Our Partners
Partner with us
We are fortunate to work with a variety of partners who share our passion and vision to shape the world for difference. Our partners are true collaborators and a vital component of our mission.
There are several ways to partner with Understood, from an organizational level to a program or initiative level. When we work together, we can all achieve a common goal. Let's have a conversation.
Founding partners
In 2014, 15 nonprofit organizations came together to provide families with a comprehensive resource that no single organization could offer on its own. Diverse in their specialties, but united by a common desire to help families of kids who learn and think differently, these founding partners continue to be collaborators in our work.
Benetech
http://www.benetech.orgOpens in a new tab
Benetech, founded by Jim Fruchterman, provides software tools and services to address pressing social needs. Its Global Literacy program includes Bookshare, the largest online digital library of accessible materials; DIAGRAM, which focuses on accessible images; and Route 66 Literacy, the online instructional literacy program for adolescent and adult beginning readers.
CAST
http://www.cast.orgOpens in a new tab
Founded in 1984, as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST has earned international recognition for its innovative approaches to expanding educational opportunities for all individuals based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning.
CHC (Children’s Health Council)
http://www.chconline.orgOpens in a new tab
CHC believes in a world where everyone can reach their promise and potential, and has been providing education and mental health services to the community for 65 years. Our mission is to remove barriers to learning, helping kids, teens, and young adults become resilient, happy, and successful at home, at school, and in life regardless of language, location, learning style, or ability to pay.
Child Mind Institute
http://www.childmind.orgOpens in a new tab
The Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming mental health care for children everywhere. Our organization is committed to finding more effective treatments for childhood psychiatric and learning disorders, building the science of healthy brain development, and empowering children and their families with help, hope, and answers.
Common Sense Media
http://www.commonsensemedia.orgOpens in a new tab
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families and helping them thrive in a world of media and technology. We offer the largest, most trusted library of independent age-based and educational ratings and reviews for everything kids want to watch, play, read, and learn.
Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
http://www.tremainefoundation.orgOpens in a new tab
The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, a family foundation based in Connecticut, seeks to promote innovative solutions to basic and enduring problems in the United States through grantmaking programs in contemporary arts, environment, and learning disabilities. The foundation grants over $3.5 million annually to support work in these fields.
Eye to Eye
http://www.eyetoeyenational.orgOpens in a new tab
Eye to Eye is the only national mentoring movement that pairs kids with learning disabilities and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with similarly labeled college and high school mentors. Using our proven art curriculum, mentors help their mentees build self-esteem and other self-advocacy skills to succeed in school and life.
GreatSchools
http://www.greatschools.orgOpens in a new tab
GreatSchools was created in 1998 to use the power of the internet to inform parents and help them engage in their children’s education. Today, GreatSchools helps millions of families find great schools, support great learning, and guide their kids to great futures.
Learning Disabilities Association of America
http://www.ldaamerica.orgOpens in a new tab
The Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) is a grassroots, nonprofit organization whose thousands of members include individuals with learning disabilities, their families, and the professionals who work with them. Organized by parents in 1963, LDA has over 100 state and local affiliates.
National Center for Learning Disabilities
http://www.ncld.orgOpens in a new tab
For more than 35 years, NCLD has been empowering parents, helping transform public schools, and advocating for families and children challenged by learning and attention issues. We envision a society in which every individual possesses the academic, social, and emotional skills needed to succeed at school, work, and life.
New Profit
http://www.newprofit.comOpens in a new tab
New Profit supports the most promising social enterprises as they work to achieve greater impact. We collaborate with diverse partners from across all sectors to advance social innovations that can drive systemic change, ultimately transforming lives and communities in tangible and sustainable ways.
Oak Foundation
http://www.oakfnd.orgOpens in a new tab
Oak Foundation established its Learning Differences Programme to support programs, research, and activities that contribute to knowledge about, and the strategies available to, kindergarten through college students with learning differences that may cause them to struggle in school.
Poses Family Foundation
Opens in a new tab
The Poses Family Foundation (PFF) is a philanthropic foundation founded by Nancy and Fred Poses. PFF works to make meaningful change in five areas, the largest being learning and thinking differences, through a combination of strategic analysis, pro bono advising, collaboration, incubation of large-scale initiatives and multi-year funding.
Reading Rockets
http://www.readingrockets.orgOpens in a new tab
Reading Rockets is an award-winning multimedia project offered by WETA, the flagship PBS station in Washington, D.C. Reading Rockets looks at how young children learn to read, why so many kids struggle, and how we can help them succeed.
The Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation
http://www.thetowerfoundation.orgOpens in a new tab
Established in 1990, the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation makes grants in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, intellectual disabilities, and learning disabilities. We focus on the needs of young people in Western New York and Eastern Massachusetts.
Additional partners
We’re grateful for our growing community of partners who amplify our impact, and help ensure that empathy and possibility replace labels and assumptions.
