Each year, approximately 1000 children younger than 14 years [1] and over 400 adolescents (15-19 years of age) [2] are diagnosed with cancer in Canada. The incidence rates of pediatric cancers are slowly increasing, while the mortality rates for these illnesses continue to decrease [3]. Children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer and their families can experience a number of challenges that may include school disruptions, limitations in physical activities, and the need to navigate complex health information [4-6]. Caring for a child living with cancer can be a challenging time, and emotions may be heightened due to a lack of information or misinformation [7]. To equip the broad pediatric oncology community with needed evidence-based information, it is essential that information be shared in ways that are meaningful and accessible to community members [8].

Knowledge mobilization is the overarching term used to describe a number of different research activities that center around deliberate action to make research available and meaningful by creating relationships between knowledge users and the research team [9]. These efforts are intended to improve the quality of the research being conducted and its impact on practice and policy [9]. Part of these activities include efforts to make research findings more accessible to the broader nonacademic audience [9]. Knowledge dissemination activities involve communicating research findings by packaging tailored research results into meaningful messages for targeted audiences [10]. Access to effective evidence-based education has been shown to improve the quality of life for patients and informal caregivers and decrease stress and anxiety [11]. Broadly disseminating information has been shown to impact the knowledge to action pipeline, improving the integration of information to programs and policies [12,13].

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or community-based organizations frequently fill the gaps and combat barriers to accessing vital information and support that cannot be provided for by governmental organizations [14]. In particular, organizations with mandates to serve the pediatric oncology community may be involved in the production of oncology research or serve as valuable knowledge brokers [15]. In addition to linking knowledge producers and knowledge users [16], organizations can serve as knowledge brokers through adapting evidence to unique contexts and disseminating it to their audiences [17]. However, despite the important role nonprofits may play in supporting patients and disseminating pertinent evidence-based information, there is no centralized spot where every organization supporting the pediatric oncology community is known. ACCESS (Advancing Childhood Cancer Experience, Science & Survivorship) [18], a pan-Canadian network for pediatric cancer, was formed to bring people with different roles and backgrounds together for the advancement of childhood cancer experience, science, and survivorship. However, within this network, not every nonprofit organization has been identified. In addition to this, Canada has limited knowledge of how these organizations utilize resources (eg, social media platforms, videos, webinars) for knowledge dissemination activities to inform and support those affected by childhood cancer. Uniting and understanding the key contributions of each organization will help magnify and strengthen knowledge sharing, propelling an increase in the uptake of evidence into practices and policies [9].

Our environmental scan will identify the knowledge mobilization efforts currently underway in Canada for the pediatric oncology community by (1) mapping a current list of nonprofits that serve the pediatric oncology community in Canada, (2) analyzing and describing the ways through which they mobilize knowledge by disseminating information, (3) identifying strengths and gaps in knowledge mobilization efforts throughout the country and potential novel opportunities to increase knowledge mobilization efforts for this population in Canada, and (4) describing a methodology for conducting an environmental scan in this research area through various internet-based sources and unique means of engaging the childhood cancer community and member checking.

An environmental scan will be conducted by our research team, a group of representatives from the pediatric oncology community, including scientists, nonprofit employees, trainees, and people with lived experience, to systematically collect and analyze pediatric oncology organizations in Canada and their knowledge mobilization activities. There are no standard methodological approaches to the design and implementation of environmental scans [19-21]; therefore, our study will employ a novel environmental scan methodology (see Table 1) designed to search the internet to compile an accurate set of nonprofit organizations and knowledge mobilization efforts through a multimodal search strategy. When designing this methodology, our interdisciplinary team developed a comprehensive overview of how patients, families, and those who work in pediatric oncology may look for resources. In keeping with this, our study will involve (1) conducting a comprehensive search of government and nonprofit organizations’ databases, (2) screening results for study eligibility, (3) extracting the data, (4) conducting expert consultations, (5) generating data presentations, and (6) producing a final study report [19]. The updated framework for scoping reviews by Peters et al [22] was used to inform the development of this protocol, along with environmental scan methods identified by Castro et al [19], Choo [21], and Rowel et al [20].

To be eligible for inclusion in this environmental scan, organizations must be a nonprofit organization. Through developing this protocol, we have seen that use of the terms nonprofit, not-for-profit, and charitable organizations are at times used interchangeably, despite their distinct definitions with the Government of Canada [23]. Although the government states that you cannot be a nonprofit and a registered charity, there are still registered charities that identify themselves as nonprofits (eg, some identify themselves as nonprofit organizations with charitable status). To recognize the use of terms both at the government and community-level, our use of the term nonprofit will be to identify organizations that ultimately have a registered charitable number.

Nonprofit organizations identified through our search strategy must meet 3 eligibility criteria. They must be (1) located in Canada, (2) disseminating information and/or resources, and (3) specifically serving the pediatric oncology community (eg, patients, caregivers, health care providers). Organizations may have missions to serve the broad pediatric cancer community or specific childhood cancers. Organizations that do not have a registered charitable number and that are designed for the broader child health community (eg, organizations that address pediatric pain) or the broader cancer community (eg, national organizations that serve all ages of cancer diagnoses) will be excluded. Those who provide information and/or resources to the adolescent and young adult cancer (15-39 years of age) [24] community will be included if their mission statement serves adolescents and targets those younger than 18 years and/or their caregivers. Similarly, organizations that serve survivors of childhood cancer who are young adults (18-39 years of age) [25] or adults will be excluded from this environmental scan. Advocacy groups that do not hold a registered charitable number and serve as social media influencers/digital opinion leaders will be excluded. Separate environmental scans will be needed for these excluded groups.

Knowledge dissemination activities of included nonprofits will be screened to descriptively analyze the efforts undertaken. Activities will be eligible for inclusion if (1) they concern a method of disseminating knowledge (eg, online, in person), (2) they are relevant to the pediatric oncology community in Canada, and (3) the content being shared or discussed involves information concerning the spectrum of cancer care from prevention to end-of-life care and bereavement.

This study will involve conducting a grey-literature search to identify Canadian nonprofit organizations and the different means through which they publicly mobilize knowledge to the pediatric cancer community. Ethics approval will not be required.

Four of the study’s coauthors (CF, SR, KE, and KH) are people with lived experience (eg, have been diagnosed with cancer, provided care for or were a friend to a child diagnosed with cancer). Two of our coauthors are nonprofit partners (JF and PC) representing Leucan and Kids Cancer Care. All of our patient and public partners assisted with the development of the search strategy and provided feedback on the final protocol. CF and SR helped to draft aspects of the manuscript. EKD is the cofounder of #AYACSM (Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Societal Movement), the global adolescent and young adult cancer societal movement community [38].

Conducting this environmental scan will allow us to map and examine the environmental and contextual characteristics of the nonprofits that exist in Canada to serve the pediatric oncology community. Through plotting these organizations, we will gain a richer understanding of the audiences they serve and their locations in Canada. While many organizations offer virtual offerings that serve the Canadian and broader global community, understanding where these organizations are physically situated will allow us to understand which provinces/territories do not have physical proximity to these supports. Understanding the audiences that they serve will allow us data to advocate for knowledge mobilization capacity for stakeholders that may be underserved (eg, Indigenous community members, siblings of childhood cancer survivors, newly arrived immigrants) [20]. While nonprofit organizations play a key role in knowledge brokering [15], understanding the ways through which they disseminate knowledge will allow us to develop knowledge mobilization capacity strategies pertaining to existing mediums of communication and those in need of development and innovation. Anticipated findings will raise awareness of areas for future research [20].

Environmental scans lack clear guidelines and definitions [19,20]. While this allows this type of research to be accessible and flexible, there is a need for clear guidance to assist others who would like to use this methodology to answer questions in their areas of research interest. In addition to making our research protocol accessible for others to use and adapt, we also anticipate outlining each step we take in the final research report along with any deviations to the protocol that may be necessary. While our intent is to provide a rich overview of the information that exists, it is possible that our strategy may fail to capture all the nonprofits that exist for this population in Canada. In addition, while we aim to capture all the included nonprofits’ dissemination activities, it is possible that their websites may not be up to date with their breadth of offerings.

Findings from this environmental scan will allow our team to produce strategies to increase the impact and focus of ACCESS’ current knowledge mobilization efforts in Canada and globally. They will help to inform our prioritization of knowledge mobilization activities for the ACCESS network when considering audiences, languages, and mediums of content dissemination via nonprofits. These may include (1) social media communication using short videos, infographics, and text content on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and other social media platforms using hashtags and digital opinion leader accounts to enhance reach/visibility; (2) communication packages such as pamphlets, posters, newsletters, and infographics; (3) podcasts and webinars hosted with ACCESS and other partners; (4) conference presentations; and (5) open access academic knowledge dissemination of the environmental scan protocol and findings.

The internet is flux with information of varying degrees of quality and educational content [39]. Nonprofit organizations can play a key role in knowledge production and brokerage. However, a comprehensive map of the nonprofit pediatric oncology organizational landscape does not exist in Canada despite the importance of these organizations in knowledge mobilization. This environmental scan will shed light on the characteristics of these nonprofit organizations. By identifying their means of disseminating knowledge, we will be able to map resources that exist alongside highlighting gaps and opportunities to be considered when developing the knowledge mobilization capacity for our country. The methodology outlined in this protocol will allow us to address our study’s research objectives while also explicating steps that others can take should they wish to adopt our methodology for their environmental scan context.