because place lives
in all of us
How do we involve community in meaningful ways?
How do we define success in ways that reflect local priorities and lived experiences?
How do we learn in ways that are useful, responsible, and centered in real life?
Place-based work asks us to hold two truths at once:
First, every place carries its own identity, with its own cultures, history, politics, relationships, and possibilities. Second, across places, the same big questions emerge:
Our focus on place...
Place
Matters
It guides the questions asked, what kinds of learning matter, who is involved, and how we make sense of what’s unfolding. It challenges us to listen as much as act.
is our pathway
Even when one community’s approach doesn’t translate perfectly to another, there’s still so much to gain from seeing how others think and make decisions in their own contexts.
opens the door to learning across differences.
It moves us away from top-down definitions of success and toward learning that’s grounded in local priorities and diverse perspectives.
keeps learning from drifting too far from the people and context it’s meant to serve
What do we mean by place-based, anyway?
We developed this definition with our advisors and expect it to evolve as we keep learning.
A place-based approach goes beyond funding work in a defined location and:
Starts with how communities understand place for themselves
Builds lasting commitments to the people who live there, the relationships that hold the place together, and the broader conditions shaping life there
Pays attention to community networks, the fact that boundaries are often fluid, and the need to share power and adapt over time
Our core tenets
Everyone’s approach to learning will differ based on their place, priorities, history, and capacity. Your path may not look like anyone else’s, but the most meaningful work always stems from a shared set of commitments:
Share learning responsibly
Philanthropy holds a great deal of knowledge, but too much of it stays hidden. We believe the field gets stronger when people share lessons, questions, tools, and experiences openly and honestly.
Work with complexity
Place-based work is shaped by complex systems: social, economic, political, cultural, and historical. That means learning must be adaptive and grounded in real conditions, helping people make sense of the complexity instead of flattening it.
Honor multiple ways of knowing
Great learning doesn’t fit neatly into a single framework. Place-based learning shines when it draws on multiple ways of knowing, blending approaches that complement each other.
Learn for action
Learning should help people sharpen decisions, strengthen strategy, and give teams something they can actually use. It should move practice, not just produce information.
Build trust
Trust creates the conditions for honest learning. People share more openly, take more risks, and engage more deeply when relationships are rooted in care, credibility, and mutual respect.
Share power in learning and decision-making
“Nothing for us without us.” Community should have a real hand in shaping what matters, how learning happens, and what takes place next.
Center community expertise
The people closest to a place hold essential knowledge about it, which is why strong place-based learning makes room for community voices, local leadership, and lived experience.
Start with place
Strong learning begins with the actual place, not an abstract strategy. It stays close to local context, relationships, history, and the broader systems shaping what’s possible.
A fresh approach to a complex field
We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. Thoughtful work already exists across place-based philanthropy and evaluation, including frameworks, methodologies, and even communities of practice in related areas. We draw on those insights where appropriate, but funders of place-based learning and evaluation need a space to call their own.
The challenge is clear:
there is no single blueprint.
Valuable lessons are situated across different places and framed under different names and contexts, sometimes only existing in different individuals' memories. People in your role know the insights are out there… but maybe not where to find them, how to adapt them to their own contexts, or who to turn to when challenges arise.
ELEVATE exists for funders of place-based learning and evaluation to connect the dots:
...to share what you’re trying, learn from one another, and move forward with approaches that feel true to the values and experiences that first drew you to this work.
Events and convenings
We believe learning grows out of connection, and relationship-building is just as important as knowledge exchange. Our events bring together funders of place-based learning and evaluation for authentic conversations that turn knowledge exchange into actionable learning approaches.
ELEVATE Commons
Our resource hub offers access to existing tools, articles, case studies, research, and field insights directly at your fingertips. It also leverages the resources and reflections generated through our own community, supporting ongoing learning and growth.
Curious how this framework shows up in the real world?
learn with us
For funders ready to engage and grow with peers facing similar challenges: the Strategy Track helps shape your organization’s big-picture approach to learning and evaluation, while the Practice Track provides peer support for applying these principles to real-time projects.
Cohort learning programs
Here’s how to get started with the ELEVATE community:
