Learning, Evaluation & Data (LEAD) Impact Group

Information is the inspiration.

Learning, Evaluation & Data (LEAD) Impact Group

To ensure continuous progress with our nonprofit and community partners, we encourage Grantmakers for Education members and primary stakeholders to employ data, research and evaluation to improve their philanthropic practice, policies and strategies. Members should collect, interpret, value and act on educational data at every possible touchpoint, cradle to career.

LEAD Impact Group is structured as a virtual learning community with quarterly discussions accommodating multiple goals.

Impact Group Goals

  • Share learnings from our current investments, including best practices, challenges and questions for group problem-solving.
  • Discuss evaluation and learning strategies to generate information and insights that help us understand how we’re doing and how to improve.
  • Share tools and methodologies to increase understanding of data through visualization, storytelling and active engagement with stakeholders.
  • Provide leadership for our signature Fellows program, including identifying research priorities for LEAD as well as providing the infrastructure for the broader EdFunders community.

Summer Research Fellows Program

Launched in 2019, the Summer Research Fellows Program is a partnership between the LEAD impact group and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). The annual program’s purpose is to provide Grantmakers for Education members with the opportunity to have a research question answered by an educational researcher.

The application period for 2024 closes on April 30 – learn more here.

Join Us

All EdFunders members are invited to join the Learning, Evaluation & Data Impact Group. Financial support from impact group members is encouraged, but not required, to help support the fellows program infrastructure.

Learn more by contacting the cochairs, Chelsea Koproske (chelsea.koproske[at]gatesfoundation[dot]org) and Kimberly Lent Morales (klentmorales[at]helios[dot]org).

Group Co-Chairs

Chelsea Koproske

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Kimberly Lent Morales

Helios Education Foundation

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