Overview

The Impact Funders Forum (IFF), formerly the Transforming Evidence Funders Network (TEFN), is a network facilitated by the Pew Charitable Trusts of more than 80 philanthropies and public funding agencies that convene to catalyze collection action around work at the nexus of research, policy, practice, and community. Forum discussions focus in three areas:

• centering key voices and attending to power imbalances and inequities
• rethinking reporting and impact measurement
• strengthening the capacity of funding organization staff.

In July 2024, IFF launched a peer learning and exchange program for funding organizations that have committed to change a funding practice or process, and to assess the outcomes of that change. The program offers funders a space for peer learning and collaborative action. This has inspired some network members to reimagine their funding practices and processes, and these changes aim to better enable research to contribute to progress on societal challenges such as climate change, economic inequity, and health disparities.

IFF participants also explore a variety of approaches to research—engaged research, research co-production, research-practice partnerships, integrated knowledge translation, collaborative science, and research synthesis (combining findings from multiple studies), and infrastructure for networks and consortia.

In a parallel effort, IFF is curating field-tested, promising practices to build on other funder efforts, including Wellcome’s library of funding practices that aims to help address funding inequities. The goal is to make funder-focused resources easier to access and use while encouraging sound assessment and evaluation of practice changes to build the knowledge base needed to establish best practices.

Peer Learning and Exchange Network Members

• AIR Equity Initiative at the American Institutes for Research
• Canadian Cancer Society
• The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation
• Education Endowment Foundation
• Canada’s International Development Research Centre
• Lumina Foundation
• University of Michigan Water Center, host of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) Science Collaborative through a cooperative agreement with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Pew Charitable Trusts’ Lenfest Ocean Program and Programs in the Biomedical Sciences
• Wellcome
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• William T. Grant Foundation.

Background

The Peer Learning and Exchange Program responds to the reality that few practical guides or resources exist to support funders who wish to strengthen their practices and processes to ensure that their grantees are well equipped and appropriately resourced to implement promising strategies.

Resources

2025 Update: pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2025/03/27/funders-tailor-approaches-to-ensure-research-meets-real-world-needs

Original Press Release: pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2022/04/the-transforming-evidence-funders-network

Library of Funding Practices: wellcome.org/news/we-created-library-help-address-inequities-funding

Fact Sheet: pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2022/05/transforming-evidence-funders-network-factsheet-v4.pdf

Project: transforming-evidence.org/projects/transforming-evidence-network

Pew's Evidence Project: pewtrusts.org/en/projects/evidence-project