The Stanford Impact Labs Evidence for Change fellowship is a nine-month fellowship program for California-based nonprofit organizations working for social change that want to invest in using data and evidence to drive the impact of their programs or advocacy efforts.
Donor Name: Stanford Impact Labs
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Fellowship
Deadline: 05/31/2023
Size of the Grant: $50,000
Grant Duration: 9 months
Details:
Stanford Impact Labs is delighted to announce, and begin accepting applications for, our brand-new Evidence for Change fellowship. If you are a California-based nonprofit organization working for social change, this fellowship will help you:
- identify how data and evidence can serve your organization
- develop a plan for using data and evidence to meet your learning goals
- take steps to put that plan into action
- connect with a cohort of organizations also putting evidence to use in the social sector.
The fellowship focuses on building capacity and strengthening systems for organizations that are using (or are poised to use) data and evidence to design and improve advocacy, programs, and services; more deeply understand and call out community needs; and/or learn about the impact of their efforts.
The fellowship kicks off with a three-day in-person workshop at Stanford University designed to help Fellows identify their organization’s learning goals and develop a plan for how to gather, analyze, and use the evidence they need to meet these goals. Over the subsequent months, Fellows operationalize their evidence plans, meeting regularly with Stanford Impact Labs (SIL) staff for technical advice and troubleshooting support. For Fellows who would like to partner with scholars to implement their plan, SIL helps facilitate connections with faculty and/or graduate students and advises on potential funding opportunities.
The fellowship culminates in a two-day in-person cohort gathering at Stanford University to share learnings and explore best practices for communicating about, and institutionalizing, evidence and data into practices.
During the nine-month program, participants gather for cohort workshops, receive mentorship, and are granted $50,000 in funding to support their organizational efforts.
What Applicants Bring to the Fellowship
- The fellowship was designed for organizations of all sizes working for social change in California. Your efforts might focus on service or program delivery, community-building, or advocacy – or, most likely, a combination of all three. Any nonprofit or community-based organization with 501(c)(3) status can apply. They will prioritize applications from organizations that are led by, and embedded within, the communities they support.
- The fellowship is intended for an organization rather than a specific individual. They welcome participation at different stages of the fellowship from a range of team members. The fellowship begins with an onboarding conversation with each accepted organization to distill your goals and help identify who among your team is best positioned to attend the workshops.
- The fellowship is designed for organizations that want to invest in using data and evidence to drive the impact of their programs or campaigns. They expect organizations will come to the fellowship at varying stages in their evidence journey. You may already be collecting programmatic or financial data organically (or to meet external demands) and are looking to streamline this process so the data you collect matches what you want to learn. Or you may be new to data collection and looking for new skills, best practices, and frameworks to get started.
- You may be applying for the fellowship with a specific data project in mind, or you may be interested in exploring possibilities around how data and evidence could support your work more broadly. For some, this might mean collecting new evidence. For others, it might mean developing frameworks to use existing data. They hope that the peer-based workshopping and tailored one-on-one mentorship will ensure that the fellowship is responsive to a variety of needs.
For more information, visit Stanford Impact Labs.
