GitLab Foundation Selects Twelve Grantees for Learning for Action Fund's Second Cohort

Today, GitLab Foundation is proud to announce 12 winning organizations through the Learning for Action Fund. The fund strengthens grantees’ ability to measure outcomes, test new approaches and learn in real time. Awardees will receive over $500,000 in grants to scale solutions that create pathways to income growth and economic mobility. This cohort reflects all three Foundation target countries, with eight from the U.S., three in Colombia and one from Kenya.

Many nonprofits don’t have the resources to test, adapt and improve programs before formal evaluation, and even when their programs work, they often lack the proof needed to secure major funding. The Learning for Action Fund bridges this gap by supporting real-time feedback tools (surveys, SMS, chatbots), data infrastructure upgrades (Salesforce, AI analytics) and impact evaluations with longitudinal tracking that enable organizations to maintain contact with alumni over extended periods.

“This is our second consecutive year funding this work, and we’ve doubled-down on our investment in a strategy that gives grantees the capacity to systematically strengthen their programs and deliver greater impact based on real evidence,” said Spencer MacColl, director of impact modeling and measurement at GitLab Foundation. “These organizations are tackling everything from AI and green jobs to immigrant integration and access to education funding.” 

The organizations receiving grants, along with a high-level overview of their funded projects include:

• Building Markets Ltd — Piloting employee-level well-being surveys and focus groups in SMEs to capture outcomes for workers, linking business growth to income, stability, and resilience.

• Student Basic Needs Coalition — Running a randomized evaluation comparing an AI-based SNAP enrollment tool against human support, testing completion rates, benefit uptake and cost-effectiveness.

• Lumni — Measuring the income and employment impact of recognizing Venezuelan migrants’ higher-education degrees using quasi-experimental methods.

• Carina — Conducting an economic impact study to quantify how its caregiver job-matching platform improves earnings, stability and access to benefits.

• Dream.Org — Analyzing training sequences and gig work to identify pathways leading justice-impacted young adults into $50k+ jobs, supported by participant feedback loops.

• Montana Technology Enterprise Center / Accelerate Montana — Centralizing program data in Salesforce to improve impact tracking, skills measurement, and wage outcomes across workforce initiatives.

• RestoringVision — Piloting SMS-based feedback systems to measure how eyeglasses improve productivity and income, with scalable potential across Africa and beyond.

• Mobile Pathways — Testing whether faster work permits through its Pathfinder AI tool increases immigrant earnings, using rigorous evaluation and external validation.   

• Credential Engine — Building feedback loops with learners using skills profiles, helping people with “some college, no degree” access better jobs.

• SaverLife — Enhancing its AI-powered financial navigator with structured prompt testing and credit-bureau data integration to measure effects on debt, savings and stability.

• Good Business Lab — Developing an AI-powered career-matching tool for youth in Medellín, combining new surveys and large datasets to guide education-to-employment transitions.

• Scholarship America — Improving its scholarship matching tool through continuous user feedback, enhancing algorithm accuracy and equity for over a million students annually.

Building on a sustainable, longer-term commitment for impact investment, RestoringVision is one of several GitLab Foundation grantees that also participates in The Durability Collective. This partner initiative shares the Learning for Action Fund's commitment to helping nonprofits measure mid- and long-term outcomes more effectively.

GitLab Foundation is proud to support the progress of these organizations as they design stronger programs, generate thorough insights and share learnings that will ripple across the social sector.

ROI 

If fully successful, the learning grants will enable more than 574,000 people to benefit from more effective programs, potentially boosting participants’ annual incomes up to 10% and generating an estimated $84 million in additional lifetime earnings. These are high-level overviews of each funded project. 

Read more about our estimates here.