We help you operationalize equity and remove barriers to success for all.
Community-based nonprofits are among the most powerful mechanisms for building equity in Canada. They remove barriers to health, mental health, and substance use health, provide safe and adequate housing, and support integration into the community.
The people inside these nonprofits care about the work they do, and that’s their strength. That’s also why equity isn’t an add-on for them. It’s the whole point.
We exist to help these organizations act on that commitment, not with another framework or another workshop, but by building equity into how the work actually happens.
Over nearly a decade of working with community nonprofits, we saw the same pattern. Organizations that had done the visible work of equity, the commitment, the training, the strategy, yet still couldn’t make it hold in everyday practice.
They didn’t need more commitment; they needed the ability to act on the commitment they already had.
Our founder, Natalie Duchesne, with a PhD in gender and policy, and more than a decade of teaching gender studies, set the stage for how we made sense of what we were seeing. But it was the work itself, showing up inside organization after organization alongside our team, that taught us how organizations work through people.
Where others saw teams that needed more motivation, we saw systems that were never designed to support commitment.
Connect2Knowledge exists to close that gap. We define equity as removing barriers to success and wellness for all, but what’s needed is specific to each organization. It can’t be delivered as a template. It has to be built from within.
We help nonprofit community-based organizations find where momentum in equity has faded, then build the practices, roles, and decisions to sustain it.
Our work is structured, grounded in research and context, and designed to lighten your load rather than add to it.
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This is our research, drawn from the sector and fully tested. Over time, Connect2Knowledge has become recognized for turning equity knowledge into real change, not only in theory, but also in practice.
Natalie has spent her career exploring the questions community nonprofits wrestle with: how equity commitments actually hold, where they stall, and what it takes to build systems that carry them. She brings a researcher’s rigour and a practitioner’s perspective to that work, grounded in a PhD in gender and policy and more than a decade of teaching and working with organizations in the field.
Blue is a values-driven, collaborative professional who has worked with Connect2Knowledge since 2021. She supports not-for-profit teams through facilitation, co-design, and strategic planning, helping them clarify goals and move forward with confidence. Away from her facilitation and planning work, she brings creativity to her art-making and energy to her local organizing efforts.
Karen combines a passion for equity with hands-on experience in community engagement, program design, and systems change. She has led program initiatives, facilitated training, and coordinated conferences to advance reform of the housing and homelessness system. Karen thrives on connecting people, projects, and practical impact to turn ideas into meaningful change.
Doris brings over two decades of experience in substance use, mental health, and equity work. She is a connector and catalyst who creates spaces where people can learn, reflect, and move from intention to action. Originally from Austria and now based in Ottawa, Doris loves electronic music and draws inspiration from nature’s wisdom.
Maria brings creativity and communication skills to shaping how C2K shares its work with the world. She enjoys making complex ideas clear, relatable, and accessible, drawing on over a decade of experience in not-for-profit organizations. Outside of work, she enjoys quiet time with her family and their cocker spaniel.
Every organization here is different, and so was the work. What they share is a commitment to equity.
Book a call to talk through where your equity work stands today and what would help it hold. It’s a straightforward conversation about what your organization needs, not a sales pitch.
