Invitation to Tender: Learning & Evaluation Partner for the Power to Prosper programme

We are looking for a Learning & Evaluation Partner to support us to learn, improve, and understand what has been achieved through the Power to Prosper programme.

If you are good at making sense of complexity, providing supportive challenge, and facilitating high quality learning experiences – please read on and apply. We would love to hear from you.

Submission deadline: 8th July 2024 by 9am

About the Power to Prosper programme

Runnymede Trust and New Economics Foundation (NEF) have partnered on a £4.1m three-year project to address the root causes of poverty, inequality and problem debt. Power to Prosper is an ambitious programme that seeks to shift the balance of power in our political and economic systems to generate the conditions in which everyone can thrive. We pursue prosperity in its most generous sense, aiming to empower people with the wealth and security we all need to live healthy, happy and fulfilling lives.

Our partnership is based on a shared understanding that the existing status quo cannot deliver these outcomes. A collision of crises from Covid to the cost of living makes it clear that we are not ​“all in this together”. We know that the relationship between poverty and problem debt is not simple, and that debt is a symptom of a much wider issue. Our economy has been shaped so that it works for corporate power and wealthy elites, creating financial systems that produce deep inequality which hits certain groups the worst. The root causes of the cost of living crisis are built into our economic systems, which need urgent and fundamental change.

Power to Prosper is funded by Oak Foundation.

The programme’s purpose and focus

The purpose of the programme is to start to build a movement and national campaign against poverty, inequality and problem debt, powered by those who are most impacted, and to advocate for radical new policy solutions and on-the-ground practice to achieve systemic change.

The programme focuses on the experiences of three groups: Black and minority ethnic communities, single parent families and households with a disabled member, noting that there are many intersections across and between these groups and in particular that the issue of problem debt is highly racialised.

Families and households with one or more of these characteristics have always been unfairly exposed to disproportionate levels of poverty and debt. In recent years, we have seen that translate to tragic levels of material deprivation, housing precarity, food insecurity and fuel poverty.‍Our economy disadvantages those from lower and more unstable incomes, and exposes communities to a poverty premium which takes more from those with the least. Power to Prosper looks beyond individualised, short term solutions, to promote a transformed economy that guarantees everyone financial security and a decent standard of living.

The programme’s approach and workstreams

This programme will be rooted in decentralising power and enabling the priorities of local communities affected by poverty and debt to determine what their ambitions are.

Those worst impacted by these issues must be at the centre of the change we need, which can only be achieved by building collective power. Power to Prosper will build a coalition of organisations representing communities whose voices desperately need to be heard. Through these networks we will create a local, regional and nationally impactful programme that makes the case for an overhaul to our economic, social security and financial systems, with the leadership of those most impacted firmly at the forefront.

The programme is designed around three workstreams:

Community Organising workstream

Popular and political consensus holds individuals responsible for problem debt. The individualised nature of debt has led to people suffering in isolation and many organisations struggle to find ways to collectivise the issue. Organisations end up ​‘fire fighting’ and unable to act on more structural issues. So the issue is largely rooted in a power deficit.

That is why our movement building approach aims to build power ​‘within’, ​‘with’ and ​‘over’ local, and eventually national, decision makers. We aim to:

• Build a core coalition of around 6 partners who can offer place-based knowledge, connection to impacted groups, and expertise on debt and poverty. These partnerships are currently in development and will be formally announced soon.
• Use participatory regranting through a regional ​‘hubs’ model to build on existing local networks, support and build the power of existing organisations and activity, and widen the reach of that work from local roots into a national campaign. Within the programme budget, £900k has been ring fenced for regranting to 3 – 5 organisations in each ​‘hub’, with decisions made collectively through a facilitated process.
• Work in a total of 6 local areas across the UK through community organising and distributed leadership models, to build local campaign leaders. We are currently working in Nottingham, Greater Manchester, Newham and Lambeth, with a view to extend to Glasgow and Birmingham in the next phase. Community organisers will be employed by NEF, but ​‘nested’ in local grassroots organisations in each area, and supported by regional organisers. We aim to aggregate these localised efforts into a national movement through research outputs and digital campaigning, advocating for systemic policy changes.

Research and Policy workstream

Existing policies addressing problem debt have failed to address its systemic causes. Poverty and problem debt can only be addressed through policies that affect systemic changes that address problems around low and insecure incomes and the discrimination that affects our three impacted groups.

Our research and policy function will work through our community organising strands using participatory action research. It will bring together the wider movement across the local sites, aggregating to the national level to develop a broader set of policy ambitions supporting and developing the influencing power of impacted groups through campaigns to push for systemic changes. We aim to:

• Support local community organising teams to generate and strengthen local knowledge and inform local policy demands and strategic actions. This will involve the use of participatory action research methodologies connecting to and taking place alongside the community organising work.
• Strengthen national advocacy with new, debate shifting evidence and insights, aggregating and generating winnable proposals for system change. This will involve more traditional policy outputs that speak to national media and policymakers.

Communications workstream

A false but widespread narrative gives the impression that problem debt is the result of poor financial mismanagement. It individualises the problem and relieves the state and wider financial sector organisations of responsibility to act.

Our approach will seek to challenge and change that narrative, working with those most affected through community organising and our research and policy functions to develop a credible and compelling alternative. We aim to develop a national strategic communications campaign that will:

• Build and communicate a powerful national campaign, advocating to tackle poverty and problem debt and change people’s framing of the issues.
• Co-create a powerful campaign brand and identity that can mobilise disparate groups around collective demands.
• Centre those worst impacted and give them agency and control over the narratives.

Only by telling an honest, powerful story about the relationship between poverty, inequality and problem debt can we create the momentum for a better future. We all deserve to live with dignity, security and enough to thrive. Power to Prosper aims to power that shift.

The programme’s governance and management

The Power to Prosper programme is led by our Programme Director, Erel Onojobi, who is employed by Runnymede Foundation. The programme is managed by Dominika Jarosz, Programme Manager, who is employed by NEF. Erel will provide overall strategic direction and vision for the learning & evaluation partnership, and Dominika will provide day to day support.

Senior oversight for the programme is provided by Shabna Begum, CEO of Runnymede Trust; Vicki Wright, Director of Finance and Operations of NEF; and Dan Firth, Director of Campaigns and Engagement at NEF. The evaluation & learning partner will be expected to share their proposed approach with these senior leaders after the scoping phase, and provide occasional updates on the work (with support from Erel and Dominika).

The programme team is currently considering the development of an Advisory group of coalition partners to support with oversight and communications. The evaluation & learning partner will have the opportunity to engage with this group if it is formalised.

The programme team comes together for quarterly team meetings, which the evaluation & learning partner will be invited to attend and may be used for reflective sessions, sharing findings, etc. The team uses Monday​.com as project management software, and the evaluation & learning partner can be given sight of the information on this site if required.

Why we are looking for a learning & evaluation partner

Power to Prosper is being delivered by a large team of c.16 people (with some still to be recruited), across two organisations and three workstreams. We would like the learning & evaluation partner to support us to create opportunities for reflection and building shared understanding, to help us make sense of our learning across the different parts of the programme, to empower us to take action based on what we are learning, and to understand and articulate what the programme is achieving in a complex and shifting context.

We want this programme to shape the thinking and practice of both organisations, to inform future work, and to share learning with our funder and external audiences that share similar goals.

What we want to learn

We want the learning & evaluation partner to support us to reflect and act on what we are learning about:

• The set up and design phase of the programme so far, including what has worked well and what has been challenging.
• How to bring a greater focus to the racialised nature of problem debt as a symptom of economic injustice.
• How to build community organising capacity within grassroots organisations to strengthen their ability to organise within communities in the longer term.
• How to meaningfully centre the agency of groups that are most impacted by problem debt, in a way that can build the power of movements beyond the life of this programme.

We would like the learning partner to support us to refine these themes, develop more specific learning questions under each theme, and work with our team to identify any additional areas of learning that may be useful and relevant to the programme’s aims.

What we want to evaluate

We would like the learning & evaluation partner to support us to understand and articulate what the programme is achieving, and enable us to share this story in a way that will inspire change elsewhere. In particular, we would like to understand:

• What has the programme achieved:
  • With and for our impacted groups?
  • With and for partner organisations?
  • With and for policymakers, research audiences and the wider public?
• What has been the success or otherwise of each aspect of the programme:
  • The overall programme design
  • The community organising model
  • The regranting approach
  • The participatory action research
  • The policy and advocacy work
  • The strategic communications campaign
  • Promoting an asset based approach and diverse routes to change
• How far did the programme achieve its multi-layered aims, and what overall value did it create?
• What lessons can be learnt for future work with similar ambitions?

We recognise that Power to Prosper is a complex and ambitious programme, with multiple layers of short and longer term aims. We are interested in the use of evaluation methodologies that can help us to explore the different types of outcomes that are experienced by different audiences, and (retrospectively) attribute those to the actions of the programme where possible.

We also recognise the limitations of ​‘traditional’ evaluation techniques for a complex programme working towards systemic change, and are not wedded towards any one methodology or research method. Rather, we would like the evaluation partner to support us to agree an approach that is realistic and appropriate to our aims and audiences.

The learning & evaluation partner role and approach

We anticipate that the learning & evaluation partner will:

• Design a scoping phase for the work, including reviewing background materials, meeting team members, helping us to clarify the aims and scope of the learning & evaluation partnership, and identifying any adjustments to the original proposal if required.
• Develop an updated work plan at the end of the scoping phase, including anticipated activities, deliverables, key milestones, and expectations of team input at key moments.
• Design and facilitate reflective learning spaces for our team and partners, and draw out key insights from these in short written summaries.
• Design and implement an evaluation methodology that will help us to understand and articulate what the programme is achieving, in a way that is realistic and proportionate.
• Attend and observe key programme meetings and a range of activities being delivered through different workstreams, including in the six local areas where the programme is delivering work.
• Provide ongoing supportive challenge, bringing evaluative thinking and an external perspective as well as your own expertise in the issues we are working on.
• Be proactive in providing ongoing support to our team to act on what is being learnt.
• Produce short summaries of learning and what is being achieved, in different formats suitable for different audiences for this work (see below), and bring these together into a concise final report. It is important that the outputs are accessible to different audiences, and we are open to the use different formats.

We are open to tenderers’ suggestions for how to deliver this role well, and what mix of learning and evaluation approaches to use to help us to achieve our goals. Whatever approach you take, it is essential that the learning partner builds a good relationship with our teams and our partners to facilitate a positive and meaningful learning process.

The audiences for this work

We would like the learning & evaluation partnership to generate useful insights for a range of audiences:

• People from impacted groups who are engaged in the programme and who share their experiences and calls for change with us.
• Local partner organisations who are involved in the community organising and regranting aspects of the programme.
• Partner organisations who support us as part of our advisory group, and/​or are part of the broader coalition of organisations working on similar issues.
• Policymakers who have the opportunity to respond to the calls that we and others are making for systemic change.
• Our funder, Oak Foundation, and other potential funders of similar work.
• Leadership and delivery teams at our two organisations who have the opportunity to learn from this programme to inform future work.

What we are looking for

We would like to work with a learning and evaluation partner who has the following abilities:

• The ability to make sense of complexity, build shared understanding and develop clarity in fluid and evolving contexts – as well as bringing challenge and asking difficult questions when needed.
• The ability to be responsive, adaptable and flexible, adjusting to suit the needs and preferences of different people and organisations – whilst not losing sight of the overall aims of the evaluation & learning partnership.
• The ability to be proactive, bring a ​‘can-do’ attitude and take leadership of the work – rather than relying on busy teams to drive it forward.

The specific experience that we would like the learning & evaluation partner to have includes:

• A real understanding of the experiences of groups impacted by problem debt that the programme is focusing on, including the racialised nature of this issue, and the ability to build rapport with people who are affected – ideally gained through personal experience, or, at the very least, the ability to demonstrate how your approach will be respectful and centre the agency of those groups.
• Previous experience of working on issues relating to debt, economic injustice and/​or poverty, so that you understand the wider policy context and are able to bring your own expertise to challenge and support us to drive our ambitions forward.
• Previous experience of at least one of the approaches we are taking through the programme (community organising, community research, and/​or strategic communications) – ideally all three.

We would like the learning & evaluation partner to have high-level skills in:

• Learning partnerships, developmental evaluation methodologies, action research, and/​or applied learning – so that you are able to design and deliver an approach that will help us to learn, reflect and act in a dynamic context.
• Facilitating high quality reflective spaces where people are able to share their experiences and build understanding together – so that you are able to help us generate meaningful learning that moves the work forward.
• Evaluative thinking and analytical skills – so that you are able to step back, make sense of a wide range of information, and help us to think strategically about the programme’s achievements and what that means for future work.

Budget and timelines

There is a baseline budget of £60,000 including VAT available to fund the learning & evaluation partner role for two years. We would like the learning & evaluation partner to advise what is realistic to achieve within the budget constraints, and where trade-offs may be needed. There is a further £20,000 available to develop work based on the ideas and recommendations of the evaluation partner. We invite you to make suggestions of what the key opportunities you think there are within your proposal.

There is a possibility that additional funding could be made available to extend the partnership beyond the initial two year period, and/​or to extend the remit of the role, subject to the development of a successful relationship which delivers useful and insightful support.

How to tender for this work

We are open to written proposals and/​or other creative ways to apply (e.g. via video or voice notes). Please be concise, but make sure you address our requirements clearly and demonstrate how you meet the criteria we have outlined under ​‘What we are looking for’. We equally welcome individual organisations, freelancers or consortia to apply.

Please send your proposal to Dominika Jarosz at [dominika.jarosz@neweconomics.org] by 9am on the 8th July 2024. We will then invite shortlisted applicants for a 45 – 60 minute interview to explore their proposals in more depth (23rd July).

Please note that if the original proposal is not in a written format, we will require the successful tenderer to submit a written overview of their approach, timelines, deliverables and budget to be used in the final contract agreement.

Your proposal should include the following:

• Details of your organisation(s) and the people who will work directly on this project, including the experience and personal qualities that they will bring to the role.
• How you meet the criteria we have outlined under ​‘what we are looking for’.
• What approach you will take to respond to this brief.
• How you will work with the key stakeholders involved, to support them in the learning process and make sure that they benefit from the insights generated through this work.
• How your work will comply with good practice in research ethics and equitable evaluation.
• A clear breakdown of indicative costs including number of days, day rates for each person, travel costs and VAT if applicable.

Subsequent timelines will be as follows:

• Application deadline: 8th July 9am
• 45 – 60 minute interviews with shortlisted candidates: 23rd July 2024
• Contract confirmed: early August 2024
• Contracted work period: August 2024- July 2026.

If you have any questions, please do ask. Questions can be sent to dominika.jarosz@neweconomics.org

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