GitLab Foundation Expands Opportunities for Impact Measurement With Second Round of Learning for Action Fund

July 1, 2025 – Today, GitLab Foundation announced 20 new capacity-building investments through its Learning for Action Fund, available to current grantees. Aligned with the Foundation’s commitment to learning and transparency, the fund offers up to $50,000 in additional support for grantees to strengthen impact measurement, learning, experimentation and feedback activities.

Part of the Foundation’s philosophy is that greater investments in evidence-building and feedback activities lead to more effective programs. The Learning for Action Fund provides grantees with opportunities to improve their program effectiveness, drive improved outcomes, validate their impact and increase the likelihood of accessing additional funding to scale their work.

Since the Learning for Action Fund launched in June of 2024, grantees have used learning activities that led to measurable change and stronger accountability for program improvement. Examples of activities tested in grantee projects include data collection to understand job training effectiveness, job placement, wage outcomes and barriers to entering the tech sector.

“Through continuous improvement and iteration, we’re able to see how data and learning activities build stronger programs for nonprofits,” said Spencer MacColl, director of impact modeling and measurement. “In our first round of funding in 2024, we found solutions to problems that nonprofits didn’t have the capacity to look into previously, leading to greater understanding for more meaningful impact.”

The Foundation’s North Star ROI of generating $100 in lifetime earnings for every $1 invested is the guidepost for how grantees create their projects. Learning activities supported by the fund include, but are not limited to, outcome measurement studies, participant feedback activities, data collection infrastructure improvements and qualitative or quantitative methods.

Selected grantees will also gain access to a community of practice and advisory services from Project Evident or Feedback Labs, as well as quarterly cohort learning sessions to deepen their understanding of impact measurement.

GitLab Foundation is excited to grow this essential fund, designed to drive meaningful insights and scale efforts that enhance lifetime earnings through expanded access to economic opportunity.

ROI

The ROI for these projects will be assessed based on the transformative potential of their research findings. ROI for Learning for Action Fund 2025 will be shared following the announcement of the awardees.

Drawing from the 2024 cohort of Learning for Action Fund awardees, our models estimate an ROI ranging from 100 to 566, depending on the effectiveness of the learnings each project generates.

We project that more than 65,000 individuals will benefit from the initiatives supported by the 2024 Fund.

Read more about our estimates here.