OTT began in 2010 as a blog called ‘On Think Tanks’ and a one-person consulting outfit set up by our Founder and Director Enrique Mendizabal.
In 2015, On Think Tanks received its first grant from the Hewlett Foundation. This was an important year for OTT and enabled us to grow from a blog into a global initiative. As we received more consulting requests from foundations, governments and non-governmental organisations, Enrique turned to the On Think Tanks community of expert thinkers and doers to help deliver the projects.
Through a combination of community and consultancy work, we found ourselves in a unique position, able to support and connect different actors in support of evidence-informed change – such as think tanks and think tank funders, evidence producers and evidence users.
After many years of organic growth, today, we have a small core team working across several continents, over 20 associates and consultants who we work with regularly on projects, and a network of over 200 organisations with whom we collaborate, partner and engage regularly.
While OTT started with a focus on think tanks, better-informed decision making requires many other actors. Today, we work to build, strengthen and champion all individuals and organisations in the evidence-informed policy ecosystem. We do this through a combination of consulting services, and through our global community of people who work in, with and fund think tanks. We provide a platform to share ideas and resources and run regular events, like our annual School for Thinktankers, Fellowship Programme, global and local conferences.