Reducing Burden, Increasing Impact: How We're Adapting to Support the Teams We Invest in

What is the most effective way for funders to support the teams they invest in? This question is one we are constantly considering at Stanford Impact Labs (SIL). Our investments are designed to spur teams to jointly frame problems, as well as pilot, test, and ultimately scale solutions to pressing social problems. We want to support the teams we fund as their projects progress, while making sure that our support is truly useful. 

We’re excited to share a bit about what we’ve heard and learned from the teams SIL has funded in our first five years, and how we’re putting those learnings to use to improve the investment approach we’ll carry into the next five years.

Listening to teams

We have systematically collected years of feedback, through periodic surveys of investees, focus groups, and individual interviews, on what SIL – as an impact-focused funder uniquely situated within Stanford University – has been doing well and where we can improve. Two key themes have emerged in that feedback. 

First, we have heard that we are a different kind of funder than many Stanford faculty are used to. While most research funders focus on generating scientific insights, a few also consider the potential impact on policy or practice. One faculty member appreciated how SIL went one step further: pushing her to think about how research-driven changes to policy & practice could ultimately improve people’s lives. Other teams noted that SIL encouraged them to consider the path from science to impact throughout the investment—to better understand different scaling pathways and to think ambitiously about who else might need to be involved to put research to use at scale. Many respondents appreciated how flexible SIL’s funding was–particularly when they hit roadblocks and had to pivot the direction of their work. 

Second, we heard that SIL operates in a more “hands-on” way than many faculty are used to. Some found this level of engagement more useful than others. Several teams found our meetings and other forms of non-financial support (i.e. training and cohort convenings) to be valuable opportunities to step back and think about the bigger picture of their work. In certain cases, we heard that SIL’s support significantly changed or advanced a team’s work. However, these experiences were not universal. Other labs found SIL’s reporting requirements burdensome and felt that the steps required to meet them distracted from  the team’s mission-critical work with their partners. We also learned how some aspects of our requirements (like financial reporting) proved more burdensome than others.

Learning and improving

Reflecting on our investees’ experiences, we realized that SIL could more effectively realize  our own mission–and work in stronger partnership with the teams we support–by moving toward a more tailored, fit-for-purpose approach. What does this look like? Largely, we believe it means implementing two big changes that work in tandem: 

First, we’re reducing our reporting requirements – to hopefully free up more time for researchers to put their science to use for society. While we find reporting helpful (it helps us learn and be good stewards of our limited resources), we realized the balance of benefits and costs was a bit off. When SIL first started making investments in 2020, we required quarterly meetings and quarterly financial reports. Starting in 2024, we’re now requiring annual financial reporting and bi-annual meetings, which reduces reporting burden by 75% and 50% respectively.

Second, we’re rolling out a refreshed approach to accelerating impact–rooted first and foremost in aligning behind the teams we fund. We plan to provide more opt-in, demand-driven offerings intended to help teams develop capacity where they need it most. Stay tuned for more specifics to come in an update from Ana Tellez, Director of Innovation & Partnerships, later this month.

Our commitment

As we implement and share these new changes, we see this as an opportunity to reaffirm how a few of SIL’s core values guide our approach to supporting investments: 

• Focus on outcomes that improve peoples’ lives: Our approach to reporting is outcomes-oriented: we hold labs accountable for the outcomes they set out to achieve, while giving them the flexibility to figure out how best to get there. This includes giving teams the flexibility to decide if, and when, our support is  helpful to their work. We see our staged & sequenced approach as the best way to continue to focus on outcomes that improve people’s lives–doubling down on insights and teams that demonstrate positive results, while also giving teams the flexibility to take big risks, fail, and start afresh. 
   
• Pursue experimentation and learning:  In many ways, Stanford Impact Labs is one grand experiment. Part of that experiment involves learning how we can best support the teams we fund. Our systems for learning (such as periodic feedback surveys and in-depth interviews) have helped us better understand where we’re hitting the mark and where we can improve. SIL’s founding agenda was guided by a  hypothesis about how to best support solutions-focused research teams. We’ve now funded more than 30 teams, collecting data along the way, and are thrilled to make these updates based on what we learned. As we experiment and learn with and from the teams we fund, we’re committed to making continuous improvements.
   
• Work in partnership: Just as all of the impact labs reflect partnerships between leading researchers and organizations on the front-lines of big social problems; we too are in partnership with the impact labs we support. We approach that partnership with a commitment to curiosity, humility, openness, and mutuality. That means being cognizant of the burden we place on our investees and effectively tailoring our support to align behind the needs of the teams we fund.