Essay on Transformation

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Transformation, continued

This Progress Report is a symbol of Knight Foundation’s transformation into a 21st-century organization.

The print companion of this site is a more succinct version of our traditional annual report — 12 pages, down from last year's 56. Here on the web you can access its content easily and respond to it readily. It's a trend we expect will continue, until all of the information we provide to our constituents is digital and dynamic - a new and powerful starting point for dialogues that can help shape our priorities and inform our programs.

Our web site, already much improved, will undergo significant changes in just a few months, as we refashion our digital presence and engage our constituents in real-time and interactive ways.

We remain committed to reporting fully and transparently, to highlighting our strategies and our finances, and to serving our stakeholders. But we will do so in ways that reflect the potential, the impact and the challenges of our digital age: We will become an organization that is of the web rather than simply on the web. With this hybrid version of our annual report – one of the foundation’s core publications, and a marker of its progress and its history – we take yet another step forward on that path.

We do not claim to have arrived. Social change, inside and outside a foundation, takes time. We are reminded of the story of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is said to have asked Zhou Enlai what he thought of the French Revolution. “Too soon to tell,” the Chinese premier responded.

No one knows how digital communications will impact the ability of citizens to manage their communities in this democracy, just as no one can know how economic or creative community initiatives will impact the market and social development of those cities and towns. We do know that change is constant. We welcome experimentation and innovation as strategies for managing that change. And we intend to develop sustainable models of success in the communities we serve.

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