The Roles Foundations Are Playing in the Evidence-Based Policy Movement

Foundations are actively engaged in supporting evidence-based policymaking through collaborative funding, supporting, and creating intermediary organizations; building the infrastructure needed to support evidence-based policymaking; and improving the relevance of research for practice and policy. For a variety of reasons, they are shifting from a focus on the federal government and the identification of effective brand name innovations to an emphasis on supporting local actors to design and test solutions using local data. This article provides examples of foundation work, describes and discusses how and why it is evolving, and uses historical examples to place the change in context.