Insight and momentum for work that matters.
We help organizations and communities create better futures.
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Catalytic Collaboration
Thoughtful engagements that build shared understanding, cultivate common ground, and generate effective partnerships.
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Actionable Insight
Robust research to understand context, surface possibilities, and proceed with confidence.
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Strategy That Moves
A clear North Star paired with the roadmaps, commitments, and capacity needed to bring your vision to life.
Do any of these sound familiar?
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Vision and strategy are needed.
You want a process that yields clear direction and genuine commitment.
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The issue you care about can't be solved solo.
You need stakeholders to align priorities, resources, and action.
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You're navigating uncertainty.
You want quality information to enhance decision-making, learning, and adaptation.
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A great project needs funding.
You want to craft a compelling proposal or explore innovative finance options.
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Bandwidth is stretched.
You need someone to help design, launch, or manage an initiative.
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The Triple Bottom Line matters.
You want a project to weave environmental, social, and economic benefits for long-term health and resilience.
Where We’ve Made a Difference
Across urban, suburban, and rural settings, here are some of the areas we’ve contributed to.
Climate Action
- Portland Clean Industry Initiative
- City of Hillsboro Neighborhood Retrofit Strategy
- Portland Clean Energy Community Benefit Fund
- Bonneville Environmental Foundation Solar Initiative
Community & Economic Development
- US EDA Triple Bottom Line Tool
- Social Bottom Line Framework for Real Estate Development
- Inclusive & Sustainable Economic Development Strategies
- Land Conservation and Smart Growth Models
Organizational Development & Capacity Building
- Vision, Strategy, and Activation Processes
- Leadership Development Programming
- Capacity Assessments
- Grant Proposals and Reviews
Sustainable Food Systems
- Regional Food System Collaboratives
- Farm Link Programs
- Food Policy
- Community Food Projects
Climate Action
City of Hillsboro / Community Energy Project
Stakeholder engagement and proposal development for a neighborhood retrofit strategy to improve community health, resilience, and prosperity.
Portland Clean Industry Initiative
Assessment & roadmap process to support business transition to clean and community-benefiting practices — including management of an internationally distributed team, research, stakeholder engagement, advisory group, contracts and budgets, and final report.
Bonneville Environmental Foundation
Engaged 100+ stakeholders across multiple states and tribal nations to design and successfully apply for $120+ million for solar and job-creation programs serving low-income communities.
Portland Clean Energy Fund
Helped launch an innovative climate fund investing $100m+ annually — including market study for investment scenarios, grant-making processes, performance measures, and workforce and contractor development initiatives.
Community & Economic Development
Economic Development & Entrepreneurship
Provided research, engagement, and recommendations to the City of Beaverton, Travis County, Business Oregon, Pew Charitable Trusts, Kansas City, and VertueLab — focused on cultivating prosperity in ways that promote environmental and community benefit.
Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Tool
Developed for the US Economic Development Administration a context-responsive tool that helps organizations align investment with social, environmental, and economic goals. Led a nationally distributed team, engaged 400+ stakeholders, and designed and managed research, publications, engagement, training, budgets, and contracts. Field-building contributions include the TBL Tool Practitioner’s Guide, User’s Guide, and Casebook, plus articles in Economic Development Journal and Economic Development Quarterly (one of their most read).
Social Bottom Line Framework
Led an initiative to improve the social dimensions of real estate development — including research, engagement with 100+ stakeholders, development of metrics and frameworks, and publications introducing the social bottom concept, draft framework, and casebook.
Land Conservation & Smart Growth
Contributed to an award-winning model village extension ordinance, award-winning research on land use regulations supportive of agriculture and natural resources, and an interactive game and teacher in-service training about sustainable land use.
Organizational Development & Capacity Building
Sonoma Land Trust
Co-led a vision process including reconnaissance, workshop design, and an activation toolkit to strengthen capacity for successful implementation.
Meyer Memorial Trust
Assessed applicants’ organizational capacity and proposals, and made funding recommendations.
Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber
Led strategic plan process, leadership development, and fundraising efforts.
California Association of Resource Conservation Districts
Evaluated a capacity-building program and provided recommendations.
National Park Service & National Park Foundation
Created a tool for assessing collaborative capacity; built a framework to foster broad engagement in parks; and assessed leadership and capacity-building programs.
Multistakeholder Initiatives
Designed and led multiple engagements that bridged sectors and stakeholders to address important community issues. Field-building contributions include an article in The Journal of Community Development.
Sustainable Food Systems
Regional Food System Collaboratives
Led development of vision, strategy, and action agendas in three states to improve urban and rural communities through sustainable regional food economies.
Community Food Projects
Contributed to development of neighborhood workshops, seasonal guides, and food system assessments.
Farm Link Programs
Led research and engagement to establish programs in three states that help ensure farmland remains in active agricultural production.
Food Policy
Contributed to the creation of a Food Policy Council and co-authored a book chapter on food policy councils.
Field Building
Designed and taught courses on sustainable food systems, facilitated integration of community food system issues into the curricula of 35 courses and placement of 1,000 students in community-based service-learning projects, and published a journal article about integrating food systems into university curricula.
About
Janet Hammer, PhD
Founder, The Collaboratory, LLC
For more than two decades, I’ve partnered with public, private, nonprofit, academic, and philanthropic organizations to envision and create better futures. Many clients come to me through referrals. They value my big-picture thinking paired with sharp attention to detail, clear communication, and genuine commitment to their success.
I’m a pragmatic systems thinker and natural collaborator, grounded in a multi-disciplinary background. These characteristics let me navigate diverse perspectives in ways that help groups bridge people, ideas, and resources — and move toward meaningful impact.
I work on projects small and large, including with groups distributed across organizations and time zones. Depending on what’s needed, I draw on my network of talented professionals to assemble the right team for the project.
Just as important as what we do is how we work. At The Collaboratory, you’re more than a client to us — you’re doing work that matters, and we’re honored to support your efforts.
Education
- PhD, Urban Studies: Multistakeholder Collaboration — Portland State University
- MS, Education, Culture & Ecology — Portland State University
- MS, Energy Management & Policy — University of Pennsylvania
- MCP, City & Regional Planning — University of Pennsylvania
- BS, Environmental Policy Analysis & Planning — University of California, Davis
Trusted Across Sectors and Issues
Curious about our contributions? Here’s a sample of what clients say about our work.
We were developing a community-based initiative and feeling overwhelmed. Janet helped us frame the project goals and strategy, connect with key partners, and navigate detailed grant requirements. We ended up building a fantastic community collaboration with nine organizations.
Robin Straughan
Sustainability & Resilience Manager, City of Hillsboro
Janet shows up as diligent, thoughtful, and deeply knowledgeable. She genuinely cares about bringing people together to tackle challenges, and always rolls up her sleeves to create the space and structure needed to make things happen. Her blend of project-management skills and grounded, practical research makes her a standout collaborator.
Sam Baraso
Director, Portland Clean Energy Fund
I turn to Janet for her sharp analytical skills, thoughtful insights, and collaborative approach. She consistently delivers high-quality work and builds strong, respectful relationships with partners. She’s an exceptional consultant who always exceeds expectations.
Jill Fuglister
Managing Director, Build US
We engaged The Collaboratory to help us pursue an ambitious Federal program. Throughout the process Janet was committed to the vision, timeline, and deliverables. The final product was a successful grant application and a holistic, inclusive program design that gained national recognition. We couldn’t have done it without Janet!
Evan Ramsey
Senior Director, Bonneville Environmental Foundation
Janet is a brilliant systems thinker with a true commitment to addressing root causes and delivering real and lasting solutions. Her findings inspired new strategies for communication, metric evaluation, and community engagement that were instrumental in developing locally responsive initiatives.
Janet Soto Rodriguez
Business Oregon
Working with Janet across several projects, I’ve been consistently grateful for her thought partnership and ability to turn ideas into action. She brings a rare combination of content expertise, thoughtful process design, valuable insight, and deft meeting facilitation — all while managing complex project details with remarkable ease.
Allison Handler
Principal, Travertine Strategies
My experience with Janet Hammer and The Collaboratory was outstanding. She and her team thoughtfully and efficiently synthesized numerous perspectives, and brought direction to our board. It was a pleasure to work with The Collaboratory.
Gustavo Cruz, Jr.
Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce & Prosper Portland
Janet’s thought leadership introduced the Triple Bottom Line concept to the economic development profession. She was on the front lines of a new economy that embraces and measures sustainability because it is smart and profitable to do so.
Dan Gundersen
Former COO, Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority
Get in Touch
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