OUR AUDIENCES

Foundations, Funds & Investors for Systemic Change

You are committed to investing in meaningful, systemic change, moving toward trust-based approaches that truly empower your partners. But how do you measure long-term, transformational impact when it defies standard metrics and spreadsheets? How do you align your monitoring & evaluation practices with a relational, power-sharing paradigm while ensuring you are making the right strategic decisions?

Who we work with

Who we work with

We partner with forward-thinking leaders, program officers, and investment managers within foundations, global funds, impact funds, and pooled funding initiatives who are:

  • Viewing capital as a catalyst: You see your funding—whether grants or investments—not merely as a transaction, but as a lever for deep, systemic transition.
  • Navigating the rigor-reality gap: You are trying to bridge the tension between institutional requirements for accountability and the complex, non-linear reality of the work you support on the ground.
  • Managing diverse portfolios: You are responsible for a diverse ecosystem of grantees - whether through a Global Fund, a pooled initiative, or a family office - and are seeking to build coherence and shared learning across them.

To support you in navigating these tensions, we partner with you across three integrated areas—strengthening your strategy, your internal culture, and the learning capacity of your portfolio.

Our clients

Key benefits of working with Unity Effect

Confidence in investing in transformation

Gain a measurement framework aligned with your values that captures long-term, relational impact. We give you the evidence you need to know your strategy is creating the systemic change you seek, whether through grants or investments.

Strengthen your capacity for trust-based partnership

Aligning your external mission with your internal culture is key. We support your team in developing the mindsets and practices needed to lead with trust, navigate complexity, and foster equitable, power-aware relationships with your partners.

A learning portfolio, not just projects

Shift from managing individual contracts to fostering a learning culture. We provide the shared language and frameworks your partners need to exchange expertise and build essential skills together. This ensures that valuable experience doesn't stay in silos, but actively builds the capacity of your entire network.

Working with Unity Effect allowed us to pause and reflect on how learning was already happening across our organisation, giving us an external perspective on our strengths and weaknesses. They provided useful recommendations based on their strong understanding of the role of a network. Unity Effect’s approach/methodology is interesting because it is pragmatic, based on ‘experiential learning’: thanks to this, they could easily relate to our context and come up with robustly grounded analysis.

Peggy Sailler

Peggy Sailler

Executive Director, Network of European Foundations

The Kofi Annan Changemakers online and in-person modules greatly benefited from Unity Effect’s expertise in designing and facilitating effective conversations among the participants. Unity Effect’s facilitation helped build a safe space and nurture a sense of community among the participants, acting like the glue across the different components of the programme.

Corinne Momal-Vanian

Corinne Momal-Vanian

Executive Director, Kofi Annan Foundation

Reach out to us

Connect with us to discuss how a regenerative approach to evaluation can strengthen your strategy and support your grantees.

Schedule a Consultation

How we support you

Regenerative Measurement and Evaluation

We partner with you to redesign your measurement architecture. Our service, Regenerating Your Evaluation Strategy, helps you create a framework that makes your long-term, systemic impact visible. We help you move beyond rigid reporting to an approach that balances accountability with learning, honoring the complexity of the work you fund or finance, bridging the gap between high-level reporting requirements and on-the-ground reality.

Thriving Teams and Leaders

We support your internal teams in developing the mindsets and practices needed to lead with clarity and connection. Through tailored workshops and support, we help you navigate complexity and foster empowering, equitable relationships with your grantees and investees.

Learning Experience Design

We help you design participatory learning experiences that build capacity across your portfolio. This shifts the dynamic from compliance to co-creation, generating shared insights between your partners and fostering a vibrant ecosystem of learning.

Partner Stories

Our work is rooted in trusted partnerships and a commitment to real-world impact. We’ve supported a range of foundations and funds in transforming their approach to evaluation, fostering resilient teams, and designing impactful learning experiences. Here are a few examples of how we’ve partnered up and supported:

Kofi Annan Foundation

Design and facilitation of online and in-person modules for the Kofi Annan Changemakers Initiative

Since 2022, Unity Effect has worked with the foundation to design, facilitate and evaluate their Changemakers Initiative: a year-long program that brings together 12 selected young changemakers.

Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany

Impact evaluation of Google.org grant for inclusive entrepreneurship

In 2022, the Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND e.V.) received a grant from Google.org to “create new standards for an inclusive social enterprise sector in Germany”. Unity Effect’s role is to evaluate the entire project.

Joachim Herz Foundation

Future Skills Journey

In collaboration with the Joachim Herz Foundation, we designed and implemented the Future Skills Journey: an impact-oriented training format for alumni of the Joachim Herz Foundation's Azubi-Kolleg and Azubi USA programs.

Your next steps

Ready to take the next step? Here are a few ways we can begin to explore how a regenerative, life-centred approach can empower your work.

Schedule a Consultation

Connect with us to discuss how a regenerative approach to evaluation can strengthen your strategy and support your grantees.

Schedule a Consultation

Explore Our Core Models

Discover The Impact Garden as a tool to support your grantees in their own planning and evaluation, or The Capacity Compass to understand the core capacities that drive effective leadership for change.

Explore Our Core Models

See Our Work in Action

In the "Further Resources" section below, you can explore our in-depth case study on evaluating the Kofi Annan Changemakers Initiative and other ways we supported foundations and investors.

See Our Work in Action

Blog

Our Resources

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5 min read

Case Study: Evaluating the Kofi Annan Changemakers Initiative

Unity Effect has been working with the Kofi Annan Foundation since June 2022, both to design and facilitate online and in-person sessions for the Changemakers Initiative, and to evaluate the impact of the programme. This case study focuses on the impact evaluation and outlines how we designed and implemented an evaluation framework, based on our approach to Regenerative Impact Evaluation.
Category
5 min read

Future Skills Journey: A practice ground for self-agency and connection - for us and our future

“I am more aware of what I am capable of.” Reading this comment from a participant makes my heart swell with joy after completing our 5-week Future Skills Journey with the Joachim Herz Foundation and 20 young adults. We're excited to share the results, experiences, and impact evaluation from this transformative program.
Category
5 min read

Case Study: Envisioning an inclusive social entrepreneurship sector - Impact Evaluation with SEND e.V. and google.org

At Unity Effect, we were honoured to co-develop and implement the impact evaluation of "Envisioning an Inclusive Social Entrepreneurship Sector in Germany", a flagship initiative led by SEND e.V. and supported by Google.org’s Social Innovation Fund. Using our Impact Garden methodology, we explored how inclusive funding structures, trust-based support, and systemic collaboration can empower founders from underserved communities.