Invest in Diversity
By supporting Expanding the Bench, you provide access to 100+ accomplished evaluators from diverse backgrounds throughout the country
Billions of dollars are spent by philanthropies each year to address challenges in our communities. Turning good intent into desired outcomes requires effective evaluation. Communities where people experience challenges are frequently the focus of study, and yet the evaluators are rarely representative of the community being studied or have the skills needed to practice culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE).
Supported by a generous group of ETB Funding Partners, Expanding the Bench® (ETB) increases access to and enhances the skills of diverse evaluators. When we invite historically marginalized and under-supported evaluators, who practice CREE, we increase the quality of evaluation design, approaches, measurement tools, and other elements in the process, thus increasing the likelihood that funders of evaluation achieve their desired impact.
Funders should turn the mirror inward and focus on how to become more deliberate about addressing the low levels of ethno-racial diversity within the field. Philanthropic leaders who engage in Expanding the Bench are actively confronting this issue head-on by committing to open doors for more people of color.
Jackie Williams Kaye
Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, ETB Funding Partner
How your support can help
Your financial investment in ETB demonstrates a commitment to increase diversity, inclusion, and equity in change. Our ETB Funding Partners share that they prioritize ETB in their philanthropic giving because of the following:
- Philanthropies with a justice calling should ensure equity in access and opportunities.
- Our most pressing (and expensive) problems are best understood and mitigated if the evaluator applies an equity lens to conducting evaluations.
- When diverse evaluators thrive, the field thrives. Cultivating the practice of CREE through ETB leads to comprehensive, effective evaluations.
- ETB is one of the few national initiatives building a pathway and inviting excellent evaluators from historically marginalized and under-supported groups to participate.
- There is a lack of diversity within philanthropy and many foundations have committed to implementing organizational initiatives to diversify their internal strategies and practices. Because Funders of Evaluation often commission familiar evaluators, ETB connects funders to racially and ethnically diverse evaluators with whom they otherwise may not have access.
- Evaluators are storytellers giving visibility and voice to communities through data and evidence. Without diversity in evaluation, think of all the voices who are missing – all those stories that are left untold.
That’s what we believe in. Your financial contribution will help us build momentum for real change. Since 2014, ETB has identified, recruited, screened, trained and supported excellent evaluators from racially and ethnically diverse communities through our ACE Evaluation Network and LEEAD Program.
I remain grateful to our LEEAD community for the career- and life-changing experiences that I enjoy to this day.
Do you belong to a community that gives life to your practice? How do you engage in culturally responsive and equitable evaluation as inclusive excellence and rigor? What reflections and resources can you add to the conversation?
Mindelyn Anderson, PhD
Mirror Group LLC, LEEAD Alum
Return on Investment
Your investment supports long-term, sustainable change through:
- Leadership Development – Train emerging evaluators from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds to lead evaluation through the practice of CREE.
- Community Building – Provide opportunities for racially and ethnically diverse evaluators to build connections and engage in professional development. We offer virtual networking sessions, Communities of Practice on topics of interest, professional development, and in-person networking opportunities.
- Shared Vision – Join the generous group of ETB Funding Partners who have supported ETB. Together, with other allies, we are contributing to a field-building movement to impact the way evaluation is practiced and commissioned and used.
