Support Equity Through the Initiative
Advancing Equity Through Shared Commitment
The backbone of our work at Expanding the Bench® (ETB) has always been to create opportunities and pathways for racially and ethnically diverse leaders to apply and spread awareness of the practice of culturally-responsive and equitable evauation (CREE). It’s critical that ETB both expand upon our efforts and lay the groundwork for sustainability as we continue to grow.
Expanding the Bench 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.
ETB increases access to and enhances the skills of racially and ethnically diverse evaluators who have been historically and/or are presently underrepresented or marginalized in the U.S. When we invite historically marginalized and under-supported evaluators who practice CREE to do this work, we increase the quality of evaluation design, approaches, measurement tools, and other elements in the process. Ultimately, this increases the likelihood that funders of evaluation achieve their desired impact. The most pressing (and expensive) problems are best understood and mitigated if evaluators apply an equity lens when conducting evaluations. When diverse evaluators thrive, the field thrives. Cultivating the practice of CREE through ETB leads to comprehensive, effective evaluations.
Subscribe to ETB
By supporting ETB, you uplift the work of accomplished evaluators from diverse backgrounds throughout the country. Your financial support is vital to create a sustainable future for the ETB initiative. The Pricing Model’s flexible setup allows for funders of evaluation to purchase services in bulk or choose from our à la carte offerings. Take a look for yourself.
Benefits of Investing in ETB
- ETB Equity Consultation (EEC) service is offered year-round for Funders who want to know that they are engaging evaluators in an equitable manner.
- Through ETB Coffee Breaks, ACE Evaluation Network Members and Funders have the opportunity to virtually network and build relationships while focusing on the practice of CREE.
- The CREE Learning Series includes an asynchronous learning platform with a combination of video content by CREE learning guides and virtually facilitated live discussions to support the application of learning into practice.
- ETB Gathering occurs annually during the American Evaluation Association’s conference for a night of celebrating, socializing, and dancing with everyone in the evaluation ecosystem who makes up or contributes to the Initiative! We also celebrate new ACE Evaluation Network Members joining the Network and completion of LEEAD Program cohort. Registration is required and opens late summer.
Looking for Another Way to Support Equity in Evaluation?
Consider LEEAD Program sponsorship opportunities to invest in the growth of emerging evaluators whose voices are vital to the field.
Make A Grant
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 doing those studies are rarely representative of those communities or have the skills needed to practice CREE.
Since we don’t charge evaluators who participate in our programs, ETB accepts grant funding to back our work. This funding will allow us to continue to provide our services with room to expand.
Thank You to Our Generous Funding Partners!
