GitLab Foundation Announces Learning for Action Fund Grants
In June 2024, GitLab Foundation launched the Learning for Action Fund, a capacity-building initiative designed to deepen impact measurement across its global network of grantees. The fund empowers organizations to advance their ability to track and validate outcomes, collect participant feedback, and refine program design based on real-world data.
Today, we are excited to announce that we awarded a total of $600,000 across 12 grantees to accelerate their learning and impact measurement efforts.
The Learning for Action Fund builds on the foundation's ongoing commitment to help organizations deliver life-changing programs and capture their impact in meaningful ways. By supporting grantees to collect actionable data and leverage subject matter expertise, they will be able to scale faster, attract additional funding and design more effective programs.
The fund aims to accelerate grantees’ ability to improve program design by strengthening feedback practices and attracting additional funding through validation studies. If fully successful, the learning grants will enable more than 65,000 people to benefit from more effective programs, potentially boosting participants’ annual incomes an additional one to 20% and generating an estimated $52 million in additional lifetime earnings. These are high-level overviews of each funded project.
BuildHer will implement a new alumnae data collection system using a novel data collection technology, Poket. The organization will gather feedback on the effectiveness of its training programs that provide low-income women with skilled job opportunities in construction. The feedback will allow BuildHer to refine curriculum and improve job placement rates while creating a replicable approach for similar organizations.
CareerVillage.org will partner with Listen4Good to build a robust feedback loop to strengthen engagement on its platform, which crowdsources career information and advice to help low-income populations get access to better jobs. Developing a greater understanding of user experiences will be especially important as they scale with new AI capabilities.
CodePath will analyze LinkedIn data to compare the employment outcomes of underrepresented computer science students with their peers. CodePath aims to validate its impact on technical employment rates and influence workforce development initiatives across the tech industry.
Digital Green will gather feedback from 400 small-scale farmers in Kenya through a phone survey led by the impact measurement company, 60 Decibels. These insights will help refine its Farmer.Chat platform, which reaches thousands of farmers annually, and ensure that it meets the real-world needs of farmers and improves economic outcomes.
FreeWorld aims to build the infrastructure needed to create a new gold standard in longitudinal income and recidivism data. They will leverage tax return data and recidivism checks to track employment and wage outcomes for formerly incarcerated individuals with the goal of reforming criminal justice systems and improving workforce development for this population.
Generation will investigate barriers to employment and financial health outcomes by conducting surveys and focus groups with alumni of their five workforce development skills programs in Kenya. Ultimately, they hope to address systemic issues that limit economic mobility and lead to long-term unemployment.
Human-I-T will partner with 60 Decibels to conduct interviews with participants of its digital equity programs and assess the long-term impact of their tech support and digital skills training services aimed at closing the digital divide. The findings will help the organization refine its offerings and attract new collaborators and resources.
Immigration Policy Lab will conduct qualitative interviews with resettled refugees to enhance the recommendation algorithm for GeoMatch, a first-of-its kind system to match asylum seekers and refugees to host communities where they are most likely to succeed. By tracking refugee outcomes beyond 90 days, they aim to improve long-term resettlement experiences and enhance integration.
Kuepa Edutech will collect feedback from women in Colombia to better understand the barriers to entering the tech sector. The insights gathered will allow Kuepa to design more inclusive programs and improve employment outcomes for underrepresented groups.
Laboratoria will launch its ‘insights engine’ initiative by partnering with Project Evident to design a new approach to getting insights from hiring companies and leverage JobsPikr, a talent intelligence tool, to identify emerging job opportunities in the digital economy. This will allow Laboratoria to tailor its programs to meet market needs and better prepare women for careers in the digital workforce.
Makaia will upgrade its feedback systems to build a trust-based community of participants and alumni to inform future program design. This project will directly improve the completion rates of its STEM Incubator and bootcamp programs.
Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL) will link web user data from its “Launch for Jobseekers” portal to unemployment insurance records in Arkansas. This analysis will provide a clearer understanding of the platform’s impact on job placement and wage outcomes and set the stage for national expansion.
GitLab Foundation is proud to support this forward-thinking cohort of grantees as they harness data to drive more effective, sustainable outcomes. Through this investment, these organizations are not just measuring impact — they are expanding it.
