WorkRise is pleased to announce a request for proposals for pilot projects that test and evaluate public- and private-sector interventions designed to improve the economic mobility of low-wage workers.
Donor Name: WorkRise
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 04/08/2022
Size of the Grant: $500,000
Details:
The WorkRise funds scholars and practitioners on the frontiers of understanding and improving economic mobility in the US labor force, particularly mobility for workers in low-wage jobs, people of color, women, early-career workers, workers with disabilities, unemployed and underemployed people, and other historically disadvantaged segments of the labor force. For this RFP, they seek proposals for rigorously designed pilot studies. Projects that engage a diverse set of researchers, including scholars from under-resourced and traditionally underrepresented organizations and institutions, are strongly encouraged. The WorkRise will prioritize pilots that:
- leverage technology, data science, and machine learning to improve job search, hiring, or training;
- improve job quality standards, especially at small- and medium-sized enterprises;
- create alternative pathways into high-wage industries;
- reskill workers at risk for displacement;
- close digital skills gaps and the digital divide in support of worker economic mobility; or
- bolster economic security embedded in employment and training contexts.
Funding Criteria
- Relevance: WorkRise’s research agenda is dedicated to surfacing innovative approaches to advance key economic mobility outcomes for people in and people seeking to join the US labor force.
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Rigor: WorkRise is committed to supporting projects that generate compelling findings that can withstand independent scrutiny and peer review.
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Impact: WorkRise’s goal is to fund research that removes knowledge barriers and accelerates innovation and action by key stakeholders in the labor market.
Funding Information
They typically will consider project budgets up to $500,000, though smaller budget requests are strongly encouraged.
Supported Activities
The majority of WorkRise funds should be used for research, data collection, evaluation, and communication. A small portion of funds may be used for program or operation support that strengthens the evaluation, such as funding a specific treatment arm, offering incentives to program participants, or compensating program staff for a time supporting evaluation activities like providing administrative data. Organizations and interventions that rely exclusively on WorkRise funding for operating support will not be considered, nor will projects that use WorkRise funds for restricted activities such as lobbying. Although we will fund pilots of interventions at for-profit comp
Eligibility Criteria
- WorkRise is only accepting submissions for pilots of interventions in the United States.
- Pilots must include a partnership between a research team and one or more practitioners, employers, or policymakers. The research team may be housed inside the institution hosting the intervention (e.g., a nonprofit with an in-house research arm and a policy or practice arm) or at an outside institution (e.g., a university or research organization). However, researchers must have the independence to publish their results, regardless of findings, in a manner transparent to outside audiences.
- The institution implementing the intervention may include one or more employers, service providers (nonprofit or forprofit), unions or worker centers, advocacy organizations, or government agencies (local, state, or federal). For example, a nonprofit could partner with a group of regional employers to test a new service offered in a workplace setting, with evaluation performed by a university-based researcher. Or a research organization could partner with a local government piloting a new program targeted at workers in a priority industry, with recruitment performed by a union.
For more information, visit WorkRise 2022 Pilot Projects.
