Knight Foundation CEO to Get 2014 Gardner Leadership Prize

Alberto Ibargüen, the president and chief executive of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has been named the 2014 recipient of the John W. Gardner Leadership Award, nonprofit coalition Independent Sector announced.

The former Miami Herald editor, who joined the Knight Foundation in 2005, was recognized for spearheading innovative efforts in journalism, community engagement, and the arts and taking a grass-roots, digitally minded approach to driving change, using contests and “working with grantees to craft problem-solving strategies, thus serving as a model for the responsive, agile philanthropy of the future,” Independent Sector said.

The award is bestowed annually by Independent Sector and named for the group’s founding chairman, the late presidential adviser John W. Gardner. It will be presented to Mr. Ibargüen on November 18 at the organization’s national conference in Seattle.