Knology was not immune to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic crisis. As we write this introduction, we count ourselves fortunate that our organization, staff, Board, and fellows continued to survive (and even thrive), even though no one was left untouched by the tragedy. We began the year with a clear plan of growth across our portfolio. While we had to adjust and adapt as the pandemic progressed, we are grateful that with the hard work of our team, the perseverance of our partners, and the assistance provided by the government’s PPP program, we have emerged from this past year well-positioned to continue our mission of producing practical social science for a better world.

In retrospect, it is notable how one of our studies of news media hinted at the severity of the looming pandemic. In February 2020, we analyzed hundreds of news stories for our Meaningful Math project with PBS NewsHour. Over one-fourth of the stories focused on COVID-19: the rapidly changing scientific information about the virus itself, its economic impacts across the globe, and case and death counts across multiple continents. The first wave of the pandemic in the United States found our entire team and the Board of Trustees in quarantine, engaged in emergency planning, and re-envisioning our projects. That planning and federal government support made survival possible. Our shift to remote work itself was relatively smooth because we had incorporated virtual collaboration into our practice for the past few years. Many of our partners that provide direct public service were closed in early spring 2020. The crisis meant that more than half of our projects were restructured in a few weeks in early spring 2020, and some simply shelved or canceled. Thanks to our collaborative process, we found new ways to work with many of our partners to help them move forward and minimize all of our losses.

We would be remiss if we didn’t draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement that gained worldwide momentum in 2020. In addition to our own statement of solidarity with BLM issued by our Board, we gathered scholarly contributions on the significance of BLM in museums for the peer-reviewed journal we operate, supported interventions in the refugee crises, and worked to support a front-line team dealing with food security in Rwanda.

We could not have survived 2020 without the generosity of our donors. When the quarantine was announced, we had just completed upgrades to our New York office thanks to the generous gift of furniture from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Thanks to legal support teams including Proskauer Rose LLP and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, we ended the year with our intellectual property and trademarks secure, and a generous donation from GFP Real Estate ensured we could retain our New York office. With viable vaccines being deployed as the year closed, we all look forward to a 2021 recovery, working alongside one another in person, sitting in new chairs and an upgraded office, and teaming up with our partners to make the post-pandemic world a better place.

-- Leonard Singh, MBA, Board Chair; John Fraser, PhD AIA, President & CEO; Joanna Laursen Brucker, Ed.M., Chief Operating Officer

Critical Thinking features projects where we used diverse perspectives to challenge the status quo.

Inform & Shape Action presents several ways we equipped leaders with social science research to guide professional practice.

Embody DEAI showcases several ways our team pursued diversity, equity, access, and inclusion.

Strengthen Alliances tells the story of how we invested in people and organizations working toward a common good.

Refine Our Model highlights the ways we cultivated our collaborative philosphy across partners and projects.

Financial Stability - Read a summary of Knology's fiscal position at the end of 2020.

Photo credit: Markus Winkler on Unsplash.