If there are additional outcomes that we ask our grantees to measure, and if collecting those metrics is outside of the grantee’s existing capabilities, we will work together to determine how best to collect key outcome data points. We recognize that collecting robust program outcome data often comes with additional costs. The GitLab Foundation may support those additional costs to improve the grantee’s impact monitoring and evidence-building capacity. Read about our approach to evidence-building here.
Evidence building is a priority for the GitLab Foundation and the nonprofit and philanthropy sector as a whole. We recognize that understanding our Foundation’s impact depends on our grantees’ ability to understand their impact evidence. Therefore, when necessary and when aligned with grantees’ priorities, the GitLab Foundation may provide capacity-building services. These services will enable grantees to improve their collection of stakeholder feedback, baseline data, and impact outcomes. We aim to support grantees’ ability to analyze, learn, and communicate strategic findings.
Our capacity-building services may include the following:
The GitLab Foundation will support grantees at different levels of interaction. The higher levels indicate increased support and coordination. The level of interaction depends on the questions we seek to answer and the relative importance of how those answers inform strategic decisions:
Level 1 - Grantee output evaluation. At the most straightforward and simplest level, we evaluate grantee performance data on how many people were impacted and any output and outcome data that already exists and is collected by the grantee.
Level 2 - GitLab Foundation-advised impact data. If determined to be strategically important for the grantee, the Foundation may advise on additional outcome data to be collected and provide guidance on tools, software, and methodologies to improve the grantee’s capacity to collect impact data.
Level 3 - Foundation-supported capacity building. If determined to be strategically important for the grantee, the Foundation may financially support the grantee’s capacity to evaluate impact data, including purchasing new software or hardware, supporting employee salaries, or funding impact measurement consultants. Read more about our evidence-building program here.
Level 4 - Foundation-supported ‘lean data’ impact study. If determined to be strategically important for the grantee, the Foundation may fund a third-party evaluator to determine the impact of the grant on grantee participants and share the learnings and insights with grantees, participants, and the Foundation. This lean data approach is a quantitative method that reliably measures outcomes and generates learnings (see 60 Decibels lean data methodology). This is also known as an outcome study, where a representative random sample of participants are surveyed on the impacts they experienced due to a program. Read more about our evidence-building program here.
Level 5 - Foundation-supported externally validated research study. This would choose the evaluation methodology that best fits the specific research question and could include a qualitative, quasi-experimental, or experimental design. Unlike in a Level 4 ‘lean impact’ study, a comparison group is also surveyed to determine causality. Examples of these studies include difference-in-difference, time series, regression discontinuity, randomized control trial, principal component analysis, etc.
Evaluations may be focused on generating learnings from one specific grantee or with a cohort of similar grantees during the same period.