Since our founding, Project Evident has advocated for a new approach to building and using evidence in the social sector. Today, our dissatisfaction with the status quo is deeper than ever, as is our commitment to addressing racism and inequality of opportunity. And we believe that a stronger, more equitable data and evidence ecosystem – one that centers on the voices of people and communities most directly impacted by the problems we seek to solve – can help. Evidence helps us understand the needs of communities, make decisions in times of change and scarcity, and build and do more of what works. Investing in this ecosystem now will allow us to build an increasingly resilient country that provides more equitable opportunities for all.

That is why we are thrilled to have the opportunity to launch the Next Generation of Evidence Campaign in order to build that new evidence ecosystem.

We define the Next Generation of Evidence as:

• Practitioner Centric: Practitioners – those who provide programs and services – must be empowered to drive their own evidence agendas.
• Embracing an “R&D” Approach: Research and Development (R&D) –a disciplined process for learning, testing and improving – must become standard practice in the education and social sectors to enable timely and relevant continuous evidence building.
• Elevating the Voices of Communities: Communities must have the power to shape and participate in the evidence building process of practitioners and the field.

The Next Generation of Evidence Campaign will increase knowledge about these core components and advance progress on each of them in practice. Building off of our December 2019 convening, the Campaign will initially encompass:

• A Build Me the Evidence book project;
• Partnership and policy initiatives;
• Convenings designed to increase public and private funder support for rigorous and continuous evidence building and use by practitioners.

Next Generation of Evidence Campaign Advisory Committee (in formation)

• Lola Adedokun, Program Director for Child Well-Being and Director for the African Health Initiative, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
• Jon Baron, Vice President of Evidence-Based Policy, Arnold Ventures
• Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution
• Amy O’Hara, Director, Federal Statistical Research Data Center, Georgetown University
• Nisha Patel, Senior Fellow, Social Policy Institute, Washington University in St. Louis
• Marika Pfefferkorn, Director, Twin Cities Innovation Alliance and Co-Founder, Coalition to Stop the Cradle to Prison Algorithm
• Elisabeth Stock, CEO and Co-Founder, PowerMyLearning
• Vivian Tseng, Senior Vice President, William T. Grant Foundation

Join Us

If you have suggestions for policy or partnership initiatives, Build Me the Evidence case studies or chapters, or other ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us: Tamar Bauer, Senior Advisor, Strategy and Policy, at tbauer@projectevident.org, or Dustin Sposato, Director of Communications and Field Building, at dsposato@projectevident.org.