At Knology, our approach to making the world a better place is not just theoretical. We work alongside highly networked organizations (including professional associations, media creators, libraries, museums, game developers, healthcare providers, financial literacy educators,and community groups) to simultaneously study and solve real world challenges in real time. Through research, evaluation, convenings, and capacity building workshops, our team of social scientists, writers, and educators helps professionals improve their ability to facilitate understanding and advance public conversation. Our work empowers education and communications professionals through research-based insights, tools, and resources that can be used to amplify impacts and generate shared community understandings that open new pathways to action.
Our research is supported largely through competitive grants won from both federal agencies and private organizations. Since 2016, we have undertaken an average of more than 50 projects per year. Resulting in a variety of outputs (publications, capacity-building workshops and professional development seminars, databases, toolkits, etc.), these projects have benefited non-profit leaders, business leaders, philanthropists, and academic researchers—along with the varied audiences served through our partners’ work.
Our impacts can be seen at many different levels—from micro-level changes in the work of an individual partner through macro-level changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior across an entire sector. Some of our impacts are local, while others are nationwide. Regardless of the size or scope of our work, the differences we make in the lives of our beneficiaries are clear. Keep reading for recent examples.
Improving Statistical Literacy
Through a research collaboration with PBS News, we published a Reporting with Numbers guide to support new journalistic standards for presenting data, which in turn enhance public understanding of statistics. In addition to our partners at PBS News, we've heard from a number of other news organizations and journalism educators who have used the guide to make their work more effective.
Building a Model of Trust
On the basis of our research, we developed a conceptual model for helping institutions build, maintain, and restore trust with their audiences—and began deploying this in our work with a number of different contexts.
Practical Tools for Broadening Library Impacts
Through a collaboration with the American Library Association called “National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment” (NILPPA), we researched what makes partnerships work and what enables them to have transformative social impacts—and then created a practical, hands-on toolkit to help libraries forge, assess, and deepen their collaborations with other community organizations.
Advancing Decision-making across the Children’s Museum Sector
Through our partnership with the Association of Children’s Museums, we collect, analyze, and share sector-wide data through reports, searchable datasets, and impact studies—all of which helps children’s museums use data to guide their operations and deepen their impacts.
Improving Representation in Children’s Media
Through our BlackRepforKids project, we hosted a cross-sector convening dedicated to improving the representation of Black scientists, activists, and communities in children's climate change media—and built a website to share our findings (which come in the form of podcasts, a resource library, and provocations for informal learning organizations).
Making Libraries More Accessible
Working with the American Library Association, we identified a set of key practices that libraries in small and rural communities are making use of to become more accessible to all of their patrons—particularly those with disabilities.
Fostering Partner Success
As part of our broader effort to help cultural organizations become more responsive to community feedback, we helped the Clark Art Institute and the Center for Brooklyn History build their capacity to test and implement new strategies for engaging broader and more diverse publics.
Advancing Research on Informal STEM Learning (ISL)
To support the construction of a new, equity-based research infrastructure for ISL, we hosted a two-day convening with experts in STEM learning research, community-based work, education, and product development—and built a website to share our findings.
Articulating Our Theory of Change
In 2024, we updated our theory of change to better describe the impacts our work is having on partners and the communities they work with. We then added this theory of change to our mission / vision page.