FY26 Annual Goals

February 1, 2025-January 31, 2026

Approved by Board: December 2024

Overarching goal (North Star): Achieve an impact of >$100 in lifetime earnings increase per dollar spent, or <$1000 to double income for life.

Executive

Reach higher: Extend our impact by finding, seeding, and organizing additional donors around >100X or <$1000DIL projects to drive >$4B in increased lifetime earnings.

DRI: President & CEO

Key Results

  1. Develop and receive board approval of a three-year organizational strategic plan, including evaluation of organizational structure and capacity needs covering various growth scenarios
  2. Engage with the GitLab board (quarterly touchpoints), GitLab team members (monthly touchpoints), and Sid and Karen Sijbrandij (monthly touchpoints) to drive awareness, pride, and support for the Foundation’s ongoing work
  3. Raise $20M+ in co-funding or direct investment from other funders to extend our impact
  4. Launch modeling & measurement advisory services and onboard 3+ customers
  5. Build our longitudinal wage tracking capability in order to measure our ROI and impact over longer terms

Measurement

Improve precision and insight: enhance modeling, learning, and long-term impact measurement to drive more strategic investment decisions and influence the sector

DRI: Director of Impact Measurement and Analytics

Key Results

  1. Expand the longitudinal impact tracking measurement strategy to validate how we impact lifetime earnings by:
    1. Partnering with 2+ organizations
    2. Increasing reporting periods to three or more years with 5+ grantees
    3. Support 3+ grantees to collect longer-term income data from their participants
  2. Launch a formal funder advisory service
    1. Providing fee-for-service ROI modeling for 2+ funders
    2. Developing new branded assets and processes
    3. Delivering high-quality, timely services to clients
  3. Elevate our learning process with the approval of programs and leadership team to sharpen our investment strategy through:
    1. Increasing discipline in our learning process and feedback loops across internal teams and grantees by hosting six learning sessions over the year
    2. Conducting results-driven analytics to publish 2+ reports, identify the leading indicators that predict success or failure
    3. Identifying qualitative insights across 3 RFP thesis areas (Green Jobs, AI for Economic Opportunity, and Learning for Action Fund)
  4. Improve the validity of our ROI models to ensure they are a sector-leading methodology by:
    1. Accessing or building higher-quality U.S., Kenya, and Colombia income datasets
    2. Launching an Impact Modeling Advisory Committee
    3. Partnering with subject matter experts to audit select models
    4. Auditing our ROI methodology by a 3rd party firm
  5. Expand the foundation’s support for impact measurement capacity building by:
    1. Implementing improvements as recommended from the FY25 L4AF retrospective
    2. Launching Year 2 of the Learning for Action Fund
    3. Building upon the success of the Year 1 Learning for Action Fund to collaborate with 2+ funders in producing a capacity-building best practices guide

Programs

Optimize our grant portfolio to achieve higher outcomes than FY25 and deliver systems change through a more collaborative and market-informed grantmaking approach.

DRI: Sr. Program Director

Key Results:

  1. Define 3 >1000X systems change initiatives that will shape our renewal strategy informed by market research and outcomes from portfolio to date.
  2. Consistently implement, as demonstrated by grantmaking activities, a strategy structure across each market that includes target industry sectors, populations, intervention types, structured operating models, and specific systems change targets.
  3. Work with Partnerships team to secure $15M in follow-on and shared funding for our portfolio.
  4. Insights from first grant cycle reports combined with market research drives grant renewal selection and portfolio structure for FY26, increasing average portfolio outcomes through scaling and systems change grants.

Partnerships

Deploy a partnerships-first grantmaking approach, developing organizational infrastructure and relationships with key philanthropic investors to raise $14M+ in leveraged funds.

DRI: Chief Programs and Partnerships Officer

Key Results

  1. As part of the 3-year strategic plan, develop and execute an Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) Donor Strategy.
  2. Develop new funder community to build systems change partnerships with 3+ co-investors for a combined $4M in collaborative funding.
  3. Incentivize partnerships to scale successful laboratory projects through a matching contribution requirement to reach at least $10M in matched funds (1:1)
  4. Raise internal awareness and support of GitLab Foundation with GitLab Inc, as measured by same-level or increased GitLab Inc approved funding for FY27, by collaborating with communications, ESG, and DIB teams to support their goals.