In 2025, the Tower Foundation commissioned Dr. Kimberlin Butler of The L.E.A.D. Agency to complete a program evaluation of our participatory grantmaking initiative, now in its fifth year, the Community Experts Team (CET).
Dr. Butler worked with us throughout the year to deliver, not just a summative document when the year’s work was complete, but an emergent evaluation process that provided frequent input about the initiative as it unfolded. It was input that enabled us to adapt and modify mid-stream to make the Community Experts Team a better experience for all.
We want to share with you the report that summarizes the entire evaluation process, and have attached it here. Among key takeaways, we were pleased that CET participants felt included and heard, that the grantmaking experience was a valued learning experience, and that CET demonstrated many best practices from the Participatory Grantmaking field. But there is room for improvement too. We have already acted on several of the evaluation’s recommendations as we plan for the 2026 launch of the program in a few months. Based on insights from the report, we are modifying timelines, streamlining RFP development, considering ways to engage past grant recipients, better positioning program sessions to highlight individual leadership strengths, and exploring how to more explicitly apply team member insights about their own communities to the grantmaking process.
We hope that you enjoy reading the program evaluation.