We work with philanthropic, public, bilateral and multi-lateral funders to strengthen their strategic investments in evidence-informed policy.
By combining sector knowledge with tailored advisory services, we help funders develop and refresh grantmaking strategies, design portfolios, facilitate learning, evaluate their impact and better understand the evidence ecosystems they support. Our work enables funders to make better-informed decisions and contribute to impact as well as sustainable, locally led policy research communities.
Our Services
Our services to funders are grounded in deep sector expertise and global experience and connections. We combine research, strategy development, evaluation and learning facilitation to support more effective funding practice. We work collaboratively with partners to design approaches that respond to specific contexts, strengthen organisational resilience and improve long-term impact across evidence ecosystems.
Strategic planning
- Delivering or supporting strategic planning processes
- Landscape and political economy studies
- Peer assessments to identify best practice
- Mapping, due diligence and needs-assessments of existing and new grantee-partners
- Inclusive grant making advice and design
- Portfolio design
Portfolio and partners support
- Communication of strategy and portfolio with existing and prospective grantee-partners
- Ongoing grantee mapping, needs assessments and consultation
- Ongoing monitor of portfolios’ changing local, regional and international contexts to inform strategic adjustments
- Designing and facilitating grantee-partner communities of practice and learning events
- Facilitating grantee- funder spaces for communication and engagement, including grantee retreats
- Designing, delivering and facilitating access to relevant information, resources and contacts to help grantee-partners deliver their missions
- Supportng funders in seeking and preparing future grantee-partners to ensure a sustainable and inclusive pipeline
Monitoring, evaluation and learning
- MEL framework design and delivery
- Monitoring of grantee-partners performance linked to efforts to support their learning and capacity strengthening
- Development and communication of impact stories
- Annual or final strategy and portfolio evaluation and refresh
- Planning for sustainable exits
- Long-term evaluation of strategy and portfolio legacies (i.e. 5 years after the end support)
Learning support
- Learning partnerships
- Consultations with the funder and its stakeholders
- Designing and facilitating funder networks or collaboratives
- Designing and delivering capacity strengthening opportunities and services
- Mentoring and peer-support
- Best practice documentation and sharing
We can deliver these services through bespoke projects as well as long term learning partnerships.
Our Initiatives
We develop our own initiatives on the basis of emerging lessons, trends from the field or projects.
- OTT Funders Cicle: We bring together think tank funders to share lessons and advice with each other.
- Think tanks and impact investing: We believe think tanks have the potential to support the growing impact investing sector by helping to inform the development of national policy frameworks affecting the sector and providing evidence-based insights into the design, deliver and evaluation of impact investment strategies and initiatives. Find out more and join us here.
- African Education Research Funding Consortium: A space for funders of African education research to share insights, identify promising ideas, and collaborate to support education policy research based on African researchers’ priorities and needs. It currently comprises 12 funders mobilising over $370m+ in education research funding in Africa.
Looking to strengthen the think tank sector beyond individual grants?
Discover how you can support the On Think Tanks programme and contribute to shared learning and sector development.
Our experts
OTT’s work engagement with funders is led by Joyjayanti Chatterjee. Our associates and consultants are based across the world, and from a diverse range of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.
Our Guiding Principles
Our work with partners and funders has informed the following key principles to guide our support:
- Drive impact by supporting long-term visions.
- Respond to local needs, agendas, and initiatives by funding local organisations in ways that support their own missions.
- Provide funding across the generation, communication and use of evidence.
- Deliberately support the inclusion of women, young people, minorities and other disadvantaged groups in policy research.
- Continually learn, stay agile, and apply learnings.
Additional Benefits
Across all projects we invite our partners to join spaces and opportunities to further support their missions:
- The OTT Funders Circle
- The annual OTT Global Conference
- A private briefing on the annual On Think Tanks State of the Sector Report
Additionally, the OTT Research Support Service offers quality, relevant and timely research services to support busy organisations with strategic and day-to-day decision making. The RSS is a model we have built over the last four years through work with the Open Society Foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Learn more.
Recent consulting projects
- Facilitating the African Education Research Funders Consortium
- Rapid review of Oak Foundation’s investments in supporting new research talent in the prevention of child sexual abuse
- Mapping key think tank markets for the Gates Foundation
- Support for Scaling Care Innovations Programme in Africa from Concept Notes to Proposal
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Partnership for Open Society Foundations Initiatives
- Luminate organisational strategy consultation process
- Wellspring International Human Rights programme consultancy on tax justice