Work with Us: Funders
Working with Funders
Funders are often trying to drive durable change across complex systems, while also making decisions about what to fund, how to structure opportunities, and how to understand impact over time.
CRER partners with funders to evaluate and strengthen the architecture of their investments— including the design of RFPs, grant proposals, learning opportunities for grantees, and design of portfolios—so that:
- Funded efforts generate practical insight in real time, grounded in local context and shaped by the people doing the work;
- Research is not just reported after the work, but part of how the work gets designed, improved, and used;
- Learning for grantees is embedded into grant programming.
What CRER brings
A bridge between research and practice.
Partners describe CRER as “really good at bringing in researchers and practitioners, and other stakeholders as well, to solve problems for the benefit of kids.” We help funders convene the right people, clarify shared aims, and design processes that lead to actionable learning.
Support for grantees to engage with problems of practice.
Funders have described the value of CRER as helping “support the districts that we fund, unpacking and solving problems of districts, schools, and classrooms.” We bring tools, facilitation, and partnership expertise to help grantees move from broad goals to specific, tractable designs for systems change.
Field knowledge in research use and partnership design.
CRER draws on decades of learning about how research is used (and not used) in education systems, and what it takes to design collaborations that produce insight people can actually adapt and apply.
How we work with funders
We strengthen the design of funding opportunities.
We partner with funders to shape RFPs and proposal processes so expectations for collaboration, learning, and knowledge mobilization are clear, feasible, and aligned to on-the-ground realities.
We build learning opportunities for grantees.
We help funders design and facilitate learning structures that support grantees in making sense of challenges, sharing cross-site learning, and adapting strategies as conditions change. Our designs “walk the talk” of integrating research on professional learning and research use with the specific contexts and roles of grantees.
We support knowledge mobilization, dissemination, and use.
We help foundations trace the impact of funded research and translate that learning into dissemination and communication strategies that actually support uptake. This can include regular strategy memos to foundation staff focused on knowledge mobilization and practical dissemination pathways.
Examples of our work with funders
- How can research be powerfully brought into ongoing design of initiatives? We partnered with the Wallace Foundation to identify new ways for research to be brought into their broader initiatives, not as after-the-fact studies, but as a tool for learning and improvement as the work unfolds.
- How can a grant line be redesigned to encourage collaborative research? We supported the Spencer Foundation with the design of the Transformational grants line to encourage research that is more collaborative, practice-connected, and positioned for real-world impact.
- How has funded research made it into practice and policy? With colleagues, we are working with the Wallace Foundation to trace the influence of funded research to inform knowledge mobilization and dissemination strategies, including regular strategy memos to key staff.
If you’re a funder, let’s connect.
If you want your investments to support real learning in the field, strengthen collaboration among grantees and stakeholders, and increase research co-design and evidence use in education, we’d love to connect.