Inside a 4-year MEL Partnership: What it takes to create a MEL framework for an early-stage funder.

Developing a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework for the newly launched Elevate Prize Foundation (EPF) felt like building a plane while flying it. Over four years, we worked alongside this bold, innovative funder to refine their vision and design tools to measure impact.

Here are our six key takeaways for evaluators, funders, and nonprofits alike:

The Elevate Prize Foundation (EPF) is a global nonprofit whose mission is to amplify the work of changemakers.

The Elevate Prize Program, the flagship program of EPF, annually awards 10 winners and their organizations unrestricted funds, in-kind support (branding, marketing, communications, leadership development), and bolsters the mission of EPF accompanied by other programs such as The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, Get Loud, and CNN Heroes.

Core tenets of all EPF programs include unrestricted funding, enhancing visibility, and people-centric networks, combining social impact, media and philanthropic sectors.

1. Embrace Emergence

As always, our MEL journey began with listening and building trust. We got to know the founder, core team members, and the inaugural cohort of Prize winners. By learning about their experiences, hopes, fears, and even their vibe, we quickly realized that EPF's vision and program offerings were still “in development” when we first started working with them four years ago. Thus, our measurement approach also needed to be flexible, and embrace emergence. The MEL work adopted an emergent and developmental approach, rather than an approach focused on “outcomes.”

Based on what we saw and heard, we drafted the first ever Prize Program Theory of Change (ToC), articulating the program’s vision for future impact. We operationalized this ToC, collected & used data to validate EPF’s unique value, and used it to support EPF in making early programmatic improvements.

Embracing a developmental approach allowed us to view the ToC as an emergent strategy, allowing it to evolve with the Foundation over time. For example, while early assumptions emphasized the importance of a cohort model, over time, fostering a broader network proved more impactful. This emergent approach helped EPF clarify its unique value and refine its programming.

2. Create a Compass for the Broader Vision

Beyond the Prize Program, MEL played a role in shaping EPF’s broader, cross-program, mission of “Make Good Famous.” We developed a Theory of Transformation (ToT) for the Foundation by identifying three core levels of change that capture each individual program’s Theory of Change (ToC). For example, each program sought outcomes at the level of organizational and leadership development, visibility, and community impact. The ToT also captured the Foundation’s intentions for broader culture change — seeking to make philanthropy more accessible and democratic.

While the individual program ToCs articulated how each program intends to achieve outcomes at various levels, the ToT illustrated how they all ladder up to the Foundation’s bigger picture impact and influence.

3. Measure at Multiple Levels

The Elevate Prize program has multi-level impact, effecting change at the individual, organizational, community, and ecosystem levels. EPF supports both leaders and their organizations through unrestricted funding and a myriad of bespoke opportunities (e.g., 1:1 public speaking training, conference sponsorship, and marketing, branding, & comms support). Through this support, EPF hopes to accelerate impact for the communities served by their Prize Winners.

With impact happening on so many levels, the measurement strategy also needs to be multi-faceted. Alongside EPF, we developed an overarching measurement strategy that included longitudinal grant reporting processes, systems, and tools at every level of impact. For example, we established baseline, midline and endline annual surveys measuring outcomes for Prize Winners, prompting reflection on how the support from EPF contributed to their leadership development, organizational development, visibility, fundraising, relationships, and impact on communities. Surveys were sent to both leaders and their teams to get a range of perspectives, as well as purposeful samples of in-depth interviews.

💡Helpful Hint: Measuring impact at EPF is no easy task. The work of the Winners spans sectors and geographies, and every Winner’s journey is different — with success taking many shapes and forms. To make sense of this diversity, EPF identified key factors that influence each Winner’s path, such as their organizational stage, how they engage with the program, and their individual goals and needs. By deeply understanding these factors, EPF was able to personalize its support, set thoughtful expectations for impact and metrics, and continually refine its selection process — ensuring every investment has the greatest possible ripple effect.

4. Visualizing, Verifying, and Vetting Visibility

In the current moment, where media attention and visibility matter, EPF is visionary in funding efforts that leverage the power of visibility for good. As their MEL partner, we had to chart new territory in measuring visibility and connecting the dots between visibility and impact. For us, this meant defining visibility… and redefining it… and redefining it. Visibility is so much more than social media followers or subscribers, but includes conference attendance, speaking engagements, print and television appearances, and simply put, being in the right place at the right time. Once it was defined, we identified metrics to measure it, pertinent sources for those metrics, and designed systems to collect and track visibility data.

💡Helpful Hint: Visibility is not an area most social impact organizations are actively tracking and for those that are, they are doing so in very different ways. To properly measure it, defining “visibility” in your context is an essential first step. From there, using the agreed-upon “visibility” definition to design and collect “before” and “after” metrics will enable your organization to tell the story of how grantee visibility positively changed over time. Without the established baseline metrics from the get-go, it will be hard to determine the magnitude of impact.

5. MEL as a mirror

As part of our MEL work with EPF, we developed a grant reporting structure that served as both a data collection tool and a learning system. The findings from this annual reporting process offered valuable learning and framing for messaging about the Foundation’s core mission and impact. MEL became a critical learning tool for EPF, validating staff intuitions and shaping strategic decisions. Over time, the data-informed decision-making process strengthened internal alignment and helped staff articulate EPF’s impact more clearly, both internally and externally.

6. Passing the torch

For consultants, one (wo)man's offboarding is another's onboarding. And as formally trained evaluators, we know the peril of having one’s MEL work “sit on a shelf.” There comes a time in most consultancy partnerships when the client is ready to take the MEL work internally. As EPF prepared to internalize MEL, we ensured a smooth transition by providing institutional knowledge in multiple formats and to as broad an audience as possible. This included:

-🤝One-on-one coaching for the new Senior Manager, Impact Initiatives

-📄A written document summarizing the evolution of MEL at EPF

-🧠A final presentation to staff and leadership, capturing key learnings and future directions

IN CLOSING our 4 years of partnership with EPF catalyzed the organization’s appetite for learning and built the infrastructure for ongoing measurement within the organization. We are proud to see that MEL remains an embedded, evolving part of EPF’s strategy, and not a burdensome accountability tactic.

The Elevate Prize Foundation opened our eyes to see and understand the power of “Making Good Famous.” In turn, we like to think we illustrated for them the power of “Make Measurement Fun.” ✨