RFP: Louisiana Justice Fund Evaluation Consultant

Scroll this

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS:

Louisiana Justice Fund Evaluation Consultant

About Foundation for Louisiana

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is a social justice philanthropic intermediary founded in 2005 as the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation to invest in the immediate recovery of Louisiana’s communities after Hurricane Katrina. While FFL was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, our founders recognized the need to address the longstanding inequities that have shaped life outcomes for the most marginalized of Louisianans. Our programs grew in response to these needs, and today FFL focuses on racial justice, climate justice, criminal legal system reform and transformation, economic opportunity, gender justice, and support for Louisiana's vibrant arts and culture via a three-pronged strategy:

  • Invest: FFL makes grants and loans to support organizations and movements throughout Louisiana in our key program areas. We attract and invest resources to support on-the-ground projects, many of which can’t access traditional philanthropy. Through fiscal sponsorship, we support innovative ideas responding to unmet needs throughout Louisiana.
  • Build: We build power to effect change in Louisiana communities. Our TOGETHER initiative convenes community leaders and provides training in organizing, policy change, leadership, public speaking, and facilitation to tackle issues of climate change, police accountability, health disparities, housing access, and more.
  • Transform: By fortifying movements, we shift systems and shape regional and national narratives. We re-imagine how our communities are governed and funded in order to redefine how residents are able to thrive in them.

Since its inception, FFL has invested $60 million in more than 260 mission-critical nonprofit organizations working across the state towards building a more just Louisiana. As a social justice philanthropic intermediary, FFL’s work unapologetically advances racial justice while moving Louisiana forward. The foundation engages communities in both program co-design as well as its grant-making process, in order to expand opportunities and move communities towards a more just future.

Background

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) invites proposals from qualified consultants to support learning and evaluation efforts for the Louisiana Justice Fund. The Louisiana Justice Fund (LJF) is a pooled fund housed at FFL that supports projects that reduce incarceration, improve reentry outcomes, and remove barriers to economic mobility for individuals disproportionately affected by the criminal legal system. LJF values collaboration, capacity building, and strategic advocacy in its efforts to bring about lasting change in Louisiana's criminal legal landscape. LJF aims to achieve this through strategic and capacity building investments in north, central Louisiana, and southwest Louisiana as well as Greater New Orleans and Greater Baton Rouge regions through three grantmaking goals: 1) strengthen the ecosystem of criminal legal system reform organizations, 2) invest in organizations to shift narratives on safety, crime, and justice, and 3) increase economic mobility for criminal legal system impacted folks.

Scope of Work

FFL seeks an evaluation consultant to conduct formative and summative evaluations of LJF. The purpose of the evaluation is to support LJF staff, steering committee, and partners in reflecting on and making meaning of the fund’s overall effectiveness, including identifying areas of strength, challenge, impact, and opportunity for future refinement or investment. This evaluation is intended to support both internal learning and program decision-making, fund development, and communication with external stakeholders. We appreciate that there are many ways of knowing and being in this world and are open to both creative and more traditional approaches to learning and evaluation.  Activities taken up by the external evaluator for this program may include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Design and implementation of a formative and summative evaluation framework assessing the LJF across the 2025–2027 period
  • Retrospective analysis of program development and implementation, including how FFL’s and LJF’s values were operationalized in practice
  • Storytelling and story capturing work to help us elevate the voices of Louisiana people helping forge a better and more just state
  • Review of documentation and, where relevant, observation or synthesis of steering committee and grantees processes
  • Facilitation of reflection meetings with FFL staff and LJF steering committee to support shared learning during the evaluation process
  • Production of a final summative evaluation report synthesizing findings, lessons, and implications for future work

Key evaluation questions include:

  • To what extent did LJF contribute to a stronger ecosystem for criminal legal system reform and safer communities across Louisiana? To what extent did investments reach and impact communities in north, central, and southwest Louisiana?
  • Were recipients of LJF strategy grants able to achieve desired impact related to criminal legal system reforms through organizing, policy advocacy, narrative change, and/or direct services?
  • How did LJF capacity building grants strengthen organizational infrastructure, deepen the bench of the ecosystem, build and grow communication and narrative capacity, and grow the existing infrastructure to be responsive to both critical opportunities and emerging barriers?
  • How did LJF narrative change grants contribute to shifting dominant narratives related to crime, safety, and accountability towards prevention, racial equity, and restoration?
  • How did LJF reentry and economic mobility grants contribute to improving employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals through policy advocacy and expanding reentry support to criminal legal system-impacted people?
  • What has and has not worked in growing and operating LJF as a pooled fund program? Did LJF function as strategically planned?
  • Were LJF’s resources deployed effectively? 
  • Was pooled funding supportive of the strategy?

Desired Competencies & Qualifications

We anticipate the successful applicant will demonstrate a significant number of the following competencies and skills:

  • Commitment to FFL's values of integrity, community wisdom, courage, and commitment.
  • Demonstrated commitment to equity and justice practices broadly as well as specifically in terms of evaluation and learning. Familiarity with the work of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation, or similar learning and evaluation frameworks. 
  • Significant experience (5+ years) as an evaluator on grant-funded projects utilizing a variety of evaluation tools and approaches.
  • An active awareness of the criminal legal and associated systems and issues that impact the ability of Louisiana’s people to thrive and the way these systems and issues are experienced differently on the basis of race, gender, class, sexual identity, immigration and disability status.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills that are responsive to the needs of varied audiences
  • Ability to effectively facilitate online and in-person meetings, convenings, and other gatherings of diverse stakeholders to ensure equity and inclusion for all participants and attendees
  • Commitment to FFL’s values of integrity, community wisdom, courage, and commitment.

Selection Criteria

Applications will be assessed on the following criteria:

  • Priority will be given to applicants based in Louisiana.
  • Demonstrated experience designing and implementing participatory quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed methods research and evaluation.
  • Demonstrated experience working with organizations led by and/or initiatives centering the experience of racialy and ethnically marginalized people, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities.
  • Effective incorporation of FFL’s values into application materials.
  • Demonstrated ability to work successfully with many different types of stakeholders, which include the LJF Steering Committee,  FFL staff, organization leaders and community members.
  • Reasonableness of proposed cost.

Timeline

  • April 21: RFP announced
  • May 4: Applications due by 11:59pm CT
  • May 5 - May 15: Review period
  • May 18: Notifications

Budget

We anticipate proposals in the range of $110,000–$140,000 for the initial 12-month period, with an option to renew for an additional year based on performance and evolving scope.

To Apply

Please submit a narrative proposal not to exceed 10 double-spaced pages, excluding bios and writing samples. The narrative proposal should address the scope of work and clearly describe the applicant’s qualifications and proposed approach.

The narrative proposal should include:

  • Executive Summary
  • Evaluation approach and methodology
  • Relevant experience
  • Project plan and timeline
  • Budget and billing structure (not to exceed $140,000)

Please include the following as an appendix:

  • Brief bios of key staff members
  • One to two writing samples or excerpts from prior evaluation reports (no more than 10 pages total) that demonstrate experience with evaluation, synthesis, and communicating findings to funders or senior stakeholders

Please submit application materials electronically to jobs@foundationforlouisiana.org by May 1 at 11:59 pm CDT.

Contact

For questions prior to the submission deadline, please contact: Dr. Francois at sfrancois@foundationforlouisiana.org no later than April 29 at 5:00 pm CDT.

Equal Opportunity Employer 

Foundation for Louisiana aspires towards freedom for all Louisianans and aims to create a fully inclusive and affirming workplace for all people. We welcome and encourage applications from people who have been involved with the criminal legal system. FFL is committed to providing staff with resources to work from home effectively. Reasonable accommodations may be requested to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions of the position.

Foundation for Louisiana follows an equal opportunity employment policy and employs personnel without regard to race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, criminal legal background, and marital status.

We encourage applications from people with disabilities and are available to discuss reasonable accommodations for any applicant who may need them.   To inquire about accommodations, please email jtombar@foundationforlouisiana.org or call FFL at (225)383-1672.  Please refrain from making phone calls for any reason other than to request application accommodations.  

For more information about Foundation for Louisiana, visit our website at www.foundationforlouisiana.org