Center for Digital Thriving

What Center for Digital Thriving does

The Center for Digital Thriving is a non-profit research and innovation center based at Project Zero within Harvard Graduate School of Education. It produces research-based resources, frameworks, and professional development programs aimed at helping young people develop digital agency and well-being in technology-saturated environments. The organization serves five primary segments: youth (adolescents and young people), educators (K-12 teachers, counselors, administrators), parents and caregivers, policymakers, and technology creators and designers. Its core offerings include the 8 Mindshifts for Teaching Digital Well-being (a 12-hour self-paced online course for educators), the AI Explorers' Club, the Imagine AI Portfolio, the Youth Voice Playbook (co-developed with Hopelab, Character Lab, and In Tandem), the annual Digital Thriving Fellows Program, and free resources on topics including Thinking Traps, Design Tricks, and Grind Culture. The Center also conducts research through a Listening Tour initiative and is structured around a Digital Agency framework and a "critical optimism" methodology that addresses both harms and benefits of technology.

The Center's revenue model is primarily non-profit and grant-funded, with founding grants from the Susan Crown Exchange and Pivotal Ventures (a Melinda French Gates Company). Secondary revenue derives from course fees for the 8 Mindshifts PD program, which offers group discounts for organizations of 9 or more participants and periodic no-cost enrollment through funding support. The organization distributes its resources through a Harvard-hosted website, ConvertKit newsletter, social media channels (X, Instagram, LinkedIn), YouTube, and partner platforms including Common Sense Education and KQED. Its go-to-market is community-led and event-driven, leveraging academic credibility, the Harvard brand, and partnerships to reach its audience.

Name

Center for Digital Thriving

Legal name

Center for Digital Thriving

Website

https://digitalthriving.gse.harvard.edu

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Center for Digital Thriving is a non-profit research center at Harvard Graduate School of Education that produces research-backed resources, educator professional development courses, and frameworks to help youth, educators, parents, and policymakers navigate digital well-being and digital agency.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Research Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Computer Training (61142), Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYEDAAAEAE

Digital Skills & Tech Upskilling (Noncredit)

Education/Adult & Continuing Education/Continuing Education (Noncredit) & Lifelong Learning Programs

SECONDARYEDAAAIAJ

AI & Emerging Technology Literacy

Education/Adult & Continuing Education/Digital Literacy & Technology Skills for Adults

SECONDARYEDAJAMAA

Learning Management Systems (LMS) & Digital Classrooms

Education/K–12 / Primary & Secondary Education/K–12 Educational Technology Solutions

SECONDARYEDAAAIAI

Data & Information Literacy (Search, Evaluation, Misinformation)

Education/Adult & Continuing Education/Digital Literacy & Technology Skills for Adults

Keywords

• Digital wellbeing research
• Youth technology education
• Educator professional development
• Media literacy curriculum
• Digital citizenship training

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants and Philanthropic Funding: The Center is funded through generous founding grants from Susan Crown Exchange and Pivotal Ventures (a Melinda French Gates Company). As a research center at Harvard Graduate School of Education, the organization operates as a non-profit and relies on grant funding for operations.
2. Professional Development Course Fees: The 8 Mindshifts for Teaching Digital Well-being course is offered as self-paced professional development for educators, with group discounts available for 9+ participants. Some no-cost enrollment opportunities are available through funding support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Center for Digital Thriving is a research and innovation center at Harvard Graduate School of Education (Project Zero) that produces research-based educational resources, professional development courses, and frameworks to help people — especially youth — thrive in a technology-filled world. Its core deliverable is the 12-hour self-paced 8 Mindshifts for Teaching Digital Well-being course for educators, supplemented by free resource libraries (Youth Voice Playbook, Thinking Traps, Design Tricks), the annual Digital Thriving Fellows Program, the Imagine AI portfolio, and the AI Explorers' Club.

Product overview

The Center for Digital Thriving is a research and innovation center at Harvard Graduate School of Education (Project Zero) that produces educational resources, professional development programs, and research-based materials. The portfolio includes two primary educator professional development courses (8 Mindshifts for Teaching Digital Well-being and AI Explorers' Club), the Imagine AI research portfolio, the collaborative Youth Voice Playbook (produced with Hopelab and Character Lab), the annual Digital Thriving Fellows Program, and a suite of free digital resources covering Thinking Traps, Design Tricks, Tech Habits, and Grind Culture. The Center also conducts research through its Listening Tour initiative and promotes a Digital Agency framework. All offerings are research-based resources for educators, parents, policymakers, and researchers focused on helping youth thrive in a technology-filled world—no commercial software products or APIs are offered.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 8 Mindshifts for Teaching Digital Well-being A self-paced 12-hour professional development course for K-12 educators teaching digital well-being, digital citizenship, or media literacy. The course provides eight enduring mindshifts to help educators move from a 'referee' to a 'coach' stance with students and now includes integrated generative AI content. Delivered through Harvard's enrollment system with a certificate of completion and group discounts for 9+ participants.
• AI Explorers' Club Educator professional development focused on helping teachers explore AI concepts and applications with youth, supporting digital well-being in an AI-filled world through multimodal AI-related topics and classroom practices.
• Imagine AI Portfolio An AI-focused portfolio of research and resources exploring how people can find hope and digital agency in relation to artificial intelligence, including free resources for exploring AI in classroom settings. Co-led by Dr. Beck Tench.
• Youth Voice Playbook: Engaging Youth in Research A free, interactive guide for researchers on youth advisory and engagement, produced in collaboration with Hopelab, Character Lab, and In Tandem. Contains nine chapters covering planning, ethics, budgets, recruitment, activities, facilitation, documentation, sensemaking, and closing/sharing.
• Digital Thriving Fellows Program An annual fellowship supporting 3-4 researchers, educators, practitioners, and creatives shaping possibilities for digital life with young people at the center. Fellows join a community of practice, participate in monthly virtual cohort meetings, gather in-person in Cambridge, and publicly share their work through presentations and resources.

Quantifiable outcome

• The Youth Voice Playbook is freely available and used by researchers, nonprofits, and institutions to engage youth in research
• +1 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Common Sense EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-developed ready-to-use lessons and activities on digital well-being and media literacy. Joint lesson plans on Thinking Traps, Design Tricks, and Grind Culture freely available through Common Sense Education platform.
• HopelabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-created the Youth Voice Playbook: Engaging Youth in Research, a free resource for researchers wanting to build youth voice into their work. Collaborated on national surveys about youth social media use and mental health.
• Character LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-created the Youth Voice Playbook. Character Lab's CLIP program provides teen advisors who reviewed and contributed feedback to the Playbook. Joint work on youth engagement methodologies.
• In TandemcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-created the Youth Voice Playbook as part of the four-organization collaboration. In Tandem specializes in facilitating youth engagement in design processes.
• KQEDminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-created and co-produced educational videos on thinking traps and design tricks with the education team at KQED, a public media organization.
• Common Sense MediacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on the national study 'Unpacking Grind Culture in American Teens: Pressure, Burnout, and the Role of Social Media' developed with the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. Joint research and media coverage including The Today Show.
• Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partner on the Grind Culture national study examining pressures teens face, burnout impact, and the role of social media in adolescent well-being.
• Project Zero at Harvard Graduate School of EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Center is based at Project Zero, a research group at Harvard GSE known for thinking routines and deep learning research. Provides academic institutional home and research collaboration opportunities.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Common Sense Media: The leading nonprofit focused on media and technology for families, with overlapping digital well-being, media literacy, and AI safety education missions. The Center has co-developed resources with Common Sense Education (its K-12 arm) and partnered on national research, making it a closely aligned direct peer.
• iKeepSafe: A nonprofit providing digital citizenship, safety, and privacy education resources for schools and families. Operates in the same digital well-being space with overlapping K-12 educator resources and curriculum products.
• Media Education Foundation: A nonprofit producing media literacy educational films and curricula. Shares the Center's mission of building critical understanding of media and technology, particularly for educators and students, and operates a similar nonprofit grant-funded model.
• Cyberbullying Research Center: An academic research center producing evidence-based resources on youth online safety and digital well-being. Comparable in structure (research-led, grant-funded, resource-producing) and overlapping in topic area around harmful technology design and youth outcomes.
• Common Sense Education: The K-12 curriculum arm of Common Sense Media that co-developed lesson plans on Thinking Traps, Design Tricks, and Grind Culture with the Center. They serve the same K-12 educator audience with complementary digital well-being resources.

Emerging players

• Character Lab: A research partner that co-created the Youth Voice Playbook with the Center. Operates an adjacent youth development research mission with overlapping interest in adolescent well-being and applied school-based research.
• Design It For Us: A youth-led advocacy organization focused on safer technology design for young people. Comparable mission around mitigating harms of technology platforms, though focused on advocacy rather than curriculum and research.
• Hopelab: A social innovation lab focused on the well-being of young people, particularly through technology. A direct research partner on the Youth Voice Playbook and national youth social media surveys, with overlapping digital well-being research scope.
• Cyber Civics: A digital citizenship curriculum provider for middle and high school students. Operates in the same K-12 digital well-being and citizenship education market with similar educator-facing curriculum products.

Broad incumbents

• Project Zero: The parent research organization at Harvard Graduate School of Education where the Center is housed. While broader in research scope (thinking routines, deep learning), it shares institutional home, research methodologies, and academic positioning.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Digi_Thriving
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/center-for-digital-thriving
• Instagraminstagram.com/centerfordigitalthriving
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@CenterforDigitalThriving

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Center for Digital Thriving