This month, the INNovation Fund chose eight finalists from a pool of 48 proposals, and the Knight Prototype Fund announced 18 grant winners.

The INNovation Fund is offered by the Investigative News Network, with support from the Knight Foundation. It supports projects proposed by nonprofit news organizations to advance the economic sustainability of their newsroom. 

This was the second round for INNovation Fund grant proposals, worth a total of $226,020. Projects applying for the INNovation Fund presented an advanced proposal, developed with primary intentions to be sustainable, engage audiences, and become quickly integrated into nonprofit newsrooms.

LIST: INNovation Fund round two finalists

Some community-focused finalists include inewsource, which aims to unite the digital voice of outlying San Diego communities and streamline content through syndication. The Carolina Public Press would use its funding for in-person, news-exchanging community events to support 18 rural communities.

All Knight Prototype Fund winners will receive support to develop tools that could help all media efforts, including community news, information and engagement projects. This program helps media makers, technologists and tinkerers take ideas from concept to demo. Winners receive a $35,000 grant and are given six months to research, test core assumptions and iterate before building out an entire project. 

LIST: Knight Prototype Fund winners

Two of the new Prototype Fund winners offer substantial local promise: 

• SciStarter> is using its funding to connect data journalists and citizen scientists so they can collaborate deeply on issues in their community. 
• C-Lab's digital toolkit will help readers study local land plots and assess possibilities for development based on factors such as sunlight and accessibility.