We are Hearken
Gather, Serve, Grow
Hearken’s consulting and technology help companies and organizations engage their audience and community.
We’re committed to becoming an increasingly inclusive workplace. Learn more about our DEI actions.
Our partners come to us because they believe their relationship with their audience or community is critical to their growth and relevance. They’re right.
Our platforms and consulting help our partners drive revenue and results by engaging their audience or community.
Case Studies
How a member-based alliance found new relevance from listening deeply to its constituents and designing new offerings.
How a community organization grew to 400+ members in three years through technology and listening.
How Danish broadcaster TV 2/Fyn captured majority viewers during COVID-19 through engaging audiences.
Our Technology
Engagement Management System
The Engagement Management System empowers organizations to generate actionable insights from the public to create more relevant, representative and original content and bring audience inputs further upstream into content production. The EMS supports content and communication staff during all stages of user engagement, from content ideation to prioritization, production and reporting, underpinned by an evidence-based strategy and strong user data analysis.
Community Management System
Switchboard is a community management platform that allows individuals to ask for what they need and offer what they have to give. Its tailored focus on “Asks” and “Offers” cuts through the noise found on other platforms, allowing members of your community to connect directly to one another, share resources and advice, and expand their network. Organizations use Switchboard to offer their community concierge-level service without concierge-level effort.
Hearken means to listen.
We founded our company on the recognition that curiosity and listening are the basis of innovation and better business.
Hearken is women-led. We are a founding member of the Zebra’s Unite movement, which believes that companies can be for profit and for purpose.
Major Initiatives
Election SOS
A collaboration between Hearken, the American Press Institute, the Democracy Fund, and Trusting News, Election SOS supports journalists in response to critical information needs.
Google News Initiative
Hearken won funding from GNI’s Innovation Challenge to develop machine learning enabled natural language processing to help our partner newsrooms understand what their audience wants them to report on.
The Citizens Agenda
Hearken produced The Citizens Agenda, a guide for generating more responsive, inclusive, and useful news coverage for voters, in collaboration with Trusting News and The Membership Puzzle Project.