REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation 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 our Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) initiative. With support and partnership from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other TRHT sites, we embarked on an ambitious and bold multi-year endeavor in pursuit of a Louisiana in which all people are free, respected, and loved. The TRHT program focused on New Orleans and Baton Rouge, two Louisiana cities that share a set of goals but have different objectives based on the political context, socioeconomic needs, opportunities, strengths, and struggles in each location. While the program is staffed by FFL, it unfolds in partnership with our advisory committee which is a diverse, cross-sector group of leaders and activists from both the New Orleans and Baton Rouge communities.
Between 2022 and 2026, FFL’s TRHT work supported a multi-year portfolio of grantmaking and related engagement strategies aligned with racial healing, narrative change, and movement and leadership development. Over time, strategies and activities evolved in response to community needs, local context, and learning.
Scope of Work
FFL seeks an evaluation consultant to conduct a summative evaluation of this multi-year body of work. The purpose of the evaluation is to support FFL staff and partners in reflecting on and making meaning of the initiative’s overall effectiveness, including identifying areas of strength, challenge, and opportunity for future refinement or investment. This evaluation is intended to support both internal learning 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 summative evaluation framework assessing the TRHT initiative across the 2022–2026 period
- Retrospective analysis of program implementation, including how FFL’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 advisory committee processes
- Facilitation of reflection meetings with FFL staff and TRHT advisory committee members 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 the TRHT initiative contribute to a stronger ecosystem for racial justice organizing and power-building in Louisiana?
- Were recipients of healing justice technical assistance grants able to increase their capacity and achieve desired impact related to racial justice and healing in their communities?
- How did movement strengthening grants build the capacity of individuals and organizations to advocate for racial justice?
- How did narrative change grants contribute to shifting dominant narratives related to race, healing, belonging, and power in Louisiana?
- What cross-cutting lessons emerge about how building people power, healing justice, narrative change, and community engagement strategies interact to advance racial healing and transformation at the community and systems levels?
This work builds on the first phase of the TRHT initiative, which ran from 2016 to 2021.
Desired Competencies & Qualifications
We anticipate the successful applicant will demonstrate a significant number of the following competencies and skills:
- Demonstrated commitment to racial equity and justice practices broadly as well as specifically in terms of evaluation and learning. Familiarity with the work of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative is a plus.
- Significant experience (5+ years) as an evaluator on grant-funded projects utilizing a variety of evaluation tools and approaches.
- An active awareness of the many 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.
- Familiarity with healing justice and/or racial healing.
- 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 working with organizations led by and/or initiatives centering the experience of people of the global majority, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities
- Effective incorporation of FFL’s values into proposal materials
- Demonstrated ability to work successfully with many different types of stakeholders, which include the TRHT Advisory Committee, FFL staff, community leaders and members
- Reasonableness of proposed cost
Timeline
- February 9: RFP announced
- March 4: Applications due by 11:00pm CT
- March 5 - March 13: Review period
- March 16: Notifications
Budget
The budget for this 6-month contract (March 30, 2026 - September 30, 2026) is $17,000.
To Apply
Please submit a narrative proposal not to exceed 10 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 $17,000)
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 grants@foundationforlouisiana.org by March 4 at 11:00 pm CT.
Contact
For questions prior to the submission deadline, please contact:
Damia Khanboubi-Delahoussaye at dkhanboubi@foundationforlouisiana.org
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 dkhanboubi@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