A public version of our three-year strategic plan is forthcoming. GTLF Team members can click here to access our Strategic Plan!

Maximizing Our Impact

Since launching GitLab Foundation, we’ve built significant momentum around a clear vision - creating economic mobility by improving lifetime earnings. We believe philanthropy should be as outcomes-driven as any other investment. That’s why we measure our work not by dollars granted, but by the long-term economic gains of the people we support. Through strategic grantmaking, partnerships, and rigorous impact measurement, we are achieving results at scale.

Our early successes have not only validated our approach but also created a launchpad for greater impact and influence. Now is the time to build on our momentum, setting ambitious new goals for the GitLab Foundation’s growth, leveraging market interest in our approach, and deepening collaboration with other funders.

Impact To-Date 26 grants completed → $1.1B in lifetime earnings for 214,000 people
Total Grants Awarded 113 grants, $34.8M invested
Return on Investment **Current:** 122X average ROI
Projected: 709X predicted ROI (86 in-process grants)
Partnerships >$11.65M in co-investment secured

Dashboards updated as of Mar 1, 2025

Given our core mission of improving people’s lifetime earnings through access to opportunities, we see a unique opportunity to expand our work in ways that enhance both our grantmaking and our role as a change agent in the sector. Through our recent strategic planning process, we have identified a path to significantly grow our impact, continuing to allocate our own capital to the highest impact projects while influencing others to do the same. By doing so, we see a path to generate $25B in cumulative lifetime earnings by the end of FY28.

Expanding Our Role

To fulfill our mission at a greater scale, we aim to:

  1. Continue being the most effective ROI-focused, risk-tolerant, and collaborative grantmaker
  2. Inspire new donors to deploy capital to our high-impact investments
  3. Lead an outcomes-focused philanthropy movement

Our Three-Year Goals

By the end of January 2028, our high-impact projects, achieving or surpassing 100X NSROI, will have driven at least $25B in cumulative lifetime earnings for 1 million people globally while catalyzing a sector-wide shift toward outcomes-oriented philanthropy. This will be accomplished through:

  1. High-Impact Grantmaking: Deploying at least $100M in additional grants, while investing in approaches to reach 1000X impact
  2. Inspiring Donors: Motivating new, values-aligned donors to bring at least $25M in capital off the sidelines and directly invest in GTLF’s innovative approach
  3. Co-Investing: Mobilizing at least $100M in co-investment capital from partner foundations
  4. Influencing the Sector: Driving at least $300M in philanthropic giving toward high-impact investments by equipping funders with SROI-based tools and supports

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