Director of Evaluation and Learning– position will lead all evaluation and learning strategy and practice for The Indianapolis Foundation and work in collaboration with the Evaluation Team at the Central Indiana Community Foundation to integrate learning and impact regionally.
We are Central Indiana Community Foundation, The Indianapolis Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana–a $1 billion collective of philanthropic organizations committed to making Central Indiana a community where all individuals have equitable opportunity to reach their full potential – no matter place, race or identity.
What We Do: For more than 100 years, we have helped people invest in the causes that matter most to them; awarded grants to effective not-for-profit organizations; and provided leadership to make Central Indiana a better, more beautiful, more equitable community. We believe in anti-racism, authentic relationships, inclusivity, leadership, effectiveness and sustainability.
What We’re Looking For:
The Indianapolis Foundation (TIF) seeks an experienced philanthropy professional who is passionate about equity to oversee the administration of the Foundation’s grantmaking operations and provide staff leadership for all grant programs. As a member of the Foundation’s senior staff reporting directly to the President, the Vice President for Grantmaking participates in the strategic planning and goal-setting process that determines how the Foundation seeks to fulfill its mission; maintains a high standard of compliance with philanthropic industry standards; and, assists in creating a strong, positive image for the Foundation.
Responsibilities:
The Indianapolis Foundation is committed to evidence-based practice; ensuring that our grantmaking and community leadership strategy adds to the existing body of evidence connecting behavior change and impact. We are also committed to using the results from research, data collection and experience in the design of our interventions integrating scientific principles with local information and community knowledge. Reporting to the Vice President for Grantmaking, the Director for Evaluation and Learning (DEL) position will lead all evaluation and learning strategy and practice for The Indianapolis Foundation and work in collaboration with the Evaluation Team at the Central Indiana Community Foundation to integrate learning and impact regionally.
This position is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining an effective performance measurement and evaluation system and compiling and analyzing information for The Indianapolis Foundation, its major funds, and various departments and programs. The Director will also work with research experts, consultants, and community liaisons, as well as present findings to external audiences. To be effective, the Director must stay current on evaluation practices and frameworks and community landscape to inform our work and engage with local and national data and policy partners to provide valid and reliable data for learning and evaluation of outcomes and impact. This position will have a significant relationship with the Director of Marketing, Brand and Strategic Communications in communicating The Indianapolis Foundation’s ongoing performance against goals.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
The Director will have primary responsibility and exercise independent judgment regarding the following areas of significance:
Strategic Planning and Evaluation
- Provide strategic direction and technical expertise in designing, strengthening and implementing program-wide learning and evaluation systems to provide evidence and analysis of outputs, outcomes and impact for improved learning and decision-making, and to inform accountability of the foundation, its partners and other stakeholders
- Responsible for designing, developing and improving and learning and evaluation systems, practices, and culture across the grant making program and ensuring
- effective integration of evaluation and learning practices and activities into critical aspects of the program
- Represent the Indianapolis Foundation with key data partners to produce baseline data reports and periodic updates to assess progress of lack thereof
- Represent the Indianapolis Foundation with NEON (Nexus of Equity + Opportunity Nationwide) for data and evaluation
- Lead design and implementation of evaluation and learning policies, processes and practices that institutionalize organization-wide assessment of program outcomes, quantitative and qualitative measurement of impact and global-level program learning
- Lead the learning and evaluation framework for each area of the strategic portfolio and programmatic work streams to identify, define and design measurement and evaluation systems and processes reporting of metrics to support new and innovative delivery pathways, and advance TIF’s goals
- Serve as the primary point person for measurement and evaluation at TIF, including designing monitoring and reporting of metrics, analyzing progress with program leadership and incorporating learnings into program design
- Streamline measurement and evaluation framework and related efforts across the program to strengthen efficiency
- In collaboration with the TIF leadership team, lead the design, improvement and execution of a monitoring and evaluation plan that includes key impact and safeguards related metrics.
- Review data analyses and write-ups produced by TIF consultants
- Support management of partnerships with other organizations collaborating on research to refine the monitoring and evaluation strategy, as appropriate
Build Data, Research, and Learning Capacity
- Serve as the main technical support to TIF externally-funded state and federal grants for monitoring and evaluation
- Strengthen staff capacity to understand and perform measurement and evaluation activities. This includes developing and delivering targeted training, and developing measurement and evaluation guides, templates, and tools
- Coordinate with TIF leadership and program leads to ensure effective implementation of data collection activities and assist in data transmission, storage, visualization and dissemination
- Support the setting up and management of databases utilizing foundation enterprise platforms to fulfill reporting requirements to a variety of audiences including donors, partners as well as internal and external audiences
- Working with the grantmaking and development teams, provide guidance on a measurement and evaluation dashboards to visualize and understand data
- Support data analyses using appropriate statistical approaches necessary to evaluate grant program outcomes and goals.
Support for External Communications
- In partnership with the Director for Marketing, Brand and Strategic Communications and the Chief Equity and Innovation Officer, author or co-
- Author reports, briefs, presentations, papers, and other knowledge products to share and publicize findings
- Work closely with TIF leadership to support the organization’s executive leadership, communications and fundraising functions in making accurate, evidence-based claims about TIF’s work
- Support design, measurement and evaluation related components of TIF grant proposals to external organizations
- Conduct quick turnaround, one-off analyses to support communications with donors, media, and supporters, turning data or existing analyses into high-level messages
- Support routine reporting and communications (e.g., donor reporting, website updates, etc.)
- Facilitate a learning culture and create an enabling environment for high-quality, cross-sectoral learning across TIF
- Help foster an organizational culture of understanding and respect for evidence-based stories using data
- Help maintain the organizational culture of respect for data and evidence as a basis for decisions and communications
Data Sharing Practices
- Maintain current knowledge of data, issues and emerging topics of relevance to TIF’s strategic plan areas of focus and goals or topics of relevance in the programmatic grantmaking areas of the strategic plan
- Maintain current knowledge of evaluation approaches and design techniques to the extent that they influence the types of data collected for monitoring and evaluation, and use of this knowledge to help shape decisions on data collection
- Represent TIF at conferences, meetings and other events, including supporting the preparation of materials for distribution to internal and external audiences, as needed
- Represent the organization with professional associations, partnerships, and alliances, as needed
Requirements:
Required Skills and Qualifications:
The qualifications listed within the job description are intended as a guide and we do not expect candidates to bring all experiences and skills listed. So, if you believe that you can meet the overall expectations of the position, we encourage you to apply so that we have an opportunity to learn more about you and the unique strengths you would bring to the work.
- You bring demonstrated experience leading evaluation and learning processes on behalf of an organization (The hire for this position should bring 10+ years of prior professional experience through a combination of full-time, part-time, internship, and/or freelance positions)
- You have some knowledge of Marion County and the needs and interests of various stakeholders and constituents within the area
- Master’s degree in social science, research and evaluation, or similar area required. PhD in the relevant area preferred
- Minimum 5 years of work experience with increasing levels of responsibility. At least three years’ experience in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning in projects focused on at least one of the following areas: racial or economic equity, workforce and education, housing, arts and culture, criminal justice or violence reduction
- Knowledge of and experience applying measurement and evaluation best practices and emerging trends
- Demonstrated excellent research design skills making extensive use of quantitative and qualitative data
- Demonstrated superior data management and data analysis skills including the use of complex data sets, data visualization, and modeling
- Strong familiarity with mixed methods and qualitative methods and data handling
- Familiarity with issues pertaining to long-term data management, e.g. data-sharing policies of academic journals and funding agencies
- Experience representing organizations at professional conferences and delivering presentations, including preparing papers, posters and other materials for conferences and panels
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, adjust own timelines with sensitivity to priorities, and deliver a quality product on time
- Experience in supervising consultants
- Demonstrated ability in managing client relationships across departments of the organization and with partner organizations
- Ability to work well and communicate effectively cross-culturally
- Excellent project management and writing skills
What You Get:
- $90,000 salary plus generous benefits, including:
- Employer-provided health, dental, vision
- percent employer discretionary 403b contribution
- Potential for an annual bonus, based on organizational and individual performance
- 10.5 paid holidays, including MLK Day and Juneteenth
- 10 personal days annually
- Up to 15 vacation days annually
- Flexible, hybrid work arrangement – Work from home on Mondays and Fridays
- Homebase–Newly renovated office space conveniently located downtown, just steps from Mass Ave.
- An opportunity to do meaningful, results-driven work with a passionate, diverse team, supporting organizations that are committed to building and maintaining a strong, equitable and supportive culture for our team of changemakers.
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYMENT:
Central Indiana Community Foundation, The Indianapolis Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana are equal opportunity employers that seek to recruit persons of diverse backgrounds and to support their retention and advancement. Justice is one of our core values, and we are committed to fostering a workplace culture inclusive of people with respect to their race, ethnicity, national origin, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, veteran status, marital status, age, disabilities, political affiliation, religious beliefs or any other characteristic. Our commitment to justice and diversity also means providing a work environment that is welcoming, respectful, and engaging.
Our mission is to mobilize people, ideas and investments to make Central Indiana a community where all individuals have equitable opportunity to reach their full potential—no matter place, race or identity.
Racism deeply impacts the well-being of our communities, compounding existing disparities and creating intersectional barriers. We strive to name and address these barriers through community engagement and assessment, relevant and effective policy creation, and organizational accountability methods. We support initiatives that address all forms of oppression, however, maintaining an explicit focus on race is essential to advancing equity across our communities. Improving outcomes for people of color will improve outcomes for everyone.