One year after the release of Knight's Community Information Toolkit, foundations putting the guide to use say it has been critical in identifying community needs, creating collaborations and helping push for important change.

The Information Toolkit is a five-step guide to helping communities take better stock of their community information flows. Where do people go for information? Where are the gaps and areas for improvement? And how can the data gathered help lay groundwork for action? The aim: Strengthening communities by strengthening their information systems. 

"We should all think about ourselves as being in the business of helping communities have conversations with itself," said Mayur Patel, Knight's Vice President for Strategic Assessment. Patel led a panel of community foundations speaking about how the toolkit has helped advance their missions. 

Some key insights: 

The toolkit helps create connections, conversations and collaborations.

Several groups using parts of the toolkit report that reaching out to assess community information has has helped connect individuals to each other and connect those individuals to larger community conversations.