Evaluation and Strategic Learning

St. David’s Foundation believes that learning is at the core of what we do. We aspire to be a learning organization that advances equity across all of its activities. We know the Foundation cannot do this alone. We view evaluation and strategic learning as a critical tool to help us learn alongside communities and engage in a mutually beneficial exchange of information to further our collective learning as well as inform strategic and tactical decision making.

Our Approach

The Foundation focuses evaluation and strategic learning efforts around the following strategies:

Leverage evaluation and research as a tool to advance the Foundation’s strategic priorities. We view research and evaluation as key tools influencing systemic inequities that lead to poor health outcomes through increased awareness of issues and solutions.
Improve the Foundation and the sector’s understanding of health equity as a process and an outcome. We will continue to use data to expose racial, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities and inequities that we must act upon. In addition, we support collective learning on how to evolve the Foundation’s policies and practices to advance health equity.
Strengthen the capacity of the Foundation and our grantees to use data and evaluation as a tool for learning and program improvement in service of equity. Through Good Measure, and in partnership with other philanthropic organizations, we seek to build a culture of learning for both funders and nonprofits. We are in a continuous cycle of learning and adapting our approaches based on the data we collect through grantee metrics, community-wide data, and research from across our goal areas.
Shift accountability from dollars granted to outcomes achieved to advance health equity for Central Texans.

Our Goal

Our Evaluation and Strategic Learning team is dedicated to ensuring that data, research, and learning drive the evolution of our strategy, support sound funding decisions, and inspire action to advance health equity in Central Texas.

Opportunities for Collaboration

The Evaluation and Strategic Learning team looks to partner with and potentially fund evaluation and research projects that align with our approaches and advance equity in Central Texas.

If your work aligns with the priorities listed above and you are interested in learning more about upcoming funding opportunities, please contact evalstrategiclearning@stdavidsfoundation.org.

Click here to learn more about our team.

A ‘learning organization’ at its core is one that evidences a commitment to inquiry, exhibits fluid information exchange across organizational boundaries (external and internal), possesses knowledge management systems that facilitate collective learning, and demonstrates strategic as well as tactical decision-making based upon what is being learned. Organizations realizing this learning goal are in a much better position to grow and thrive in the ‘dynamic, unstable, unpredictable environments’ that characterize today’s world.

– Hallie Preskill and Rosalie T. Torres, Building Capacity for Organizational Learning Through Evaluative Inquiry