Introduction

Nonprofit organizations often struggle to fund impact measurement activities, formally gather participant feedback, experiment with program designs, or know how best to evaluate their programs. Additionally, they are often pressured by requests to demonstrate impact or collect data but are rarely provided flexible financial resources by funders to do so in ways that benefit their goals.

The GitLab Foundation launched the annual Learning for Action Fund in June 2024 to address these issues and increase our grantees’ capacity to deepen their impact measurement, learning, experimentation, and feedback activities. This aligns with our philosophy that greater investments in evidence-building and feedback activities lead to more effective programs. Ultimately, our grantee’s participants directly benefit from these improved services, increasing their opportunities for income growth, living-wage jobs, and financial stability.

1. 2025 Fund Overview:

  1. Total Fund Size: $500,000
  2. Grant Amount: Grantees may request between $5,000 to $50,000 for learning for action projects
  3. Number of Awards: 10-15 grant awards (depending on the grant amounts awarded)
    1. $5,000 - $25,000 = 8-10 grants available
    2. $25,001 - $50,000 = 4-6 grants available
  4. Additional Benefits:
    1. 1:1 Coaching and Advisory Services: All grant awardees can access three coaching sessions with one of our two partners, Feedback Labs or Project Evident
    2. Quarterly Cohort Learning Sessions: Learn from other organizations facing similar impact measurement and participant feedback challenges

2. Grant Eligibility

  1. Only GitLab Foundation grantees with an active grant contract that has an effective date before August 1, 2025, are eligible.
    1. For current or future grantees who are not awarded grants, there may be future opportunities to secure learning for action funding in 2026 or through alternative capacity-building funding options.
    2. Please note: Learning for Action projects are not a requirement for receiving current or future funding from the Foundation.
  2. Grantees that were awarded Learning for Action grants in 2024 are not eligible to receive grants for this 2025 funding cycle. As the grant fund grows in the future, there may be opportunities for follow-on funding for the 2024 cohort grantees.

3. Grant Use Restrictions and FAQs

  1. The funds must be used for learning activities where the potential results or insights could unlock significant program changes or funding opportunities.
  2. The fund focuses on learning for action! Action is defined in two ways:
    1. Program Improvements - the learnings lead to changes in program or service design that result in improved outcomes for the organization’s participants
    2. Receiving Additional Funding - the learnings build more evidence on the effectiveness of the organization’s programs, which unlocks new funding
  3. Learning activities may include, but are not limited to:
    1. Outcome measurement studies
    2. Impact evaluations from third-party consultants/researchers
    3. Needs assessments
    4. Participant feedback activities
    5. Data collection infrastructure improvements (or systems to aggregate and track impact data from multiple sources over time)
    6. Qualitative or quantitative methods
    7. Experimentation - A/B testing, lean randomized control trial
  4. Can this grant project be combined with other sources of funding?
    1. Yes, this grant can be combined with other funding sources to support a higher-cost learning project
  5. Can this grant only be used for technology, or can it be applied to cover personnel costs?
    1. This grant can support personnel time spent on learning-for-action activities. Often, nonprofit organizations may have enough data but struggle to allocate staff time to analyze and gain insights from it. The applicant must be specific in connecting the grant use to increased learning and potential programmatic changes that result from those learnings.
  6. Can this grant only be used for learning projects based in GitLab Foundation’s priority countries?
    1. Yes, the grant activities should focus on improving the livelihoods of participants based in the United States, Colombia, or Kenya.
  7. Can the grant be used to fund overhead and staffing costs?
    1. Yes, but the large majority of the award should be devoted to the implementation of the project. For universities and other academic institutions, overhead expenses should be limited to 10% of the total budget or less. This maximum rate applies to the primary grantee, sub-grantees, and sub-contracts.

4. Timeline:

5. Factors That Determine Grant Award Selection

  1. Learning Questions: What will this grant enable you to learn? What learning questions do you hope to answer or hypotheses you plan to test?
  2. Impact Potential: How will this learning grant improve the effectiveness or impact of your programs? For example, will the insights generated lead to reaching more people per year or improving program outcomes? (such as job placement or program completion rates)
  3. Future Funding Opportunities: Will the learnings from this grant improve your ability to attract additional funding? (For example, by improving the way your organization can communicate its impact) If so, please be specific in the ways this could lead to additional funding. Do you have specific audiences or funders in mind?
  4. Timeliness: Why is this project important now? How will it contribute to organizational goals?
  5. Community Engagement: Will this grant enable you to listen, learn from, and amplify the perspectives of your participants or their communities? If so, how?
  6. Impact Measurement Systems: Will this grant be used to improve impact measurement or data collection systems or infrastructure? If so, will your organization be able to benefit from this grant beyond the grant period of one year?
  7. Budget Allocation Plan: Please list how the grant amount will be allocated. Do you intend to engage any vendors? Please provide details.
  8. Learnings for Action: How will the learnings from this grant lead to action within your organization? Are organization leaders aligned with the goals of this grant?

6. Application, Review, and Award Process**:**

  1. Preparing to Apply for the Fund
    1. July 1st, 2025 - Application Portal Opens - (Only GitLab Foundation Grantees Are Eligible)
      1. This includes any grantee that has received a grant from GitLab Foundation and any future grantee that has been approved for a grant before August 1, 2025.
    2. Please browse our list of featured feedback tools, vendors, and consultants!
      1. This list includes vendors that we have prior experience working with or have been recommended by our grantees
      2. These vendors are not required to be used, but we are happy to introduce grantees to these vendors
    3. Optionally, interested applicants can email [email protected] to describe initial ideas for these funds. GitLab Foundation staff will respond via email with any suggestions to improve the application before it is submitted.
      1. GitLab Foundation can learn more about the potential project and clarify any questions
      2. Provide strategic feedback on project ideas
      3. Identify how the impact measurement or learning grant will lead to a greater impact for program participants
      4. Refer interested applicants to an impact measurement and feedback advisory meeting with Project Evident or Feedback Labs
    4. July 17th, 2025 - Come join our kickoff webinar!
      1. REGISTER HERE (for GitLab Foundation grantees only)
  2. Submit Applications by Midnight PT, Tuesday, August 19th
  3. Review Applications August 20th - September 12th
    1. After applications are submitted by August 19th, 2025, the Learning for Action advisory committee will review applications and score them based on a rubric that is centered on the core factors.
    2. The grant awards will be announced on September 19th, 2025.

7. Grant Reporting

  1. At 6 months:
    1. The GitLab Foundation impact measurement team may check in with grantees 6 months after the grant award to discuss any preliminary learnings or insights
  2. At 12 months:
    1. Complete a brief impact report due 60 days after the one-year anniversary of the grant (<5 questions)
    2. Share any materials that were produced with the grant (e.g., research summary, needs assessment report, impact evaluation report, etc)
    3. Impact report questions may include:
      1. What were the primary learnings generated from this grant?
      2. What actions were taken due to these learnings?
      3. Did this learning grant contribute to securing additional funding?
      4. How have your programs changed or improved due to the learnings generated by this grant?

8. Learning for Action Fund Advisory Committee