools Public Elementary Schools

N u

m b e r

o f s c h o o l s


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6 Approximately 550 users like the program on Facebook, and just over 400 ollowers on Twitter.

western side o Kauai have produced ve HIKI NOstories and anchored two entire episodes in theirnear-extinct Niihau dialect. As teacher HaunaniSeward describes:

Knowing how to speak the Niihau language

is not something most o our studentswould initially eel proud o becauseit is stigmatized. We lead the state inincarcerations and poverty. But the media

program allows kids to showcase what they can do. The language becomes an asset,and kids see that speaking it is a good thing.

Enabling youth to share their unique viewpoints: Over three seasons, students have generated originalstories on topics ranging rom the ancient practiceso rock salt production in Kauai and a new plastic bagban on Maui to the environmental and human threatso shark sa aris in Oahu. HIKI NO stories arentbreaking news, but theyre a little deeper storiestaking us into students towns or islands and storiesthat they think are important, said PBS Hawaii grantwriter Lynn Ha . And in some cases, HIKI NO studentsprovided the only press coverage o a topic, refectingtheir unique interests and viewpoints.

Youths have also succeeded in securing interviewsand drawing out perspectives where pro essional

journalists may have ailed. A story about a boy whobecame a ather at Moanalua High School showedthe challenges o balancing parenthood with schooland riends, an honest portrayal told in a unique youthvoice. They have stories about teen pregnancy onMTV, said student Nikki Davis. But its di erent when

the story is told by someone you can identi y with,who is actually rom Hawaii.

Engaging a youth audience: HIKI NO has success ullyengaged youth in the production o the program,but been less success ul in building a regular youthaudience or its content. While PBS has not conducteda ormal audience study, several teachers and studentssuggested that the television program has attractedthe same audience as other popular PBS shows: olderadults. Younger viewers may tune in more in requently,when a show they produced is being aired, or whenthe program eatures their school or community. AsCandy Suiso o Searider Productions notes Studentsdont run home to watch the news. In responseto viewership trends, Searider Productions movedcompletely online. Our main audience is students,and they rarely watch TV. They watch everythingonline and on their di erent devices, and they want tobe able to tune in at any time, noted Suiso. Likewise,as o December 2012 HIKI NOs social media presenceis small, and represents an area that could be urtherexploited to engage a broader youth audience. 6

Overview o Visitors to HIKI NO Website

200 2%0 0%

400 4%600

6%8008%1000

10%1200

12%1400

14%1600

16%18002000

Jun 2012 Jul 2012 Aug 2012 Sep 2012 Oct 2012 Nov 2012

N u

m b e r

o f p a g e v i

e w

s

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e n t o f u

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HIKI NO Unique page views Percent o total PBS HI page views rom HIKI NO


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Tackling operational sustainability: HIKI NO has

reached a critical mass o Hawaii schools. Thechallenge now will be to sustain the high-touch,high-quality guidance to participating teachers. To dothis, HIKI NO will require long-term unding rom keypartners and will need to urther promote a train thetrainer model. HIKI NO has begun initial conversationswith Hawaiis Department o Education to absorbsome o the training costs and hopes to integrate the

Lesson 1: Build peer support networks or teachers.PBS Hawaiis intensive mentorship o teachers and sponsorship o teacher-training con erences created a strongenvironment or supporting youth learning and enabling HIKI NO to grow. Peer mentorship rom a core group oexperienced champion teachers has also helped struggling schools to stay involved with HIKI NO.

Lesson 2: Use news content rom youth to complement mainstream media sources.In addition to covering the types o stories eatured on other news outlets, youths covered specialized stories adultsmay not have pursued, and with a di erent voice. This diversi ed the in ormation available about the community.

Lesson 3: Go beyond television to reach and engage youth.While adults ollow the show, generating youth-to-youth dialogue and building a steady youth audience have beenchallenging or HIKI NO. Generating more searchable online content and more e ectively using social media toolsmay help address these challenges, as young people may not regularly tune in to early evening TV programming.

Lesson 4: Partner with a top-tier media organization to drive student motivation and engagement.PBS Hawaiis broad audience and high expectations raised the stakes or students participating in HIKI NO andcreated a sense o prestige and pride around the program. With a less respected or exacting partner, studentslikely would not have elt the same pressure to per orm, or the same sense o accomplishment when their storiesultimately aired across the state.

Lessons Learned

program into the states language arts curriculum. At

the same time, PBS Hawaii is pursuing internal undingsources to continue supporting teacher training.HIKI NO ounders have also begun talks with the PBSNewsHour and Texas PBS to replicate the program inTexas, and are developing a youth media tool kit orother cities and states to draw on when launchingtheir own programs.

HIKI NO Budget (2013)

Personnel $212,044 TV and Web $54,108

Training $38,500

Marketing $40,000 Other direct costs $28,150


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To members o the rural communities o south Wood County, Wisconsin, the shrinking o local newsreporting was not their highest concern. The large, locally owned paper mills that had buoyed theregional economy or more than a century had all signi cantly downsized between 2000 and 2010, withnearly 40 percent o total employment lost by 2005. Residents scrambled to nd new jobs, but the ewopenings available required di erent skills than the ones they o ered. Many younger employees le t thearea, leaving behind an aging work orce with specialized skills, looking or jobs that no longer existed.

These work orce problems topped the list o issues or Incourage Community Foundation. But theywerent the only worry, or the dramatic changes in the paper industry had le t a dearth o localleadership. As corporations exited, so did executives, their amilies and corporate philanthropies. Thecommunity depended on the mills or more than jobs; mill executives had been local leaders, servingas public ofcials and bene actors. The community was le t with a pressing need to shi t its culture andorientation one that Incourage hoped to help address but could certainly not meet alone.

With time, experimentation and the leadership o Incourages CEO, Kelly Ryan, it was understood thatthe best and most sustainable solution would be or community members to come up with a collectivesolution to their economic troubles. In order to catalyze community change, residents would needmore robust communication channels with relevant local in ormation owing through them. And so,while Incourage did not originally intend to tackle local news and in ormation challenges in southWood, the oundation and its partners eventually took it on, realizing that in ormation was critical tothe broader strategy o catalyzing trans ormative change in this hard-hit community.

Revitalization in Central Wisconsin:How the Incourage Community FoundationUsed Information to Build Hope and SpeedCommunity Change


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Given the signi cance o the economic crisis,Incourage and the Wisconsin Rapids Chamber oCommerce came together to discuss how theycould create greater impact. They orged a close

partnership and created a vision or shi ting the culturein south Wood so that people could more easily helpthemselves and each other. It soon became clear tothe broader community that the relative hand ul oinstitutions that remained in south Wood could notalone reverse the e ects o the economic downturn.What was needed was a shi t rom the expectationthat someone else will take care o it to a moreparticipatory approach that supported an in ormedand engaged citizenry.

Change isnt easy, even in the best o times. So tooster new relationship and leadership skills amongcommunity members, Incourage invited expertsrom Ki ThoughtBridge, a consulting rm, to provideadaptive skills training based on ideas developed byHarvards Negotiation Project. The goal was to equipleaders with skills or promoting citizen engagement incommunity problem solving. 1 More than 100 residentsrom all sectors o the community were coachedthrough the initiative.

The central premise o the training was that i local

residents were to become more e ective leadersand address complex issues, they would need tobuild trust. This was especially di cult because manyresidents were experiencing symptoms o loss con usion, apathy, cynicism and anger due to theireconomic troubles. Such power ul emotions couldblock progress. Better communication was an antidoteto these obstacles and a key to building trust.

From Individual to Collective Change

Witnessing the power o these intensely personalcommunication skills, Incourage began to considerhow communications and in ormation couldcontribute to creating a healthier civic culture.

An Information Strategy is Born

At that same time, Incourage learned about the KnightCommunity In ormation Challenge (KCIC), and theideas began to spark or Ryan and her board.

Incourage originally planned to use KCIC resourcesto create an online news outlet to ll the gap le t bythe shrinking local newspaper. However, based onwhat she and her board chair a retired Gannettpublisher learned about the digital divide at amedia seminar sponsored by Knight Foundation 2,Incourage decided to temporarily set this idea aside,realizing that an online source would not reach theintended audience and could conceivably marginalizeresidents without Internet access. Instead, Incourageinitiated a survey and series o ocus groups to betterunderstand how residents obtained in ormation

and what kinds o content they needed or wanted.A Digital Divide Survey conducted in 2009 revealedhow residents accessed and used computers andthe Internet. Subsequent ocus groups addressed a

1 A detailed description o this unique curriculum developed by Katherine Tyler Scott and Irma Tyler-Wood o Ki ThoughtBridge can be ound in thesummer 2012 edition o the National Civic Review.

2 Incourages CEO Kelly Ryan and board Chair Helen Jungwirth attended the Knight Foundations Media Learning Seminar in 2009.

Incourage CommunityFoundation

Established: 1994Location: South Wood County, WisconsinAsset size: $30 millionSta : 16Key goals: Turn everyday people into

everyones leaders Support a new economy that works

or all people Increase access to in ormation

across the digital divide Create partnerships that intensi y

impact or the community


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Data alone cannot make acommunity stronger, but a sharedunderstanding o what data tells

us about local li e, and how it ischanging, can start a conversation.

Kelly RyanCEO, Incourage Community Foundation

Capacity: Building residents digitaltechnology skills

Incourages advisory committee members, includingrepresentatives rom schools, technical colleges andlibraries, worked together to create enhanced digitalliteracy curricula that built on basic skills courses. WithIncourages support, two communities (Rudolph andPort Edwards) that lacked libraries and viable Internetaccess points used their schools as a home base ornew computer and Internet labs. Residents in thesecommunities, including 6,000 school children, nowhave ree access to a computer and can connect tothe Internet. The oundation also supported librariesin south Wood to provide extended access to

computers, ree computer training and digital literacyclasses or all residents.

Engagement: Connecting new in ormation withexisting work orce development programs

To address pressing work orce issues plaguing thecommunity, Incourage had invested deeply in creatingWork orce Central, a National Fund or Work orceSolutions site and a multisector work orce traininginitiative to serve south Wood businesses and workers.Through the early ocus groups it conducted in itsKCIC project, the oundation recognized gaps inhow organizations that served job seekers sharedin ormation with each other and with potentialworkers. Incourage also saw opportunities to connectlocal agencies, organizations and businesses and

enable them to share in ormation on how educationand support services or job seekers can be moree ciently integrated and aligned with employer needs.Thus, the oundation began to intentionally map anduse in ormation in its systems change work.

This has resulted in simple xes, such as anagreement rom the city o Wisconsin Rapids tolower transportation costs or trainees who attendclasses at a local technical college, to more complexcollaborations, such as the launch o a new sharedcurriculum on speci c training or locally available

jobs. Greater awareness about the connectionsbetween access to in ormation and job growthhas also prompted Work orce Central partners toincorporate digital literacy into credential training orunder- and unemployed workers, including ormermill workers with limited computer skills.

In the summer o 2012, Incourage also launched a newin ormation plat orm called Whats Up. Designed by theMIT Media Lab, Whats Up aggregates and disseminatesnews rom local calendars about events, job training andcommunity services. The in ormation is made availablethrough online postings as well as SMS messages,physical digital signs, telephone hotlines, and postersand paper fyers in public places like grocery storesand job centers. Twenty local service providers haveregistered to post announcements with Whats Up, andWork orce Central service providers have distributednearly 1,000 in ormational cards to raise awarenessamong their clients about the new in ormation service.Since the online component launched in June 2012,tra c to the Whats Up site has been limited so ar,with 137 monthly unique visitors in October.


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Engagement: Community surveysand conversations

In the all o 2011, Incourage developed and laterlaunched a survey asking residents about thechallenges acing their community, local strengths and

their vision or the uture. The survey was administeredthrough telephone interviews, online and print surveysand in-person community meetings. Since March o2012, over 75 community conversations have beenhosted with more than 500 people involved. Perhapsthe most important outcome o the conversationswas that residents were actively inspired to participate.Many reported with surprise that, in some cases, theirleast-engaged neighbors and riends turned up atpublic meetings. Several people in the communityconversations came rom organizations that I had notseen participate be ore, observed one resident.

In a related e ort, Incourage invested in Vital Signs,a community indicators project that or the rst timeaggregated sub-county-level data on issues such asemployment, homelessness, child care and wages.A condensed summary refecting a decade o localin ormation was distributed in early 2011 to 2,000residents and organizations. In July 2012, Incouragepartnered with UW Madisons Center on WisconsinStrategy (COWS) to re ormat Vital Signs as a discussiondocument and present it to municipal leaders, media,businesses, social service agencies, the local technicalcollege and K-12 schools. Since then the indicators havebeen used in many venues, including by the WisconsinRapids municipal government and county government,and by local businesses or planning, and by schools andcommunity colleges as a teacher orientation tool.

Work orce CentralIn 2008, Incourage CommunityFoundation initiated Work orce Centralas a strategic, systems-change e ortto address the growing work orce andeconomic challenges acing south Wood.The program o ers work orce trainingthrough a partnership between employers,government, philanthropy and educationaland service providers. Work orce Centralin south Wood County is one o onlytwo rural National Fund or Work orceSolutions sites in the United States.


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Incourages community survey revealed several priorityareas, including ostering creative thinking and newideas, strengthening the local economy and creatingnew opportunities or young adults and amilies.The oundation will now ocus on grassroots e orts,providing community organizing training or residentsas well as or oundation board members and sta .Recently, Incourage purchased the old Daily Tribunebuilding, which the newspaper had vacated due todownsizing. The oundations vision is to restore andconvert the building into a town square or civicdiscourse and engagement, turning it into a lastingsymbol o the shi ts under way in south Wood. Locatedon the river ront in an area once dominated andcontrolled by paper mills, the best use o the acility will

be determined through a community planning process.

Next Steps

Daily Tribune building to become a centero civic discourse and engagement


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Lesson 1: Take an open and participatory approach, and model it.Incourage began its work to address the challenges o shrinking local news by acknowledging it didnt have asolution. Instead it embraced a consultative role, partnering with local service providers and businesses, andengaging residents through surveys, ocus groups and discussions to map their news environment and identi yshort alls. Facilitating these exchanges promoted individual participation, helped identi y and build on existingcommunity assets (such as the Nixle dispatch plat orm and local work orce collaborative) and challenged the

dominant local culture o paternalism and dependency.

Lesson 2: Ask the experts.The advice o partners and external experts was pivotal in Incourages journey. At various times, consultationswith the leaders o other place-based oundations, community development experts and with Knight Foundationthrough the KCIC helped to ocus thinking. Incourages work with the MIT Center or Civic Media infuenced itsunderstanding o the personal and practical as well as the deeper communal in ormation needs o the southWood community. And since some o Incourages investments have been in technologies that are experimental inthe south Wood context, Incourages ongoing relationship with MIT brought needed technical expertise.

Lesson 3: Advance on all ronts: access, capacity and engagement.Not every community has in ormation de cits in all three o these areas, but they are interconnected. In orderor citizens to use in ormation productively, whether in private or in public roles, reliable in ormation must beavailable, citizens must be able to make e ective use o it; and relevant in ormation should be made public so itcan be deliberated openly. In south Woods case, there has been substantial progress on each o these ronts.

Lesson 4: Focus on the demand as well as supply.Nurturing demand or accurate, relevant in ormation may be more challenging than ensuring supply. Incourageswork on the supply side was relatively straight orward, whereas its work on the demand side was morechallenging, in part due to prevailing social norms. The oundations strategy has been to boost citizens appetitesor in ormation by seeding substantive and use ul knowledge into community deliberations.

Lesson 5: Think long-term.Community oundations are uniquely positioned to take a long-term view and Incourage is using this as astrategic advantage, betting that investments in creating and sustaining a healthy in ormation ecosystem will payo in the orm o more e ective community change.

Lessons Learned

Over the last decade, Incourage has moved away romtraditional responsive grant making approaches andtoward making use o all o its resources human,nancial and reputational to actively catalyze

change. In the process, it has developed a muchmore nuanced understanding o in ormations role incommunities and, in particular, o the role in ormationcan play in promoting social change.

In systems change, you have somelevers. In ormation is one o them.

Kelly RyanCEO, Incourage Community Foundation


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I you care about climate change, its easy to tune in to breaking news rom remote places like Doha,

Qatar, where the latest carbon emissions deals were cut at the 2012 U.N. climate talks. Whats hard

is to nd usable in ormation about pollution in your hometown, or to unearth the best ways to

conserve resources in your own locale.

The Community Foundation o Greater Dubuque (CFGD) in Iowa recognized this disconnect in the

think global, act local mantra. The oundation seized an opportunity to gather local environmental

in ormation and share it with residents o this Midwestern community in ways that inspired

Dubuquers to conserve energy, use less water and adopt other environmentally riendly practices.

But rather than launch a static green website that ew people were likely to visit (even i they

knew about it), the oundation took a more creative approach. It developed an interactive online

in ormation hub eaturing games, contests and other ways or community members to get involved,

and coupled the site with real-world outreach at places like armers markets and cultural events.

The approach was also highly leveraged: The oundation tapped into the Sustainable Dubuque

campaign launched by City Hall and joined with sustainability e orts o companies such as IBM.

To these campaigns, the oundation brought a critical missing link the awareness and participation

o individual residents. In so doing, the oundation experienced the value o success ul community

leadership and witnessed the impact that can be achieved when local residents can access and

engage with the right in ormation, at the right time, in the right orm.

Dubuque2.0: How the Community Foundationof Greater Dubuque Used Environmental

Information to Spark Citizen Action


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To understand why the CFGD took on the challengeo environmental sustainability, consider thecommunitys history o economic struggle. Inthe wake o the 1980s Midwest arm crisis and

the collapse o local manu acturing nationwide,unemployment rates in Dubuque had reached23 percent. 1 Meanwhile, the region was hemorrhagingyoung workers. There was a saying, Would the lastperson out o Dubuque please turn out the lights,said Michelle Rios, a ormer recruiter at the GreaterDubuque Development Corporation. 2

Given this context, Dubuque made a remarkabletrans ormation. The city today has well-developedhealth care, education, tourism, publishing andnancial service sectors. Companies such as IBM arenow major employers. The turnaround even sparked a

campaign by local business and civic leaders Comeback to your uture, come home to Dubuque tomeet the new demand or skilled workers. 3

Dubuque had rebranded itsel as a orward-lookingcity embracing new ideas. By 2005, the DubuqueCity Council had chosen environmental sustainabilityas a top priority and launched initiatives designed toencourage recycling, create more green space andimprove water quality, as well as upgrade public transitand revitalize parts o downtown. Cities that get out inront on sustainability will have competitive economic

advantages in the uture, said Mayor Ron Buol.4

Moving Dubuque Toward a Greener and More Sustainable Future

1 Iowa Association o Business and Industry. http://www.iowaabi.org/documents/ lelibrary/presentations/Dubuque_Economic_Development_Panel_028D22F8D878A.pd . Accessed Nov. 19, 2012.

2 Johnson, Dirk. Dubuque Journal; Hear Ye! Come Back to Your Future. The New York Times, July 16, 1998.3 Ibid4 About Sustainable Dubuque, http://ia-dubuque.civicplus.com/index.aspx?NID=1257. Accessed Oct. 18, 2012.

Community Foundation

o Greater DubuqueEstablished: 2001Location: Dubuque, IowaAsset size: $34 millionSta : 13Mission: The Community Foundationo Greater Dubuque, as the primaryphilanthropic organization in the region,connects people, ideas and resources toimprove lives in northeast Iowa.

We had a lot o great resources in thecommunity that people didnt know

about. There was no landing place or all o these pieces to come together.We were missing a lot o opportunities.

City o Dubuque Sta Member

The activities coalesced into Sustainable Dubuque,a City Council-adopted initiative that todayencompasses dozens o environmental, economic andsocial e orts, rom methane capture and tree planting,

to investments in museums and more accessibletransit stops or the disabled.

The citywide Sustainable Dubuque initiative wasdeveloped through a two-year process that includedcommunity input. A core component o the initialvision was or local citizens to lead and participate insustainability practices. Early on, Sustainable Dubuquehad the support o policymakers and business andcivic leaders, but the initiative initially struggled toconnect deeply with the broader community. Forinstance, an early version o the Sustainable Dubuquewebsite was designed to be an interactive in ormationhub or environmental issues, but its success waslimited. Some users couldnt nd the in ormationthat they required to change their behavior (such ashow to reduce energy or water consumption) so theyemailed the program coordinator or advice, creating


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Eric Dregne, vice president o programs at the CFGD,recognized this missing component, and he believedthe oundation could provide the link to engagingresidents in green action. The timing was per ect: Theoundations board had recently earmarked resourcesor developing the CFGDs role as a community leader.And the board had asked oundation sta to convenecommunity groups and educate citizens about criticallocal issues. 5 With clear momentum or sustainabilityat the citywide policy level, and the missing piece ocommunity involvement, the opportunity was a naturalt or the oundation.

With a strong mandate rom the board and a clear need

in the community, Dregne and his team beganto develop a strategy or community engagementaround local environment issues, dubbed Dubuque2.0.Foundation sta rst spent several months buildingtheir understanding o how CFGD could trans ormDubuques existing environmental sustainability initiativesinto resident-driven e orts, and studying how improvedin ormation sharing could contribute to success.They assembled a steering committee o leaders rombusinesses, city government, nonpro ts, colleges andother grassroots organizations to guide their work. CFGDalso orged partnerships with nearly two dozen local

organizations; the partners included several groups thathad never worked together or exchanged in ormationbe ore (see sidebar). And in order to engage grassrootsDubuque residents, the oundation held a series ocommunity ca orums at which residents shared theirpriorities and needs related to environmental change.

The Missing Link:Citizen Engagement

Dubuque2.0 Partnerships

Partner Type

Green Dubuque Nonpro t

Dubuque Main Street Nonpro t

City o Dubuque Government

Iowa O ce o GovernmentEnergy Independence

Loras College EducationalInstitution

Clarke University EducationalInstitution

University o Dubuque EducationalInstitution

Northeast Iowa EducationalCommunity College Institution

Iowa State Extension EducationalInstitution

Dubuque Public Schools EducationalInstitution

Sustainable City Network Corporation

Alliant Energy Corporation

Dubuque Area CorporationChamber o Commerce

Dubuque Fighting Saints Corporation

Premier Bank Corporation

Mystique Casino Corporation

Telegraph Herald Media

5 Community Foundation o Greater Dubuque, Initial Application or Funding rom the Knight Community In ormation Challenge.

substantial ine ciencies. Other residents aceddi erent challenges: They lacked strong Internet skills,or didnt know how to connect with sustainabilitytraining and discussions in the community, whileothers were simply unaware o the initiative. Forexample, the nonpro t Green Dubuque held weekly

green drinks events at local bars where residentscould discuss sustainability issues. But the events werenot well-publicized and ew people outside Dubuquesenvironmental inner circle attended.


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The strategy or Dubuque2.0 complementedthe citywide work already under way throughSustainable Dubuque, and ocused rst onconnecting with residents and equipping and

motivating them to reduce their carbon and waterootprints. The approach included both online ando ine components. These elements included livecommunity conversations and distribution o onlineand o ine surveys to residents to understand theirenvironmental priorities and needs. Dubuque2.0 alsoincluded a robust and interactive Web portal designedto complement the earlier city-sponsored SustainableDubuque site (which had proved too static) throughTwitter eeds, a Facebook page, as well as communityevents, games and contests.

The Web-based in ormation hub ormed the centero Dubuque2.0s strategy, and the site evolved as theoundation learned more about how to e ectivelyengage citizens in environmental action. For instance,the hub included links to a green asset map awebsite tagged with local resources or sustainableliving such as bike paths, armers markets and greenbusinesses. It also contained a carbon calculator orusers to estimate their carbon ootprints, along with asustainability tool kit with advice on how to conserveenergy and reduce waste. The idea was that as the

site gained traction, community members would addtheir own tags and re resh the site with ideas or greenactivities, but the green asset map never took o .The tool did not generate external user input and wasmainly managed and tagged by the Dubuque2.0 team.

Other initiatives were better suited to activecommunity participation particularly games andprize competitions with both online and o ine waysto play. In one partnership with Sustainable Dubuque,Dubuque2.0 organized the Sustainability Challengegame, which eatured practices to reduce carbon and

water ootprints. Participants could sign up or the11-week game through the Dubuque2.0 web portal;received points by attending o ine demonstrations onew energy and water-saving technologies, attendingcommunity events and accessing website pages withpractical tips on how to reduce energy usage.

Connecting Citizens with the Issues

Funding or Change

The Community Foundation o GreaterDubuque provided o ce and sta supportto Dubuque2.0s sta and volunteers, andacilitated dialogue among key actors. Itcommitted $50,000 o its unrestricted undsto the e ort. Another $75,000 rom AlliantEnergy and a joint contribution o $75,000rom Mystique Casino and the DubuqueRacing Association provided adequate seedunding to get the initiative started. Thisunding was matched by a $205,000 grantrom the Knight Foundation CommunityIn ormation Challenge (KCIC), which theninspired $50,000 in additional unding rom

a local paper, the Telegraph Herald. Later,an additional $50,000 was leveraged romthe Iowa O ce o Energy Independence tosupport engagement e orts around SmarterWater/Electricity e orts.

For example, participants could gain points byemploying energy-saving practices at home suchas line-drying clothes or helping to clean up a river.The more than 1,000 registered participants in the

contest were incentivized by weekly prizes such aspark season passes and gi t cards, and a grand prize o$5,000 presented during the nal celebration.

Another winning initiative was conducted inpartnership with the IBM-sponsored Smarter Citiespilot program. Three hundred Dubuque residents hadreceived ree IBM smart water meters to monitorusage in their homes. Users o the meters couldlog on to the IBM portal through the Dubuque2.0website to view historical trends and real-time dataon their water usage, coupled with in ormationabout how their choices a ected their water costsand the environment. Users received personalizedrecommendations about how to reduce their wateruse, and they could connect with others online toshare ideas and tips. An important aspect o programwas a eature which allowed users to anonymously


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It turns out that the Dubuque2.0 Web portal provedto be a use ul organizing plat orm or the many onlineand o ine events associated with the program. Thesite provided links to a range o in ormation, includingnewly published research on sustainability topics andpolicy issues relevant to Dubuque, such as the citysrecycling protocols and the use o smart meters to

track energy use. And although the Web hub was amajor piece o Dubuque2.0s work, the strategy alsoemphasized reaching people where they were. As EricDregne said, We were keen to link online and o ineactivities, and to develop versions o our materials orpeople without Internet access.

Three pieces o the Dubuque2.0 strategy emergedas particularly success ul ways to use in ormation toengage residents and compel them to take action.

1) Community ca s and resident surveysdrive understanding about sustainabilitypriorities and needs.

Be ore nalizing its approach, Dubuque2.0 had hostedmore than a dozen community ca es and orumsor residents (generally 30-50 people attended eachevent) to come together and talk about sustainabilityissues. Ongoing community conversations also gaveresidents a plat orm to talk about such environmentalpolicy issues as plastic bag regulations, water meterimprovements and carbon emission targets. This led togreater understanding and support or regulations insome cases. Also, a community survey helped discovercommunity priorities and in orm plans to address gapsin resources and services.

What Worked Well?

2) Personalized data about resource use andneighbor benchmarks inspire action.

The IBM-sponsored Smarter Cities pilot program wasa success because users could also compare theirwater use with that o neighbors, and they receivedin ormation specifcally tailored to their homes. IBM

also launched a weekly competition with prizes toencourage users to reduce water use and inspireother environmentally riendly behavior. The SmarterWater pilot was ollowed by the Smarter Electricitypilot; both are currently being expanded. Trainingprovided by Dubuque2.0 was critical or ensuring thatresidents could e ectively access and use the smartmeter data in the Web portal; Dubuque2.0 ultimatelybecame the community engagement arm o theSmarter Cities program.

3) Online and ofine community gamesgenerate action and riendly competitionaround sustainability.

The Sustainability Challenge game organized byDubuque2.0 and Sustainable Dubuque encouragedresidents to attend sustainability-themed trainingevents and begin practices to reduce their carbon andwater ootprints. The online and o ine componentsacilitated action rather than passive observation, andthe cash prizes and point system provided incentivesor behavior changes.

Through these activities, Dubuque2.0 played a criticalrole in ensuring that residents could take advantageo the citys many sustainability resources and thatresident engagement in used and infuenced manyelements o the citys overarching sustainability e orts,both online and o ine.

compare their water use with neighbors participatingin the pilot. The entire program proved addictive:Some smart water meter users reported checking theirusage statistics o ten, sometimes almost obsessively.Looking at the Web portal is one o the things I did atnoon every day, in order to check my daily use, said

one resident. Trainings provided by Dubuque2.0 were

critical or ensuring that residents could e ectivelyaccess and use the smart meter data on the Web portal.

With both the Sustainability Challenge game and theIBM Smarter Water program, CFGDs Dubuque2.0provided that critical missing link o citizen

involvement.


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Three years a ter the launch o Dubuque2.0, evidenceshows that this citizen engagement e ort (alongwith the broader Sustainable Dubuque initiative) hascontributed to several major changes:

Greater access to and sharing o sustainabilityin ormation: More than 5,500 unique users roughly10 percent o the citys population have visitedDubuque2.0 since its inception. The initiative hascreated a use ul plat orm to ensure that sustainabilitymessages reach their intended audiences. As a leadero the nonpro t Green Dubuque noted, Be oreDubuque2.0, important messages about this workwerent reaching people. Now when Green Dubuquecalls people about policy initiatives, the communityunderstands better what were talking about. Thechannels have been created to get the in ormationout there around issues like this. As another residentcommented, People have gotten much more used tohearing the sustainability vocabulary. Its a part o howwe think now.

Personalized water and energy usage data providedthrough the IBM Smarter Cities pilots prompted livelydiscussion in the community about personal energyhabits, and in some case, a compulsive tracking opersonal energy consumption. It also promptedbroader expansion o the idea: Loras College, a local

Results: Heightened Awareness and Behavior Changes

liberal arts college, used the Dubuque2.0 plat orm tolaunch a student competition, where dorms equippedwith smart meters competed against one another toreduce their energy use.

Early signs o behavior change: Dubuque2.0 andrelated sustainability e orts in the community havealso contributed to early signs o behavior change. Inone survey, 69 percent o Dubuque2.0 website usersindicated that they were doing more than in the past topromote sustainability in their homes and communities.Because o my involvement in Dubuque2.0, notedone young resident, I now grow a garden, participatedin a cleanup o our main street and ride the bus moreo ten. Residents involved in the IBM Smarter Cities pilotdecreased their water use by 6.6 percent on average.

By ocusing on engagement, Dubuque2.0 hasstrengthened community connections and helpedcreate a sense o shared responsibility. Residentshave started to realize the importance o engagingtheir neighbors and amilies, and that it takesmany residents to make progress on an issue likesustainability. For example, a mother o two decidedto talk to her neighbor about recycling a ter notingthat he never put out any trash to be recycled. In herwords: Part o what Dubuque2.0 did was to helpeveryone take responsibility or sustainability.

Some components o the Dubuque2.0 strategy provedto be less e ective. These included:

An online discussion board about sustainability,which was embedded in the Dubuque2.0 website.

It was hard to encourage visitors to commenton the discussion board, partially because thetechnology was cumbersome (messages needed tobe approved by the oundations communicationsintern), and partially because it never had enoughactivity to become a destination in its own right. Thismeant that the majority o messages were posted bythe Dubuque2.0 team, and the level o communityengagement was limited.

Use o Twitter to spread messages to newaudiences. This was ine ective since the ew Twitterollowers that the project attracted were alreadyhighly in ormed and engaged.

The green asset map. As mentioned above, this tooldid not generate user and community input and wasmainly managed and tagged by the Dubuque2.0 team.


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Increased ocus on community engagement: Finally, the community engagement strategyemployed by Dubuque2.0 has begun to infuencehow the city o Dubuque approaches its work onother social issues. The city government recentlyhired a community engagement specialist and isdeveloping a Web-based plat orm or increasingresident involvement in issues such as building strongneighborhoods and connecting citizens to volunteeropportunities. And CFGD reports that it has increasedits own capacity to catalyze community engagement.The oundation plans to use these new community

engagement skills to address local poverty concerns.And both board and sta report more alignment anda better appreciation or the role o an in ormation-based community engagement strategy in drivingprogress on important issues.

I think because I was involved with2.0 I got to know more people in thecommunity or whom this was apassion and an interest. This allows

you to start talking to each other and asking how can we do x y and z. Itconnected me with a lot o people and

I am still in touch with some o them.

Local Nonpro t Leader

Dubuque2.0 User Demographics

5%0%

10%15%20%25%

30%

5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85

P e r c e n t o f u

s e r s

Note: Statistics are based on a survey o a sample o Dubuque2.0 usersN=114 (representing 2% o Dubuque2.0 users)

Age

0% 0%

9%

21%

26%

16% 18%

10%

1%

Female Male

The Dubuque2.0 plat orm is being integrated intoSustainable Dubuque, rather than remaining a separateentity. Program leaders believe this will make the

initiative more nancially viable by tying in to existingunding streams, and will ensure a long-term homeor community engagement around sustainability andenvironmental issues. The joint venture will receivenancial support rom the city in the orm o a ull stamember or at least the rst two years, and will graduallyevolve into an independent community organization.

The Future of Dubuque2.0

The oundation will continue to play a leading role onthe new steering committee and has committed halo a sta members time or the rst year. This gradual

transition ts well with the oundations early ocus oncreating an e ective exit strategy. The extended supportrom the oundation and the city is also intended to givethe new entity an opportunity to develop and test itsnancial model. A possible membership model or somewebsite tools is being evaluated, which could generaterevenue to support the plat orm.


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Lesson 1: Ensure that in ormation leads to human engagement and ofine action.Live human interaction is needed to make things spark. The oundation ocused on engagement rom the startand never thought o Dubuque2.0 as just a website. It was a comprehensive community engagement tool,with many online and o ine entry points. Several eatures on the Dubuque2.0 website, such as the DubuqueSustainability Challenge game and the water- and energy-use dashboards, encouraged users to make short-termbehavior changes or attend in-person events.

Lesson 2: Build on existing resources and be open to a wide range o partnerships.Nearly every start-up Web-based initiative struggles to generate enough content to ensure wide and sustainedappeal. To address this challenge, Dubuque2.0 was designed to serve as an organizing hub or content thatalready existed. The Web portal provided links to IBMs Smarter Cities pilots, to relevant city websites, and toreports and events sponsored by other organizations. Additional material was developed where gaps wereidenti ed, such as a green asset map that showed the locations o parks, sustainable businesses and events.

Lesson 3: Plan to reach audiences with limited Internet access or true community engagement.At well-attended community events, such as the armers market, community service days and estivals, theoundation set up in ormation booths in orming people about the website and providing paper copies oWeb materials or people without Internet access. Citizens could also play a paper version o the DubuqueSustainability Challenge. One retired teacher became involved with Dubuque2.0 by using the print version o thesustainability tool kit, manually lling in a journal every day with notes about her water and energy consumption.This o ine approach ensured that a broader swath o the community was engaged in sustainability e orts. SMStexts could have been another way to reach audiences without regular Internet access.

Lesson 4: Design a multi aceted and adaptable strategy or community engagement.The oundation and the steering committee adopted an experimental mindset in the work, trying many moreapproaches than the hand ul that really stuck. This led to a wider variety o touch points or residents to becomeengaged. The multipronged approach enabled Dubuque2.0 to reach as many people as possible and remainopen to and fexible about the ways residents were excited to engage. As a result, the programs componentswere never complete or nished but evolved as the community oundation and partners better understood theneeds o the community and the strengths o di erent engagement strategies.

Lessons Learned

Past Present Future

Context

The city o Dubuqueidenti ed sustainabilityas a priority, provided a

sustainability coordinator tothe community and started

collaborating with IBM.

ChallengeResidents were notaccessing existing

sustainability resources andwere not broadly engaged.

Context

Residents have access tomore in ormation and manyhave become more engaged.

The city o Dubuque is workingclosely with Dubuque2.0.

The city and the oundationrecognize the importance o

engagement e orts in their work.

ChallengeBuilding on the successes

and keeping residents engagedas the initiative evolves.

Goal

Merge Dubuque2.0 with thecitys Sustainable Dubuqueinitiative to create a joint

mechanism or sustainabilitye orts in Dubuque. The merger

provides an opportunity toredesign the website and to

ocus e orts on the engagementstrategies that worked best.

Organizations are usingcommunity engagement

practices or new projects.


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About

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation supports trans ormational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation,engage communities and oster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities arein ormed and engaged.

More at knight oundation.org .

The Knight Community In ormation Challenge engages community and place-based oundations in meeting localin ormation needs, helping them increase their impact on issues they care about.

More at in ormationneeds.org .

FSG

FSG is a nonpro t consulting rm specializing in strategy, evaluation and research, ounded in 2000 as FoundationStrategy Group. Today, FSG works across sectors in every region o the globe partnering with oundations,corporations, nonpro ts and governments to develop more e ective solutions to the worlds most challengingissues. FSG brings together leaders that are hungry to exchange in ormation, elevate learning and to createcollective impact in discovering better ways to solve the worlds most di cult social problems. In the eld olearning and evaluation, FSG has signi cant client and thought leadership experience. FSGs approach ocuseson the use o evaluation as a management tool to improve decision making and increase social impact. We usetraditional as well as innovative data-collection approaches to determine the various e ects and impacts anorganizations e orts have produced over time always with the purpose o in orming and improving strategyand program implementation.

More at sg.org .

Network Impact

Network Impact provides social science research and evaluation, tool-building and consulting services to supportsocial-impact networks, oundations, and the emerging eld o network builders.

More at networkimpact.org .


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John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

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