JOHN S. AND JAMES L.

KNIGHT FOUNDATION
JOURNALISM INITIATIVES GRANT PROPOSAL

Thank you for taking the time to complete this proposal. You will see it asks for information that
is both legally required and satisfies Knight Foundation policy. We want the proposal to be
helpful both to you and the foundation. We welcome questions or concerns.

Organization/institution legal name: NewsCloud

Other or previous operating name (aka/dba):
Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN):
Address:
City: Seattle
State and ZIP: Washington 98103
County: King
Telephone: Fax:
E-mail: jeff@newscloud.com
Web site: http://www.newscloud.com
Name and title of CEO (Mr., Ms., Dr.): Mr.
Name and title of primary contact, if different than CEO:
Jeffrey B. Reifman, Founder
Primary contact’s e-mail: jeff@newscloud.com
Primary contact’s telephone:
Will you be using a fiscal agent? Yes No (if no, please continue to page 2)
Fiscal Agent organization name: Tides Center via Knight Foundation
Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN):
Contact name at fiscal agent:
Address:
City:
State and ZIP:
Telephone: Fax:
E-mail:

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 Journalism Initiatives Program Area Served: please check all that apply
Press Freedom and Freedom of Information
Journalism Training and Education Electronic and New Media
News and Newsroom Diversity News in the Public Interest
Other Journalism (please describe): Citizen Editorial and Citizen Journalism

Purpose of grant (please use one sentence and no more than two lines):
To launch two social media publications on Facebook with various strategic approaches for engaging youth and to subsequently study
what works (and what doesn’t) in building community and creating impact.

Total cost of project (from all sources): $: 249,529

Requested amount from Knight Foundation: $ 249,529
Over how many years? 1, (note: phase one of this project is budgeted for six months only)
Organization’s annual operating budget: $0
Number of employees: 1
Organization’s background, mission and history (use no more than two paragraphs):
NewsCloud is an open source social media community offering readers the opportunity to share and discuss important stories from
around the Web. In this age of intense media consolidation, NewsCloud offers an independently operated platform for diverse
community participation and growth. NewsCloud’s long-term goals include raising the quality level of participation and commentary
online by supporting the growth of more sophisticated news communities. Examples of these ideas include our experimental member
scoring system, comment ratings, topic clouds and storylines.
NewsCloud was founded by Microsoft and MSNBC.com veteran Jeff Reifman. Originally launched as CommonTimes.org, the site
was branded NewsCloud.com in mid-2006. In October 2006, NewsCloud broke the story to the Web and mainstream media regarding
the copyright dispute between YouTube and Viacom. NewsCloud was a finalist in the 2006 Knight Foundation Citizen Journalism
contest.

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JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION
JOURNALISM PROPOSAL NARRATIVE

Your proposal will be considered based on information you provide in this document. What you tell us here will
be used to set our “baseline” expectations for the project. Please limit your answers to the space provided.

1. Need: What journalistic or public need will the proposed project address? How was the need identified?

This project is intended to address the knowledge gap of best practices in getting young people engaged in news and current events
online and generating subsequent real world impact. The project targets the Facebook social network because it has 90 million active
members, is the most-trafficked social media site in the world according (comScore) and has an 85 percent market share of 4-year
U.S. universities.

The focus on Facebook and youth engagement arose from the open source NewsCloud Facebook framework & discussions with Gary
Kebbel and Dianne Lynch.

2. Proposed Project: Briefly summarize the project for which Knight Foundation funding is requested.
Relate the project to the needs identified above.

During a six-month period, NewsCloud will sequentially launch two different social media publications on Facebook, each with a
distinct strategic approach to promoting participation, community and awareness with young people using social networks.

In parallel, the University of Minnesota Institute for New Media Studies and Learning Technologies will study the results and impact
of each particular strategy and publication.

At the end of the project, UMN will publish qualitative and quantitative research from the study with the goal of documenting
strategies that work best to engage youth in new media in social networking environments.

The first publication will be a Climate Change site, which uses a “street team” incentive system to promote and encourage
participation in the community. Members will receive points when they post stories, rate materials and participate in discussions. They
can accumulate points over time and redeem them for small prizes.

The second will use demographic and geographic targeting for a publication tailored for college students in the Minnesota region.

If successful, a secondary phase of study will examine two to three additional publications.

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 3. Project Activities and Timetable: Please list the most important project activities and provide a
timetable showing when you will do them. (Example: To produce apples, starting on March 1, we
will plant 100 saplings.)

Development Schedule

Month 1 - 2
• Begin recruiting partners
• Hire software developers, outreach/marketing staff and design contractor
• Work with UMN research team to define application requirements and outreach strategy
• Develop Climate Change publication from NewsCloud Facebook application code and street team specific features
• Launch Climate Change publication, including marketing/PR efforts (towards end of Month 2)
• Begin development of College News publication
• Begin recruiting partners for College News publication

Month 3 – 4
• Launch College News publication
• Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support for each publication
• Continue marketing and PR efforts for each publication
• Support UMN researchers with their study work
• Begin discussions with Knight Foundation for Phase Two funding

Month 5-6
• Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support for each publication
• Continue marketing and PR efforts for each publication
• Solidify open source components and documentation of Facebook publication applications
• Prepare technology post-mortem for Phase One
• Support UMN researchers with their study work
• Begin design and specification for Phase Two publications

Research Schedule

Months 1-3
• Refine and agree on research questions
• Develop valid survey instruments, which involve brief lit review to inform valid survey design and getting feedback from
advisory group; pilot testing with small group of college age participants
• Secure Institutional Review Board approval for work with human subjects (6 week process; process goes much smoother if
subjects are 18 years of age or older!)
• Set up survey in survey monkey, etc.

Month 4 & 5
• Send recruiting email/message to publication users; survey incentive will help get a higher response rate.
• Recruit for focus groups ($50 incentive)
• Provide 3 week window for subjects to take the survey – weekly reminders
• Analyze survey data – trends/questions to follow-up on in focus groups
• Do data dump of internal statistical tracking – inform focus group questions
• Conduct focus groups and transcribe data AFTER survey completion & look at site stats
• Analyze focus group data

Month 6 - 8
• Review survey, focus group and internal site-tracking data analysis
• Write up report for publication on (1) what engages users; (2) what does this “engagement” look like (3) How did the
publication contribute to the mission of the organization.

4. Anticipated Outcomes:

A. Direct results: Activities create outcomes. Please list what you expect will happen as a result of
your activities. Tell us how you will substantiate your outcomes. (Example: Within two years, we
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 expect 80% of the saplings will have grown into trees. We’ll snap a picture of them to show you.
By the next year, we expect to have our first apple crop. We’ll count the fruit-producing trees
and the apples harvested.)

We will launch and grow two social media publication communities: The first publication will be a Climate Change site which uses a
“street team” incentive system to promote and encourage participation in the community. Members will receive points when they post
stories, rate materials and participate in discussions. They can accumulate points over time and redeem them for small prizes. The
second will use demographic and geographic targeting for a publication tailored for college students in the Minnesota region.

B. Broader impact: Outcomes, in turn, create broader impacts. What larger things may happen as a
result of this project? How will you demonstrate these broader impacts? (Example: In a few
years, we hope to have an apple agribusiness that will not only be self-sufficient, but will provide
subsidy to our educational center.)

The goal of this project is to learn what works (and what doesn’t) in engaging younger people using social networks in new media.

Questions that guide our investigation include:

• What gets younger Facebook members engaged (or not) in social media?
• What does this engagement look like?

For instance, do members both consume these news sources and produce related content: talking about, with, and through these
publications to each other? What impact do they see these non-traditional news sources having on their lives?

• How does the user’s engagement with these publications contribute to the mission of the affiliated organization (e.g. Climate
Change or college mission)?

To answer such questions merits a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis; University of Minnesota researchers will
collect quantitative data on user characteristics and interactions with the publication (e.g., frequency, duration, features utilized, and
activities) as well as qualitative data on the users’ experience and perspectives to produce an accurate and comprehensive account. Our
goal is to publish these findings, thereby contributing to the knowledge base about what works with independent media, as well as use
these data to improve design and user experience.

Some of the data collection will be automated. Internal Facebook application statistics and requested internal NewsCloud statistical
tracking features will provide data for quantitative analysis and comparison of each community. For example, we can measure and
analyze activity levels in each publication based on reading, link sharing, commentary, blogging/self-publishing, content quality,
invitations, virality, et al.

Other data collection will involve surveying and talking to users about their perceptions and experiences. University of Minnesota
researchers will develop survey instruments to query readers and active members. Focus groups with users and non-users will also be
performed to triangulate survey data and verify trends.

Staging the launch of each publication should provide adequate time for qualitative analysis of the evolution and high/low points in
each community.

The end result will be an academic study on what we learned and suggestions for further areas of research.

5. Assessment and evaluation: Who will evaluate your project? Will the evaluation be done in-house or
by an outside consultant and/or a partner in the project? How will it be done?

The University of Minnesota will evaluate the qualitative and quantitative impacts of the social media publications that we build.

Towards the end of the project, we will internally assess the value of our publication communities and quality of our research data to
determine whether additional studies and/or publications should be pursued.

At this time, there is no money budgeted for an outside post-mortem assessment of our project.

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6. Risks: Please be frank about things that might go wrong. Does your organization have the capacity to do
all the things you say you will do? Are staff changes on the horizon? Are there outside factors that could
disrupt the project? What can be done to lessen those risks?

Some development risk is mitigated because the initial project technology will be based on existing code from the NewsCloud
Facebook application and NewsCloud Web Services API.

However, we’re building, launching and studying two publications – each with the inherent complexities of design, development,
marketing, branding, outreach and support. The relative maturity and activity level in each community will be important to enabling
successful research. One or both community concepts may flop. It will be important to gather data on the users’ experience with each
publication early on, especially from those who do not engage to understand why not and what could be improved.

From a technical perspective, we want to run all the publications from one software code base to avoid forking the code and having to
maintain multiple code bases. This is desirable in part because the Facebook platform changes so quickly and in part because it
provides the opportunity to open source a single, feature-complete code base at a future date.

While geared for rapid, stepwise, and focused study, the proposed pacing may be too quick for what we’re trying to accomplish,
challenging the development and marketing effort as well as the researchers. Partner development and dependence on partnerships
may at time hinder progress.

The street team budget for prizes may be limited depending on the growth of the community. We will need to be successful building
partnerships to expand our prize offerings.

This project is not just a static web site but requires an ongoing service and support structure. Publishers (and readers) will have
questions, feature requests, problem reports and we will need to be responsive. The quality of their experience with the application and
with us will influence its success.

7. Marketing: How will you get the message out about your project? Please be specific.

The quality of the research will correlate to the speed with which we can grow each Facebook publication into a viable community.
We’ll apply the following approaches for marketing each publication:

• Targeted demographic advertising on Facebook e.g. to younger environmentalists. – this is where the primary marketing
budget will be applied. Stronger partnership development will allow us to spend less on marketing.
• Working with partners to co-promote to their membership or audience
• Viral features of the application on Facebook
• General PR effort and opportunities by NewsCloud and UMN leveraging partners and the Knight Foundation where
appropriate.
• Guerilla marketing e.g. flyers, tabling, t-shirts and sticker giveaways
• Leveraging NewsCloud.com members, existing NewsCloud Facebook application members and Jeff Reifman’s professional
online network.

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8. Qualifications: Why is your organization particularly qualified to address the identified need?
Please place the work you do in context of work done by other organizations.

Jeff Reifman solely developed the NewsCloud platform and Web site. He has also developed Facebook applications for NewsCloud,
BC Hydro and Genome Alberta. As Group Program Manager at Microsoft, Jeff helped launch MSN News and MSNBC.com in 1995-
6. In 2001, Jeff founded ActionStudio.org, later received funding from The Omidyar Foundation and was acquired by Groundspring.
In 2004, Jeff wrote three cover stories for the Seattle Weekly on Microsoft and Social Investing.

Dr. Christine Greenhow has over a decade of experience in studying emerging Internet-based technologies in formal and informal
online learning environments. She graduated with her doctorate from Harvard University where she was a Larsen Fellow and has
served as principal or co-principal investigator on numerous externally funded research and development projects. She has published
twelve single and co-authored publications and presented extensively on young people’s use of Web 2.0 technologies. With interests
that span education, communications, and new media, her recent work looks at communication, community building, and 21st century
learning in online youth networks. Her research on the educational benefits of social network sites has been featured in national and
international news media.

9. Collaboration: How have you collaborated with others in developing this project? How will others
participate in its implementation? Please identify project partners and explain the respective role of each.
Attach letters indicating support or intent to participate.

Other than the University of Minnesota and Dr. Greenhow’s collaboration on our project proposal, no other primary partners are
involved at this time. Dr. Greenhow expects to recruit key department team members for help in building an audience for the
Minnesota collegiate publication.

Possible Climate Change partners that we will be contacting include Grist Magazine, the Sierra Club, World Changing and 1Sky. We
have a previous relationship with Grist and have had discussions over the years with World Changing and Sierra Club.

I have informally discussed the project with a design firm, Blue Flavor, in Seattle and a potential software developer who has worked
on my earlier Facebook projects, Rick Kowal. I have also worked closely in the past with contract system administrator Todd Weaver.
If the project is approved, I will quickly move forward with recruiting for the overall project.

NewsCloud has been successful in the past using email, word of mouth and Facebook and CraigsList ads to find new contract staff.

10. Other Support: Please list all other funding partners. Please specify their exact amounts of support,
and whether funding is pending or committed. Include in-kind contributions as well. Important: All
amounts, including the request to Knight Foundation, should add up to the project cost.

No other funding partners.

11. Sustainability: How will you sustain the project after Knight Foundation funding has ended? Be
specific about revenue sources.

While the primary purpose of this project is research, if the publications are successful, we will continue to operate them as part of the
NewsCloud community or with our partners.

The research may suggest subsequent steps or additional research in which these communities may be migrated into new efforts.
Therefore, it may make sense to continue studying these publications with a future grant.

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12. Committee analysis: Knight’s Journalism Advisory Committee requests you analyze your proposal by
answering the following questions briefly and clearly.

A. Does your proposed grant maximize resources? What percentage of your overall budget goes to
overhead? How many dollars will you spend per person participating in your project? What other
evidence of efficiency exists?

The NewsCloud effort has been extremely frugal and efficient. The entire NewsCloud platform has primarily been built by Jeff
Reifman; using occasional contractors or interns when necessary. Less than $25,000 has been spent to date over three years.

NewsCloud does not have office space or administrative staff. Nearly all technology funding for this proposal will be used directly to
pay for employee salaries for software development, outreach and project management.

B. Does this proposal leverage industry or institutional dollars? If the request comes from a school
of journalism, is the university as a whole behind the project? Does it contribute money? If the
request proposes to train professional journalists, is there a “co-pay” of any kind? Is an industry
contribution required? Are application forms used to ask news organizations about their commitment
to training? What other evidence of leveraging exists?

There is no other funding used to support this proposal. We will however leverage the University of Minnesota as a close partner in
our research and especially in the collegiate community publication.

C. What’s the extent of Knight Foundation’s support? If we have funded you over time, is the
foundation’s support increasing or decreasing as an overall percentage of program costs? If Knight
funds were to go elsewhere, what would happen to the project? What is the capacity of the
organization to raise funds from multiple sources?

The Knight Foundation has not funded NewsCloud in the past.

The Knight Foundation has funded a variety of projects at the University of Minnesota but we do not have details of each.

NewsCloud explored an investment with The New York Times in early 2008 that did not come to fruition. NewsCloud does not have
a paid staff position for managing investment opportunities or fund raising. However, NewsCloud is preparing a social investment
document to discuss with individuals and foundations interested in media and advocacy and exploring other available grants for
related work, as time allows.

As the primary purpose of these publications is research, it is not essential that they continue to be supported at the end of the project.
However, if successful, they will be integrated into the overall NewsCloud community. If we are successful at bringing partners into
the project, they may also work with us to maintain the communities over time.

D. Does the proposal build leadership in the field? Is your idea bold, new, or catalytic? Does it act in
any way to nurture a new generation of leaders? Does it bring groups together into coalitions to
advance or create a common agenda? Please explain.

To date, there have not been any significant social media applications delivered on the Facebook platform. This will be the first
serious research effort to study how to engage youth by targeting topics, demography and geography. It will also be the first street
team application on Facebook.

Through our marketing and pursuit of partnerships, we have a real opportunity to tap into a reservoir of individuals concerned about
climate change and support them in building community online, staying up on current events and looking at virtual and real world
impacts.

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 E. Does the proposal increase the capacity of your organization? Will this grant put the educational
or training institution on a more solid, permanent financial footing? Does it increase an
organization’s ability to use new media?

This study will be generally supportive of NewsCloud’s overall goals:

• The study will help us identify features that work at engaging new users, which we will be able to apply to NewsCloud.com
and its other platforms.
• Increased resources will make the project more sustainable and support the improvement of the underlying architecture for
Facebook and our Web Services API. The resources will also support the development of new features such as the Street
Team rewards program, enhanced video features, et al.
• The opportunity to fund partner relationships will help NewsCloud assess the ability of its technology to support mission-
driven organizations.
• The Facebook publications should drive increased traffic and activity (both new users, more diverse stories and deeper
discussions) across the NewsCloud universe of sites.
• The relationship with the Knight Foundation and the academic relationship with the University of Minnesota will be
supportive of our other fund raising and public relations efforts.
• The project should help to position NewsCloud more as a thought leader in the new media community, especially in terms of
social networking and Facebook capacity.

Depending on the partners we select, it should support these organizations in building their reach and expertise in new media.

F. Is the project applicable across all media platforms? Are broadcast, new media and magazine
journalists part of the application pool and trainee pool? Are techniques, topics and values taught
across platforms?

The project media will be available exclusively online on Facebook. We expect that there will be some number of younger journalism
students using each publication especially given the topics of climate change and our partnership with the University of Minnesota
New Media Studies.

There are no plans to host this project on the Web or in print.

G. What is the diversity portfolio of your organization? Does your organization have a diversity
plan or statement of principles? What are your specific goals when striving to include women and
people of color in your staff and programs? What is the current diversity census listing women and
journalists of color of your program staff and participants? Are you on track to meeting your own
goals? What recruiting techniques are you using? What barriers (institutional, demographic, etc.) do
you encounter in trying to reach your diversity goals, and how are you working to overcome them?

NewsCloud currently consists of founder Jeff Reifman and no additional staff. So, there is no diversity policy in place at this time.
However, when hiring we will follow the policies required by Tides Foundation, the fiscal sponsor.

The University of Minnesota’s equity and diversity policies are posted online
http://www.academic.umn.edu/equity/mission_units.html.

H. How does your project advance the fundamental values of press freedom, and journalism
excellence? Does it include the context of the importance of news to open, self-governing societies?
Does it consider public responsibility of journalists?

We will develop a code of ethics for self-publishing (links, journal entries and comments) in each publication that reflect common
practices and values of journalism e.g. Kovach and Rosentiel and online communities. Each social media publication will rely on
reader submissions and discussions to become vibrant communities – so openness and involvement in developing the community
content (as well as guidelines) will be very central.

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BUDGET: REVENUES ALLOCATED TO THIS PROPOSAL

You won’t need to fill out all the spaces below, only the ones that apply to your proposal. Insert any additional budget items in
the space provided under “Other.” An explanation of this form appears on the following page. For multi-year proposals, please
copy these forms and submit revenue and expense budgets for each year.

Contributed Income
1. Individual contributions $
2. Corporate contributions - attach list specifying contributors and amounts contributed
3. Foundation grants (except Knight Foundation) - attach list specifying grantors and
amounts granted
4. Government support a) Federal
b) State
c) Local
5. Parent organization support
6. Special events
7. In-kind contributions
8. Other – specify
Total contributed income $0
Earned Income
9. Fees for services $
10. Admissions
11. Memberships
12. Publications and royalties
13. Contracted services
14. Rentals
15. Other (specify)
_________________
_________________
_________________
Total earned income $0
Other Income
16. Investment income $
17. Interest
18. Other (specify)
_________________
_________________
_________________
Total other income $0
19. Knight Foundation request $249,529
Total proposal revenues $249,529

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EXPLANATION OF PROPOSAL BUDGET REVENUE LINE ITEMS
Please provide details of all budget revenue items in the required budget narrative that follows on page 14. Identify confirmed
and pending sources of income.
Contributed Income
1. Individual contributions: contributions by
individuals for, or allocated to, this proposal.
2. Corporate contributions: grants, sponsorship
or other income from corporations for, or
allocated to, this proposal.
3. Foundation grants (except Knight): grants,
sponsorship or other income from
foundations other than Knight Foundation for, or
allocated to, this proposal.
4. Government support:
a) Federal: grants or income from all federal
sources for, or allocated to, this proposal.
b) State: grants or income from all state sources
for, or allocated to, this proposal.
c) Local: grants or income from all county, city or
municipal sources for, or allocated to, this
proposal.
5. Parent organization support: parent or sponsoring
organization support allocated to this proposal,
including cash payment made directly to your
organization and cash payments made to the
producers of goods or services provided directly
to your organization without cost (e.g.,
maintenance, utilities or services provided by
parent organization). Support included in this
amount should not be included under “in-kind
contributions.”
6. Special events: income from fund-raising and
other special events for, or allocated to, this
proposal.
7. In-kind contributions: total value of in-kind
contributions of personnel time, goods or services
specifically associated with this proposal. Please
itemize each category of contribution and the
basis on which it was valued in budget narrative.
8. Other: contributions from others not included in
the above categories. Please identify source.
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Earned Income
9. Fees for services: fees paid by those benefiting
from the proposal, including tuition for classes,
fees for workshops or other educational
programs, and similar items.
10. Admissions: revenue derived from sale of
tickets for events for, or allocated to, this
proposal.
11. Memberships: all revenue from memberships in
your organization or associated auxiliary
allocated to this proposal.
12. Publications and royalties: income from sale of
publications and reproduction rights; royalties
earned on publications allocated to this proposal.
13. Contracted services: revenue derived from the
sale of services allocated to this proposal.
14. Rentals: income from rental of facilities or
equipment for, or allocated to, this proposal.
15. Other: any other earned income not included in
lines 9-14 that will be allocated to this proposal
(e.g., advertising, concessions, gift shop).
Please specify income source on budget form
and provide additional detail in budget
narrative.
Other Income
16. Investment income: income generated by
endowment and allocated to this proposal.
17. Interest: income generated from interest on non-
endowment investments (e.g., savings accounts,
certificates of deposit) and allocated to this
proposal.
18. Other: all other sources of revenue for, or
allocated to, this proposal not derived from
contributions, grants and parent organization
support. Please specify income source on
budget form and provide additional detail in
budget narrative.
19. Knight Foundation request: amount of support
requested from Knight Foundation for this
proposal.
12
BUDGET: EXPENSES ALLOCATED TO THIS PROPOSAL
You won’t need to fill out all the spaces below. Use only those that apply to your proposal. Insert any additional budget
items in the space provided under “Other.” An explanation of this form appears on the following page.
Note: We do not pay administrative salaries, wages or indirect / overhead costs.

You may also attach a proposed budget using your organization’s own format. For multi-year proposals, please copy these
forms and submit revenue and expense budgets for each year, as well as summary budgets for the entire proposal. For
capital proposals please include a detailed proposal budget itemizing all the construction cost and other proposal expenses.
Salaries and wages Knight All
20. Program salaries and wages Foundation non-Knight
Title of position No. of People % time on Total Share Funds
proposal
Project Manager/Software 1 80% $34,000 $34,000 $
Architect – Mr. Reifman
Software Developer – 1 100% $42,500 $42,500
Facebook/NC
Software Developer – street team 1 33% $12,500 $12,500
Outreach, partner mgmt, comm. 1 100% $27,500 $27,500
mgmt and marketing
Customer support, fulfillment 1 75% $15,000 $15,000
Graduate assistant 1 50% $16,985 $16,985
Research Advisory 3 <1% $1,500 $1,500
Total program salaries and wages $149,985 $149,985 $
21. Program benefits $ $ $
22. Administrative salaries and
wages (Indirect costs)
Title of position
N/A $
$

Total administrative salaries and wages $ $

23.Administrative benefits $ $0
24. Contract services No. days on Daily rate
Type of consultant or contractor proposal fee basis
Principal investigator, research 26 $600 $15,600 $15,600
Dr. Greenhow
Graphic design $13,500 $13,500 $
System administrator 5 $800 $4,000 $4,000

Total contract services $33,100 $33,100 $

Other Expenses
25. Travel $5,500 $5,500 $
26. Supplies and materials
27. Rent/utilities/insurance $100 $100
28. Postage and shipping
29. Marketing $20,000 $20,000
30. Fund raising
31. Capital expenses
32. Other (specify): Web hosting $720 $720
Research subject stipends $6,000 $6,000
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Climate Change street team gifts/fulfillment $20,000 $20,000
Tides Foundation Fiscal Sponsorship Fee $14,124 $14,124
Total other expenses $66,444 $66,444 $
EXPLANATION OF PROPOSAL BUDGET EXPENSE LINE ITEMS
Please provide details of all budget expense items in the required budget narrative that follows on page 14.

20. Program salaries and wages: payments of salaries and 25. Travel: transportation and accommodations, per diem
wages to program staff allocated for work directly related to and mileage allowances, and lodging expenses or staff and
this proposal. Please indicate position title, number of contract personnel associated with the proposal. Please
people with this title working on the proposal, the explain basis for cost calculations in budget narrative.
percentage of each person’s time devoted to the proposal 26. Supplies and materials: costs of proposal materials,
and the calculated cost of that time. supplies and other consumables, equipment rentals and
For example: purchases of equipment valued at less than $1,000 per
Title of position No. of % time Total item.
people on 27. Rent/utilities/insurance: costs of space rental, heat,
proposal electricity, telephone and insurance whether directly related
Director of education 1 25% $7,500 or allocated to this proposal. Please provide detail in budget
(annual salary $30,000) narrative, indicating which are allocated and which are direct
costs.
28. Postage and shipping: postage, shipping and
21. Program benefits: costs other than wages or salaries
transportation costs such as trucking and hauling related to
that are attributable to the program employees above, such
this proposal.
as Social Security, health insurance and pension
contributions, prorated for this proposal. For example: If 29. Marketing: all costs for marketing/promotion such as
your organization’s benefit package totals 15 % of gross market research; campaign and materials development,
salaries, the benefit for the Director of Education would be design and production; advertising space or time; printing
$1,125 (.15 x $7,500). and mailing of brochures, flyers and posters; and other
promotion and publicity activities related to this proposal. Do
22. Administrative salaries and wages: payments of salaries
not include payments to individuals that belong under
and wages for time of non-program staff allocated to this
"Salaries and wages."
proposal. (i.e.: director, accounts manager, etc.). Please
indicate position title, number of people with this title, the 30. Fund raising: all costs associated with fund-raising
percentage of each person’s time devoted to the proposal activities for this proposal, including materials development,
and the calculated cost of that time. Knight Foundation design and production. Do not include payments to
will not pay for these indirect costs, but they may be individuals that belong under “Salaries and wages.”
included as part of your total proposal budget in the 31. Capital expenses: expenses for purchases of facilities,
“All non-Knight funds” column. vehicles and equipment; renovations or improvements
23. Administrative benefits: costs other than wages or involving structural changes; and other capital expenditures
salaries that are attributable to the non-program employees directly associated with this proposal. Applications for
above, such as Social Security, health insurance and support of capital proposals should include a separate
pension contributions, prorated for this proposal. detailed proposal budget.
24. Contract services: costs of personnel who are not on the 32. Other expenses: all other expenses directly related to
staff of your organization, but whose services are required in this proposal that are not included in the categories above.
order to complete the proposal successfully. This could Please specify type of expense on budget form and provide
include consultants, teachers, social workers, artists, additional detail in budget narrative.
technicians, advisers and support personnel. Please specify
type of contractor, number of days committed to this Note: Knight will not pay overhead or indirect costs
proposal, rate charged per day (or other fee basis) and
calculated total cost.
For example:
Type of consultant or No. days on Daily Total
contractor proposal rate

Marketing 10 $250 $2,500

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13. Budget narrative: please provide concise detail to expense and revenue items. If line item is “0”,
no detail is needed.

Revenues:

1. Individual contributions:
2. Corporate contributions:
3. Foundation grants:
4. Government support:
5. Parent organization support:
6. Special events:
7. In-kind contributions:
8. Contributed income -other:
9. Fees for services:
10. Admissions:
11. Memberships:
12. Publications and royalties:
13. Contracted services:
14. Rentals:
15: Earned income - other:
16-18: Other income:

Expenses:

20. Program salaries and wages:

Note: all budgeted wages are for phase one/six months only.
• Program Manager/Software Architect – Founder Jeff Reifman will drive the overall project and help design and code the
software.
• Software Developer (Facebook/NewsCloud) – Will help build the software for the Facebook applications and interface to the
NewsCloud system.
• Software Developer (Street Team) – Will help build the street team specific features for Facebook including prize catalog,
leader board, redemption and back office inventory, order tracking and fulfillment features.
• Outreach/Partnership Development/Community management and marketing – This person will work closely with Mr.
Reifman to build partnerships, drive marketing and PR efforts while also lead managing and moderation strategies for
publication communities. They will also need to find partners for gift incentives for the street team.
• Customer support/fulfillment – This person will manage the day-to-day tasks of online customer support and prize
fulfillment/order mgmt/shipping for the Climate Change street team.

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 • Graduate assistant – A senior graduate research assistant will assist in all phases of the research and development process.
• Research Advisory – 3 research advisors from the senior faculty will guide research design and methods to ensure quality and
validity. Advisors will also help identify future funding and dissemination channels.
21. Program benefits:
22. Administrative salaries and wages (indirect costs):
23. Administrative benefits:
24. Contract services:
It’s most efficient to contract auxiliary development, system administration and graphic design.
• Principal investigator, research - Dr. Greenhow will lead the development of all research phases: IRB approval, piloting,
development and implementation of research instruments and protocols, data collection and analysis, coordinating senior
research advisory, and final report writing, publication and dissemination.
• Graphic design – This will be used to hire a design firm or design contractor to work with NewsCloud to generate a nice
interactive design framework that can be re-used and tweaked for both publications.
• System administrator – Likely, Todd Weaver, this person will help with managing security, backups and other system
administration tasks.
25-32: Other expenses:
• Travel – Travel to Minnesota for Jeff Reifman, research and dissemination travel for Dr. Greenhow and unforeseen travel
needs for spreading word about this project.
• Supplies and materials – Support for phone conversations between Mr. Reifman and Dr. Greenhow, etc.
• Marketing – See our marketing plan above.
• Other (specify): Web hosting – This pays for the web hosting and bandwidth for Facebook applications at
JohnCompanies.com, our current host.
• Research subject stipends – Funds will be used to encourage attendance at focus groups and to increase participation in
surveys.
• Climate Change street team gifts and fulfillment – These funds will be used as a prize incentive budget for street team
members. We will try to use online gifts in some cases such as music downloads to reduce shipping costs. We will also need
to rely heavily on external partners to supplement our free gift budget. And finally, we’ll have to just limit the gift levels and
number of allowed redemptions to stay within our budget.

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Signature of CEO or Executive Director of 501(c)(3) organization, president or chancellor of university

Date____________________________ Signature:____________________________________________

Name and title:___Jeff Reifman, Founder

Important!

Please include the following required supporting documents. Your proposal will not be complete without these
documents:

• Organization's current annual operating budget, including revenues and expenses

As NewsCloud remains primarily a personal project, it does not at this time have an operating budget or significant
revenue and expenses.

• List of organization's governing body and its officers, showing business, professional and community affiliations

NewsCloud’s founder and project lead is Jeff Reifman. NewsCloud’s primary project advisor is Alex Knight. Alex is
Managing Director of EDGE Labs, a private investment and consulting firm. Prior to founding EDGE, he was a Managing
Director of ARCH Venture Partners, a seed and early stage venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management.

• Most recent IRS letter stating that your organization is exempt from tax under Section 501(c)(3) and is not a private
foundation according to Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code

NewsCloud is not organized as a 501(c)(3). We plan to work through the Tides Foundation as a fiscal sponsor.

• Organization's most recent audited financial statement (must not be over one year old)

There is no audit available for NewsCloud at this time.

As a potential grantee of Knight Foundation, please be aware of the following:

Submission of this proposal indicates your organization’s permission for Knight Foundation to ask people who
are not members of the Foundation’s staff to review the proposal and to give advice and information to the
Foundation about your organization, board, staff and others with whom you are affiliated.

Materials submitted to Knight Foundation as part of the proposal process become the property of the
Foundation and will not be returned. The materials will be used as the Foundation deems appropriate. They are
not subject to any right of confidentiality unless specifically agreed to in writing by Knight Foundation.

Knight Foundation is under no obligation to fund or otherwise have a future relationship with the applicant. If it
does choose to have a relationship, Knight Foundation may suggest various kinds of relationships, including
contracts, grants, loans, program-related investments, or other kinds of investments and relationships.

Please return the proposal form and required attachments to:

Grants Manager
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Wachovia Financial Center
17
Suite 3300
200 South Biscayne Blvd.
Miami, FL 33131-2349

Or email the proposal to: grants@knightfdn.org and mail the attachments separately.

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