Together with Engage R+D and in partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Informing Change has prepared this field brief, Reimagining Learning & Evaluation: A Field Brief for Crisis and Transformation. Over the past decade, philanthropy has made significant strides in advancing culturally responsive and equitable learning and evaluation (L&E) practices. Foundations have increasingly embraced relationship-centered approaches, community-driven evaluation, and more responsive reporting practices that prioritize meaningful learning over compliance. These gains represent years of intentional work to shift power dynamics and center equity in philanthropic practice from noteworthy groups such as the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, the Trust-based Philanthropy Project, and Expanding the Bench.

To better understand how foundations are navigating this evolving landscape, we interviewed national and regional funders about their experiences leveraging equity-centered L&E during these uncertain times. This brief elevates some of the tensions in philanthropy and the implications for learning and evaluation. It serves as an invitation to explore what’s needed and what it will take not just to preserve but to strengthen the gains we have collectively made in culturally responsive and equitable evaluation practices in the years to come.

This brief was prepared by the following:

Engage R+D

• Sonia Taddy-Sandino, Co-Executive Director
• Pilar Mendoza, Director
• Meghan Hunt, Senior Consultant

Informing Change

• Michael P. Arnold, PhD, MSW, MPH, Partner & Executive Director
• Omar Alcover-Firpi, Associate Director
• Evan Gattozzi, Senior Project Manager
• Emily Medica, Research Assistant