Guide

Blueprint for leverage: Turning ecosystem research into power, strategy, and community trust

By Cassie Haynes and Fiona Morgan

March 3, 2026

This post is part of “Building a Thriving News Ecosystem,” a series from Knight Communities Network, a Lenfest Institute community of practice for local funders creating thriving news ecosystems.

Across the country, community foundations, funders, and civic institutions are investing in ecosystem research to better understand their local news and information landscapes. These efforts are grounded in community listening, foundational research, and capacity and asset mapping. They surface critical insights about who produces information, who is being served, where trust flows, and where gaps persist.

Too often, however, the power of ecosystem research halts once the report is published. This is unfortunate, because the big secret (that we wish wasn’t actually a secret) is that ecosystem research is a strategic asset, not just a diagnostic tool. When treated as living infrastructure rather than a one-time deliverable, research can guide communications, fundraising, community engagement, policy influence, and cross-sector collaboration over multiple years. Your ecosystem research project can become a compass for civic action rather than a snapshot in time.

Local information ecosystems function as a civic immune system. When they are healthy, communities are better equipped to solve problems collectively, hold institutions accountable, and navigate crises. When they are neglected, misinformation fills the gaps, trust erodes, and inequities deepen. Ecosystem research is a tool for building power with communities, not just knowledge about them. The accompanying presentation outlines six leverage points where research can have an outsized impact. Those points are:

• Strategic communications, 
• Fundraising, 
• Trust-building, 
• Ongoing data infrastructure, 
• Convening power, and 
• Policy influence

At each point, the emphasis is on moving from insight to action, and from extraction to reciprocity.

Download the full presentation Download the full presentation

We also encourage you to challenge the scarcity mindset that often accompanies ecosystem assessments. Research does not have to be a deficit-focused inventory of what is broken. When done well, ecosystem research can illuminate existing strengths, reveal informal networks of trust, and surface promising models already at work, going beyond a list of needs by providing a map of what is possible.

Research alone is not enough. Its ultimate impact depends on how the findings are operationalized, whether they are integrated across departments, shared back with participating communities, resourced with staff time, or embedded in multi-year strategies. What’s more, when research is siloed, rushed, or used to justify grantmaking decisions after-the-fact, it risks becoming extractive rather than transformative.

The goal of publishing this presentation is to invite funders and civic leaders to ask a more generative question: What would change if we treated ecosystem research as shared civic infrastructure? As something we steward, revisit, and act on together over time? 

We hope this framework supports organizations looking to move beyond “research as report” toward research as strategy, relationship, and long-term public good.