Checklist: Knowledge Exchange

Use the items below to take your knowledge exchange practices to the next level. This checklist is a tool for foundations to assess and grow their knowledge exchange. Which of the items are in place at your foundation? Which could be established in the near term? Which over the longer term?

• Knowledge development begins with an identification of external needs and how the knowledge can meet them.
• Knowledge is actively communicated to key audiences, not just passively disseminated.
• Foundation staff engage with audiences to learn from responses to the knowledge.
• Partnerships and collaboratives serve as opportunities to jointly prepare and communicate knowledge.
• Foundation staff actively seek knowledge from each other and from external sources.
• Foundation leaders and boards encourage learning from failure, including underscoring benefits to individuals as well as the whole organization.
• Foundation staff adopt an open knowledge approach to knowledge sharing.