Featured SustainChain Member: Knowledge Impact Network

Elaine MacDonald is CEO of Knowledge Impact Network (KIN), an organization dedicated to using knowledge for social good. By connecting passionate experts looking to promote social change and social enterprises looking to solve specific challenges, KIN is able to create knowledge sharing partnerships that accelerate the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and scale impact.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was born and raised in New York as one of four children of Chinese immigrants, so I grew up being highly cognizant that you couldn't take opportunities for granted. After college, I worked as a management consultant for a global strategy firm in both the US and Asia Pacific. I learned that I love tackling problems especially in developing markets where you could really see the potential for impact. But after doing that for a number of years, I knew that in order to really affect change, I didn't want to just be the advisor on the outside. I knew that actual change means figuring out how to make that happen from the inside, so I spent 10 years working in a brand management role at a large consumer packaged goods company. It was there I realized the marriage between strategy and execution is where change happens.

Once I had children, I started to look at the world differently - about what their future would look like and what role I wanted to play in that future. So I started doing consulting work for nonprofits because I wanted to work with organizations that were making an impact in our community. Harvard Business School has a program called HBS Community Partners, where they leverage alumni to use their business skills for good. I loved that program so much that I ultimately ran it for our Northern California association for seven years. I loved being that connector between people who had expertise and an interest for social good but didn’t know how to apply that intersection, with people who were dedicated to social impact but needed additional skills to scale their impact. When you put them together the magic really happens. I loved hearing when a nonprofit excitedly described how transformational their support was.

Then I met the founders of the Knowledge Impact Network through one of its Global Advisors, who was also a member of HBS Community Partners. I immediately saw a wonderful opportunity to do what I was doing in San Francisco with knowledge volunteers and social entrepreneurs all over the world.

What can you tell us about the Knowledge Impact Network?
The premise behind Knowledge Impact Network is that knowledge is a powerful yet underutilized asset. The question is: how do we make it a tangible asset used for social good? How do you translate your education, experiences, insights, and connections into an asset to become a force for good when you share and gift it? Knowledge is a perfect example of an asset that can be recycled, repurposed, regenerated, and reused. You can give it, you don't lose it, and it keeps on growing so that you could use it for different purposes.

At Knowledge Impact Network, we’re building this movement of individuals and leaders who want to leverage their knowledge for social good, and we're creating a platform to make that exchange happen easily.

We’re looking for social ventures that have a proven track record of success in creating impact in their specific market. They are now looking to grow and accelerate: figuring out how to enter a new market, looking for contacts in that market, or understanding a new space they haven't been involved in. That's where we can help.

We’re also looking for leaders with a proven track record of success, so they can provide useful counsel, connections, knowledge, and insights to these social ventures. Specifically, those with experience in expanding and identifying new financial resources, developing partnerships and sustainable business models, and marketing skills.

As a young organization founded in 2020, what have you been working on over the past year?
Over the past year, we’ve narrowed in on the impact domains we want to support, focused on meeting core human needs: food, water, shelter and health; making education accessible for all; promoting economic opportunity; and mitigating climate risk. These align with five of the 17 SDGs and we hope to keep adding more areas of focus each year.

We also honed in on the premise of what we do: we match, curate, and vet social ventures working towards these goals with Knowledge Partners who are experts with the right set of skills and interests.

We created a knowledge exchange platform called a Catalyze Session, where a team of Knowledge Partners are paired with a social venture that has a very targeted question. During this facilitated 90-minute session, Knowledge Partners ideate how they can break through that challenge or seize that opportunity identified in the question. At the end of the session, they make a “Knowledge Pledge” - a commitment to follow up, make an introduction, review a pitch deck, or build awareness by talking about the organization with other contacts.

We also offer Deep Dive Projects as a knowledge exchange platform, where we have a team working side by side with an organization for three- to six-months for deeper support. Finally, we offer KIN Circles, online communities where people with a common area of interest can discuss a topic and figure out how they can work together to advance the topic area. It's a great way to connect thought leaders and social ventures who cannot commit to a long project, and facilitate introductions and collaboration through the Knowledge Impact Network.

What do you hope to accomplish through KIN’s partnership with SustainChain?
Frankly, it was a no-brainer to partner with SustainChain because its mission and values are so aligned with what we're trying to do at KIN. SustainChain is all about bringing together diverse parties, breaking down silos, and promoting collaboration to accelerate the pace of change to meet the SDGs. Similarly, KIN is about bringing together parties to work together with social ventures to accelerate their impact.

We’re leveraging SustainChain to market our social venture opportunities and see if we can find knowledge experts that can support them. And as SustainChain works with organizations that are moving quickly to create impact but need a little bit of help, we're here to identify knowledge resources that can potentially support them too.

What do you think it takes to move the needle to achieve the SDGs?
Having worked with organizations large and small, I believe the interest to work towards sustainability is often there, but the challenge is to transform the mindset, culture, and metrics within companies to look at all decisions from a sustainability lens. I think it's very easy to be attracted to a shiny new opportunity that may reap short-term benefits but may not be sustainable in the long term. We should always be asking the question: is there a more sustainable way to achieve our objectives?

At Knowledge Impact Network, our movement is about leveraging knowledge as a sustainable asset in itself (it can be reused, repurposed, and regenerated). This asset can in turn support organizations in their quest for a more sustainable operating model. Through greater collaboration, I do believe we can do a better job in advancing the SDGs.