In our increasingly complex, ever-changing world, more and more organizations are recognizing that the best way to strengthen our communities is to work together. As these organizations seek to break out of their silos, they’re looking to forge partnerships that can help them see beyond the resources, approaches, opportunities, and solutions they’re already familiar with. They’re increasingly interested in learning about how participation in multi-disciplinary, cross-sector coalitions can lead to shared understandings of the problems we face — and shared agendas for solving them.

At Knology, we believe that collaborations are essential to facilitating change. Through partnerships with a diverse network of national partners, we bridge research and action to create evidence-based insights and tools others can use to amplify their impacts. Working together with media creators, libraries, museums, schools, community organizations, game developers, influencers, and others committed to advancing informal and formal learning, we reduce the gap between research and practice, solving real world challenges in real time.

To formalize the multiple approaches we use to connect research and action through collaboration, in 2024, we documented our Theory of Change. This model highlights five pathways we employ to affect change: (1) researching innovations; (2) building evaluation capacity; (3) facilitating data democratization; (4) involving communities; and (5) building cross-sector networks. Within each of these dimensions, we begin by identifying partners’ needs, and then collaborate with them to create evidence-based tools and insights that respond to these needs. We then share what we’ve jointly created within and across the professional networks tied to our areas of expertise. To achieve scale, we work with these networks to bring leaders together across fields in ways that allow organizations to collaboratively address shared challenges. This approach allows us to bridge research and action in ways that amplify partners’ impacts and foster the creation of more informed, collaborative, equitable, and sustainable communities.

To build these communities, the institutions within them need to be trustworthy, to practice prosociality, to serve people with equity, and to be responsive to societal changes. Our 2024 annual report offers examples of how we put our Theory of Change into motion across each of these four areas. We hope these prove inspirational, and help give rise to new ideas for how we can all work together to build a better world for everyone.

Christine Reich, Ph.D. President & CEO

Joanna Laursen Brucker, Ed.M. Chief Operating Officer

Antoinette La Belle, D.M. Chair

Photo by Lindsay Henwood @ Unsplash