by people

for people

Leading people-powered research with behavior science insights.

exploring the human condition to answer complex social questions

exploring the human condition to answer complex social questions

Our Approach

We journey through the layers of the human condition to understand how people behave in a given social context. We explore the facts of people’s lives, their lived experiences and the meaning they make of them, their emergent mindsets and related identities, and the values they hold that can produce contradictions in their behaviors.

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How We Work

Shape Ideas & Secure Funding

Hand in hand, we…

  • Redefine social problems

  • Explore research questions

  • Clarify learning goals

  • Translate ideas into fundable proposals

Community-Based Research

Organizational Reflection

We support internal learning and strategy through a structured revisiting of:

  • Mission and values

  • Theories of change

  • Training needs and technical gaps

In English and in Spanish, we lead…

  • Landscape analyses

  • Community needs assessments

  • Policy and program co-designs

  • Evaluations

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Questions we have helped answer…

  • What would banking look like if it aligned with the needs and realities of low-income rural and urban communities?

    Report

  • What would a cash delivery housing program look like if youth experiencing homelessness designed it?

    Report

  • What would a tax filing messaging campaign look and sound like if the labor of immigrants were valued?

    Project Site

  • What would post-pandemic financial relief look like if the unique plight of low-income women of color were understood?

    Report

  • How would the identities of low-income children and youth of color be transformed if they were no longer in survival mode?

    Report

  • What if the rise of AI is an opportunity to reconnect with all that makes us human?

    Article
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Partners | Funders | Co-Explorers

CABEI

Chapin Hall

City of New York

City of Oakland

City of San Francisco

County of Los Angeles

Dr. Yum Project

Fraser Communications

Gates Foundation

Golden State Opportunity

Google.org

Hispanic Federation

Local London

Roosevelt Institute

SEIU

State of California

State of Georgia

Tides Foundation

UC Berkeley

World Bank

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Meet the Founder

Dr. Raúl Chávez in 2013 traded in a career in public service to pursue a PhD in social psychology and social policy. The dream—to meet people where they are and explore their life stories as a means to designing effective and human-centered solutions.

His work—spanning 25 US states and over a dozen countries—has helped NGOs, IGOs, foundations, public agencies, and private companies gain a behavior-centered understanding of the people they serve.

He founded Throughline Research in 2013 to delve into the human experiences shaping our world.

Work With Us
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