The Think Tank Initiative has developed a series of 4-page knowledge briefs that distill ten years of experience from the Think Tank Initiative into critical lessons of relevance to donors, researchers, and organizational development practitioners working to strengthen policy research organizations. Through a series of 7 briefs, titled “TTI Insights”, you’ll learn program findings on:

  1. Positioning think tanks for policy influence
  2. Gender and think tanks
  3. Governance and leadership models
  4. Funding models for think tanks
  5. Enhancing research quality in think tanks
  6. Making the case for core funding
  7. Supporting change through effective program officer accompaniment  

The series was led by the International Development Research Centre with essential support from writing consultants Michelle Hibler and Mary O’Neil. The briefs are meant for anyone that is interested in learning how to help policy research organizations – think tanks – become more sustainable and effective, or manage a program similar to TTI.

These briefs provide an excellent overview of key considerations that arose from the program. To dive deeper into these, please review TTI’s Final evaluation report or the Executive Summary on the Final Evaluation.