Strengthening Capacity for Equitable Data & Evaluation

Request for Proposals

September 2026

GENERAL INFORMATION

Background

The bi3 Fund, HealthPath, and Interact for Health believe that every person – no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make – should have a full, fair, and just opportunity for good health. This means that community conditions and environments should promote good health, and no group is exposed to barriers that undermine their health and well-being.

These three local health funders created the Data for Equity Funding Collaborative in response to feedback from grantee partners about strengthening organizational capacity. Specifically, grantee partners requested funding, technical assistance, and collaborative learning opportunities to learn about and deploy equitable data and evaluation approaches. The inaugural Data for Equity cohort launched in 2023 with a goal of changing mindsets, structures, and practices that align with the principles of equitable evaluation. To date, Data for Equity has supported 31 organizations, each with grant funding as well as training, technical assistance, and shared learning opportunities focused on topics such as community engagement, ethical storytelling, and culturally responsive and equitable evaluation.

What is Equitable Data and Evaluation?
“Equitable data and evaluation means the people and communities most affected by an issue help decide the questions and have a say in how information is gathered, understood, shared, and used to make changes that matter to them, helping to create a more fair and just world along the way.”
This is a shared definition developed by Data for Equity Cohort 3 members. Download the visual.

As a result of their participation in Data for Equity, past cohort members reported:

Deeper understanding of the potential harm of data collection practices and opportunities for change.
More thoughtful engagement of community members/people served across the data and evaluation process.
Expanded understanding of mixed methods, including the value of collecting qualitative data that reflects community experience and perspective.
Increased partnership with community members to make sense of data and developed accessible, story and art-based ways to share findings.
Increased resources and a supportive cohort community to test, learn, and iterate on data and evaluation projects.
Developed new relationships and partnerships across a cohort of diverse organizations.

RFP Goal

To provide funding and learning opportunities that strengthen nonprofit and governmental organizations’ capacity around community-driven, equitable data and evaluation practices – ultimately helping to ensure that everyone has a full, fair, and just opportunity for good health.

RFP Overview

The Data for Equity Funding Collaborative plans to award a fourth cohort of grants to (up to) 10 nonprofit and governmental organizations focused on health and health justice to shift organizational culture, mindsets, and practices that advance community-driven, equitable data and evaluation approaches. Grants of $40,000 for 18 months will support participation in the learning cohort and a proposed project to test, innovate, and iterate on these approaches. Projects are intended as learning opportunities – to test concepts and approaches and build organizational capacity – not to fund one-off initiatives.

For example, organizational projects could deepen their community-driven approaches while:

Co-designing and piloting a data collection tool (e.g., survey, interview guide) with community members or people served so they help shape the questions asked.
Shifting internal practices around data collection and analysis to support a deeper understanding of populations, the effectiveness of services, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
Partnering with community members to make sense of data and findings – shaping what the results mean and what actions they point to.
Piloting a plain-language, story-based way to share findings back with community and using that conversation to decide what happens next.
Conducting a small-scale power or network analysis with community members to identify who currently holds decision-making power over data and evaluation choices (what gets studied, how, and by whom) – and where that power could shift toward community members.
Strengthening staff capacity to use data through an equity lens, grounded in what community partners identify as most important to know and understand.

Grant funds can also be used to support the organization’s participation in the Data for Equity cohort and learning activities (reimbursement for staff time, travel, community member stipends, childcare for community member participation, food, etc.). More competitive proposals will describe projects with multiple touchpoints and opportunities for community engagement over time, rather than single, one-time data collection events (such as an annual survey).

In addition to grant funding, ongoing opportunities for technical assistance, training, and shared learning will be offered based on the needs and interests identified by the grantee learning cohort.

Optional self-assessment

Strengthening organizational capacity around data and evaluation is an ongoing journey. Potential applicants are encouraged to complete a short self-assessment to reflect on their interest, readiness, and capacity to engage in the learning process with the cohort and apply learnings to their chosen project. The self-assessment is not required with application; it is meant to help guide potential applicants before committing time to submitting an application. If selected, grantees will be asked to complete the self-assessment by the first learning cohort meeting to help identify strengths and areas of opportunity for support across the cohort.

TAKE THE ASSESSMENT

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must:

• Be a public nonprofit or governmental organization*.

• Provide services in at least one of 20 counties listed on this map.

*Organizations that are not nonprofits or governmental entities may still seek funding through fiscal sponsorship. A fiscal sponsorship is a relationship between a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization (the sponsor organization) and charitable project that does not have a tax-exempt status (the sponsored organization).

Grantee Requirements

Awarded grantees will be convened quarterly over the 18-month period to build relationships, share learning, problem-solve with peers, and engage in training on specific topics. Grantees are required to participate in the quarterly cohort meetings and a one-hour primer webinar from We All Count. The Funding Collaborative seeks to co-design the implementation of Data for Equity with grantees as much as possible. In addition to the cohort meetings, the Funding Collaborative will provide optional training, one-on-one coaching, and technical assistance opportunities based on the goals and needs shared by the grantee cohort. Grantees will be asked to participate in evaluation activities to capture feedback and learnings that will allow immediate changes to initiative design and implementation and inform potential future Data for Equity events and offerings.

Cohort Evaluation

In partnership with the grantees, the Funding Collaborative will document the process and impact of the grant initiative and learning cohort. The evaluation may take the form of post-event surveys, focus groups with an external evaluator, and ongoing conversations with grantees. The Funding Collaborative commits to creating as little burden as possible for grantee partners – such as not requiring a final written report – and encourage organizations to provide feedback throughout the cohort experience and on the evaluation process.

PROPOSAL

Proposal Selection Criteria

The most competitive applications will demonstrate:

The organization’s work is focused on health and health justice, with a clear and direct connection to health outcomes for the communities they serve.
An organizational commitment to learning and a genuine desire to shift organizational culture, mindsets, and practices to advance community-driven, equitable data and evaluation approaches. Competitive applications will show internal buy-in and a champion within the organization with the influence to drive the proposed project forward.
A proposed project that advances or strengthens equitable data and evaluation principles and practices and enables the organization to test new approaches and engage in continuous improvement.
That equity is core to the organization’s mission and central to its thinking and processes – including and beyond data and evaluation efforts.
How the organization is working within or influencing larger systems to advance health and health justice, and how the proposed project has the potential to shift how data is collected, interpreted, and used in those systems.
That the organization has staff that can commit to participation in the cohort and shepherding the project, a realistic timeline, and an appropriate budget (including compensation for community members) to achieve the goals outlined in the proposal. Budgets should reflect actual, sustainable staff time commitments – we do not expect the proposed project to require the entire grant budget.
That the organization already has basic data infrastructure or evaluation capacity to build upon – this is not a grant for organizations beginning data collection for the first time.

Proposal Timeline

RFP webinar

Friday, September 11, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – virtual. Register here.

Office hours

Friday, September 18, 10-11:30a.m., virtual. Register here.
Tuesday, September 22, 2- 3:30p.m., in-person, at Greater Cincinnati Foundation (720 E Pete Rose Wy #120, Cincinnati, OH 45202). Register here.

Proposal deadline

Wednesday, October 7 by 11:59 p.m.

Application review by Community Advisory Board

October 23 – November 13

Follow up calls (as needed)

Week of November 16

Notification of grant award

End of November

Grantee learning cohort kick-off meeting

February 17, 2027 Save-the-date with more details to follow once applicants selected.

RFP Webinar and Office Hours

A proposal webinar will be held to answer questions about the RFP and application process on Friday, September 11 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Registration is required. Register here. The webinar recording will be available on the Data for Equity website shortly after the webinar date.

Office hours will also be held to answer questions about the RFP and application process. Office hours will be held on Thursday, September 18 from 10:00 -11:30am on Zoom (register here) and Tuesday, September 22 from 2:00 - 3:30pm in person at Greater Cincinnati Foundation (register here). Registration is required for both office hours. You are welcome to drop by either office hours at any time during the scheduled time block.

Attendance at the RFP webinar and office hours is optional and not required in order to submit a proposal.

Proposal Submissions – due October, 7, 2026, at 11:59 p.m.

Completed applications must be submitted no later than Wednesday, October 7 at 11:59p.m., via the Funding Collaborative’s online grants management system through Interact for Health. To begin the application process, click here. To access a PDF of the required application questions, click here.

For a tutorial on how to use the grant application software, Foundant, check out Interact for Health’s https://www.interactforhealth.org/applicant-tutorial/ page.

If you have an open grant or have received a grant from Interact for Health in the past two years, your email address may already be registered in the system. For assistance with the application process, please contact Interact for Health’s Director of Grants Management, Kristine Niergarth, at kniergarth@interactforhealth.org.

Community Advisory Board

A panel of community reviewers, including past Data for Equity grantees and experts in equitable data and evaluation practice, will evaluate grant applications in partnership with the Funders Collaborative.

Follow-Up Calls: On a case-by-case basis, the Funders Collaborative may schedule a brief call with applicants to ask clarifying questions that emerge from the Community Advisory Board review.

Questions

For any questions regarding the RFP or process, please contact Michelle Lydenberg, Interact for Health’s Senior Manager of Data and Learning, at mlydenberg@interactforhealth.org or 513-458-6626.

Definitions

Capacity Building: Support provided to nonprofits to strengthen their internal systems, leadership, and structures. The goal is to empower organizations to deliver better programs, take risks, and sustain their community impact. (Adapted from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations).

Community-Driven: Community members lead or co-lead the work at the level they choose and are given the appropriate supports to enable equitable participation. (Adapted from the Cohort 3 grantees).

Equitable Data and Evaluation: Data and evaluation practices where the people and communities most affected by an issue help decide the questions and have a say in how information is gathered, understood, shared, and used to make changes that matter to them, helping to create a more fair and just world along the way.

Health Justice: Everyone has a full and fair opportunity for good health, community conditions and institutions promote good health, and no group is exposed to environments that undermine health and well-being.

Health-Producing System: A set of interconnected components (people, organizations, environments, resources, and processes) that interact with one another to influence and produce health outcomes for individuals and populations.

The Data for Equity Funding Collaborative is hosted by Interact for Change, a 501(c)(3) subsidiary of Interact for Health.