MAIN DEFINITIONS

Funder: A person or institution that provides money to support nonprofit work. Often includes foundations, donor-advised funds, corporations, or wealthy individuals.

Co-funder/co-funding: A funder who contributes money alongside GitLab Foundation to support shared projects or collaborative funds.

• Example: Family and Workers Fund, Ballmer Group, OpenAI

RFP (Request for Proposals): A public invitation for organizations to apply for funding around a specific theme or priority.

• Foundations issue RFPs to solicit strong, comparable proposals.

MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): A formal agreement outlining roles, contributions, or commitments between two or more partners.

• Often used before final contracts are signed.

GRANTS

Grant: A financial award given to a nonprofit or organization to support a project aligned with a foundation’s mission.

Grantmaking: The process of evaluating, selecting, funding, and monitoring grants across their full lifecycle.

Laboratory Grant (Lab Grant): A smaller, early-stage grant used to test a new idea or approach before deciding whether to scale it.

Scaling Grant: A larger follow-on investment provided to organizations that have proven strong early results.

Systems Change Grant: A grant aimed at shifting how an entire system operates, such as data standards or national workforce infrastructure.

MODELING & MEASUREMENT

North Star ROI: GitLab Foundation’s core metric showing lifetime income gains produced for every dollar invested.  A benefit/cost ratio that is the total estimated increased lifetime earnings divided by the full cost of the Foundation’s grant. We seek to make investments that generate at least $100 in additional lifetime earnings for every $1 spent by the Foundation.

Relative Income Change - DIL (Double Income for Life) The total cost of the Foundation’s grant divided by the total percentage change in income of grantee’s participants. We seek to make investments that can increase the annual income of their participants by 100% for 1,000 or less per person.

Attribution: Determining how much of the measurable outcome can be credited directly to our funding versus others.

SROI (Social Return on Investment): A broader measure that includes qualitative or harder-to-measure social value, unlike NSROI which focuses on income.

Funder Collaborative: A group of funders that pool or coordinate resources to advance a shared problem area or initiative.